appropriation for public printing and binding for the Navy Department for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety six. Approved, March 20, 1896. March 23, 1896. Pensions. Taking affidavits, etc., by pension agents abolished. R. S.. sec. 4784, P. 929, repealed. CHAP. 66.—An Act To repeal section six of an Act entitled "An Act to define the duties of pension agents, to prescribe the manner of paying pensions, and for other purposes," approved July eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy, and now being section forty-seven hundred and eighty-four, Revised Statutes of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section six of an Act entitled "An Act to define the duties of pension agents, to prescribe the manner of paying pensions, and for other purposes," approved July eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy, and now being section forty-seven hundred and eighty-four, Revised Statutes of the United States, be, and the same is hereby, repealed. Approved, March 23, 1896. March 23, 1896. Minn., may bridge Location. CHAP. 67.—An Act To authorize the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi River, in the county of Aitkin, State of Minnesota. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Aitkin County States of America in Congress assembled, That the county of Aitkin, in the State of Minnesota, is hereby authorized and empowered to erect, establish, and maintain, or authorize the erection, establishment, and maintenance of a wagon bridge across the Mississippi River at a point suitable to the interests of navigation from a point on the northerly bank of said river on or near the boundary line between sections twentythree and twenty-four, township forty-seven north, of range twentyseven west of the fourth principal meridian, in said county, so as to connect with the opposite shore of said river; that said bridge shall not interfere with the free navigation of said river beyond what is necessary in order to carry into effect the rights and privileges hereby granted. Drawbridge. Proviso. Lawful structure and post route. Postal telegraph. Secretary of War to approve plans, etc. Changes. SEC. 2. That the bridge under this Act shall be constructed as a pivot drawbridge, with the draw over the main and at right angles to the axis of the channel: Provided, That the said draw shall be opened promptly on reasonable signal for the passage of boats, vessels, and other water craft whose construction shall be such as not to admit of their passage under said bridge. SEC. 3. That any bridge constructed under this Act and according to its provisions and conditions shall be a lawful structure, over which may be transmitted the mails, troops, and munitious of war of the United States free of charge; and the United States shall have the right of way for postal telegraph purposes across said bridge. SEC. 4. That the structure herein authorized shall be built and located under and subject to such regulations for the security of the navigation of said river as the Secretary of War shall prescribe, and to secure that object the corporation named shall submit to the Secretary of War, for his examination and approval, a design and drawing of the bridge and a map of the location giving, for the space of one mile above and one mile below the proposed location, the topography of the banks of the river, the shore lines at high and low water, the direction and strength of the current, and the soundings, accurately showing the bed of the stream, and shall furnish such other information as shall be required for a full and satisfactory understanding of the subject; and said bridge may be commenced and built as soon as the said plans and location of the bridge are decided by the Secretary of War to be such as will not materially affect the interest of navigation; and should any change be made in the plan of said bridge during the progress of construction, such change shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War; SEC. 5. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby Amendment, etc. expressly reserved. SEC. 6. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction of the bridge herein authorized be not commenced within six months and completed within two years from the date thereof. Approved, March 23, 1896. Commencement and completion. CHAP. 73.-An Act To regulate the issue and recording of the commissions of officers in several of the Departments. March 28, 1896. Commissions. Treasury, Navy, War, and Agriculture De To be issued by partments. R. S., sec. 1794, p. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the commissions of all officers under the direction and control of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall be made out and recorded in the respective Departments under which they are to serve, and the Department seal 318, amended. affixed thereto, any laws to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, Proviso. That the said seal shall not be affixed to any such commission before by President. the same shall have been signed by the President of the United States. Approved, March 28, 1896. To be first signed CHAP. 74.—An Act To amend section nine of an Act entitled "An Act to provide for the appointment of a sealer and assistant sealer of weights and measures in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.' Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section nine of the Act approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, entitled "An Act for the appointment of a sealer and assistant sealer of weights and measures in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes," be, and the same is hereby, amended, so as to read as follows: March 28, 1896. District of Columbia. Use of unsealed weights, etc., forbid Certificates of inspection. "SEC. 9. That no person shall use for buying or selling, or for weighing freight or express matter, any weights, measures, scales, or other den. instruments, unless the same shall have been examined and approved by the sealer or assistant sealer of weights and measures. The fact and the date of such examination and approval and the period for which such examination and approval shall hold good shall be certified to with the seal of the sealer of weights and measures. Such certificates shall be attached in a conspicuous place to the weights, measures, scales, or other instruments so examined and approved; and such certificate shall be valid only for such time as the Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall provide in the schedule of fees hereinafter provided for: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall prevent at any time the examination and condemnation of any weights, measures, scales, or other instruments that may be found defective. The Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall prescribe the amount of tolerance to be allowed by the sealer of weights and measures, and all weights, measures, and balances that do not conform to the standards for weights Proviso. Tolerance. Penalty. and measures in this Act provided for within the limit of tolerance so allowed may be seized by the sealer of weights and measures, and when so seized shall be destroyed by him, and a record of the same shall be duly entered on the books of his office. Failure to comply with the provisions of this section, or the use of any weights, measures, scales, or other instruments described in this section, before the payment of the fees fixed by the said Commissioners for examinations, shall render the person so failing or using liable to a fine of not more than twenty dollars and costs of prosecution for each offense, to be recovered in the police court of the District of Columbia; and the said court may make a further sentence that the offender be imprisoned in the District jail for any period not exceeding six months until the payment of such fine and costs." Approved, March 28, 1896. CHAP. 75.-An Act To authorize the construction of a bridge across the Calumet River. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the Hammond and Blue Island Railroad Company, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Illinois, or its successors and assigns, to construct and maintain a bridge and approaches thereto across the Calumet River, in Cook County, in the State of Illinois, at a point on and opposite lot six in Snydacker and Ambs's Illinois addition to Hammond, in section eight, township thirtysix north, range fifteen east of the third principal meridian; that said bridge may be constructed for railway and postal service, with single and double track for railway traffic, and which shall be under the conditions and limitations hereinafter specified. SEC. 2. That said bridge shall not interfere with the free navigation of said river beyond what may be necessary to carry into effect the rights and privileges herein granted, and in case of any litigation arising under the provisions of this Act such litigation may be tried and determined by the circuit court of the United States within whose jurisdiction said bridge is located. SEC. 3. That any bridge built under the provisions of this Act and subject to its limitations shall be a lawful structure, and shall be recognized and known as a post route, upon which also no higher charge shall be made for the transmission over the same of the mails, the troops, and the munitions of war of the United States, or passengers or freight passing over the said bridge, than the rate per mile paid for the transportation over the railroad or public highways leading to the said bridge; and it shall enjoy the rights and privileges of other post roads in the United States; and the United States shall have the right of way across said bridge and its approaches for postal-telegraph purposes, and all telegraph and telephone companies shall have equal rights and privileges in constructing and maintaining their lines across said bridge. SEC. 4. That said bridge shall be constructed as a drawbridge of such character of construction and having such width of draw openings and such elevation above high water as the Secretary of War may prescribe; and the draw openings of said bridge shall be so protected and arranged that water craft can be worked through them at any and all times; and the piers of said bridge shall be parallel with, and the bridge itself at right angles to, the current of the river: Provided, That said draw shall be opened promptly upon reasonable signals for the passage of boats, and said company or corporation shall maintain, at its own expense, from sunset until sunrise, such lights or other signals on said bridge as the Light-House Board shall prescribe. If any bridge erected under such authority shall, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, obstruct such navigation, he is hereby authorized to cause such change or alteration of said bridge to be made as will effectually obvi- Changes. SEC. 5. That all railroad companies desiring the use of said bridge shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of railway trains over the same, and over approaches thereto, upon payment of a reasonable compensation for such use; and in case the owner or owners of said bridge and the several railroad companies, or any of them, desiring such use, shall fail to agree upon the sum or sums to be paid, and upon the rules and conditions to which each shall conform in using said bridge, all matters at issue between them shall be decided by the Secretary of War, upon a hearing of the allegations and proofs of the parties. Existing laws. Use by other companies. Compensation. SEC. 6. That any bridge authorized to be constructed under this Act Secretary of War to shall be built and located under and subject to such regulations for approve plans, etc. the security of navigation of said river as the Secretary of War shall prescribe; and to secure that object the said company shall submit to the Secretary of War for his examination and approval a design and drawing of the bridge, and a map of location, giving for the space of one half mile above and one-half mile below the proposed location the topography of the banks of the river, the shore lines at high and low water, the directions and strength of currents at all stages, and soundings, accurately showing the bed of the stream, and the location of any other bridge or bridges, and shall furnish such other information as may be required for a full and satisfactory understanding of the subject; and until said plan and location of the bridge are approved by the Secretary of War the bridge shall not be built, and when said plan is approved said company may proceed to the erection of said bridge. The Secretary of War may make such alterations in such plans as he may deem necessary to the better protection of navigation, and such alterations shall be adopted by the said railroad company. The said railroad company may at any time make any alterations deemed advisable to be made in said bridge, but must first submit such proposed alterations to the Secretary of War, and his approval shall be first had before they shall be authorized or made; the cost of such change shall be paid by the company owning or controlling said bridge. Alterations. SEC. 7. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby Amendment, etc. expressly reserved. SEC. 8. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction of the bridge herein authorized be not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date hereof. Approved, March 28, 1896. Commencement and completion. CHAP. 76.-An Act To authorize the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad Company to extend its line of railroad into the Indian Territory, and for other purposes. March 28, 1896. Kansas City, Fort Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Scott and Memphis Railroad Company be, and the same is hereby, authorized and empowered to construct, maintain, and operate a railroad and telegraph line from a point on the south line of the State of Kansas near the city of Baxter Springs to the town of Miami, in the Railroad Company granted right of way, Indian Territory. Location. Provisos. Indian Territory: Provided, That such right of way shall be fifty feet in width on each side of the central line of the road. Said company shall also have the right to take and use for station purposes a strip of land one hundred feet in width by a length of two thousand feet in addition to right of way to an extent not to exceed one station for each ten miles of road constructed within the limits of said reservations: Commencement and Provided further, That work shall be commenced on such construction within a reasonable time from the approval of this Act, and completed so as to have trains running to the town of Miami within twelve months from said date. completion. SEC. 2. That before said company shall enter the territory of any nation or tribe of Indians for the purpose of constructing its line of railroad and telegraph it shall have the written consent of the general council of such tribe thereto, which shall be filed with the Secretary of the Interior. SEC. 3. That said company shall have authority to acquire a right of way for its line of railroad and telegraph from individual allottees upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between the parties, and in cases where the line of said railroad runs through the lands of minor allottees the judge of the United States court for the district wherein said lands are situated shall have power to regulate the manner, terms, and conditions whereby such right of way shall be acquired. SEC. 4. That in cases where a right of way can not be acquired from adult allottees by agreement between the parties, the same may be acquired by proceedings in condemnation in the United States court for the proper district, or before the judge thereof in vacation, according to the provisions of chapter fifty-eight of Sanders and Hill's Digest of the Laws of Arkansas, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, respecting "eminent domain," so far as the same can be made applicable: Provided, That in addition to the compensation herein provided for, said railroad company shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the tribes through whose lands the said railroad may be constructed, the sum of fifty dollars per mile for each mile of road constructed through tribal lands which have not been allotted to individual Indians. Said company shall also pay, so long as said lands are owned and occupied as tribal property, to the Secretary of the Interior the sum of fifteen dollars per annum for each mile of railway it shall construct through the said Territory. And the money paid the Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this Act shall be apportioned by him among the several tribes in accordance with the number of miles of road that may be constructed through each reservation: Provided further, That Congress shall have the right, so long as said lands remain as tribal property, to impose such additional taxes upon said railroads as may be deemed just and proper for their benefit, and the like power may be exercised by any State or Territory which may hereafter be formed. Approved, March 28, 1896. March 28, 1896. catine and Southwest CHAP. 77.-An Act For the right of the Rock Island, Muscatine and Southwestern Railway Company to build a bridge across the Illinois and Mississippi canal. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Rock Island, Mus States of America in Congress assembled, That the Rock Island, Muscaern Railway Company tine and Southwestern Railway Company, organized under the laws of may bridge Illinois the State of Illinois, is hereby authorized to build a drawbridge for and Mississippi Canal. wagon and railroad purposes across the Illinois and Mississippi canal in sections numbered nine or ten, township seventeen, range two, west of the fourth principal meridian, situate in the county of Rock Island and State of Illinois, and about two thousand two hundred feet in an easterly direction from lock numbered thirty-seven. Said bridge to be built according to the requirements of the War Department: Provided, Location. Provisos. |