AMERICAN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1924, Page 3

AMERICAN ITEMS.

AUSTItALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. IN I.'.S.A. CONGRESS. WASHINGTON, dan 10. The dive weeks' deadlock in the Senate over the election of the Chairman of the rin port it it t Inter-State Commerce Committee which has heen holding up all business (as cabled nil lCth. December was broken when Senator Smith (Democrat from South Carolina) was chosen for that post, placing upon the Democrats all the responsibility (if railway legislation, despite the ostonsibility of a Republican controlled Congress. Senator Smith is the first Democratic (. ini i rin.'i li oi a Congressiuind Committee since IPg’l), and hi- election

represents a vieiorv fur the I’aiiicui group, headed hy Senator l.a FoiloUe. who silcee-st 11 iI\ opposed the election ol Senator Cummings. The Radicals have deinunstraled that in the present session of Congress lit. least they wield the bahiure of power, being aide to ihs-trov or indefinitely block, any measure they oppose, and. by a system of barter, to secure the passage of legislation which could never secure a majority under a free play of forces. FREEDOM ASKED. EY I'.S.A. ISLAND POSSESSIONS. WASHINGTON, January !).

Tlic dissiitbfaet ion existing Antony tiie inhabitants of tlio United States i ll vul:ir possessions (reported by cable fin August 2!)tli last) t;nok concrete I'rtnii to-da.v. when a. Filipino Mission presented Congress with fonnnl cJiavtjox regarding General Woods's iii.'dadniiiii.-:-tviiUon and overstepping of Ids anMiorifv. and also urged the immediate consideration of the r|uostion of Philippine independence. A Commission of eleven modifiers. representing I’orto T?ieo, sailed for AVnsliingfon to-day t’o present a petition to Congress, asking for changes in tin* fundamental law. giving them greater freedom for self-government, and to rei|ne>st an enuneintion of the United States’ intentions eoneerning Porto liico’s filial status.

r l'li(' officials are inclined to view with concern the dissatisfaction and unrest existing in the American administration nf the insular possessions. HANK HOLD UP. (“Sydney Sun” Cables). (Jtoreived this day at 10. ID a.in.'l NEW YORK, dan. 10 Advices from I .os Angele- -date bandits nnruulueiiig to depositor* is they entered, that merely motion pictures were lining taken, held lip the First, National Hank at .Maywood, a suburb, locked eleven persons in :‘ e vault and escaped with four hundred sterling. The timely arrival of an official who knew the combination, saved the prisoners in the vault from probable death from su/l’ocatinii. The First National Hank at Tusliu, California, had a less spectacular experience, two masked men taking one thousand sterling.

SMALLPOX IN CTIIXV. VANCOUVER. lan. 1“ Harrowing stories nf the '.‘-•a'di’-a havoc caused hy smallpox in 'L-i'g-kong, tire told hy me sengers m *he Yoknhntnit Main. The people are rallillg in the streets and the hospitals are overcrowded. hundreds dviug daily. Since Ist December three thousand have been daily vaccinated in Hongkong, and fifteen hundred in LmThion. A distressing feature ol Hit' epidemic is the mortality among infants.