The Keep Commission, appointed by the President to investigate the method of gathering statistics for crop reports, recommends that the reports on the cotton crops be restricted to monthly reports showing the condition of the growing crop during the growing season. The acreage planted and the ginning statistics of the Census Bureau should be the only Government reports on those matters.
January 19.—Luke E. Wright, former Governor of the Philippines, is appointed first Ambassador to Japan.
Representatives of the insurance departments of several states confer with Armstrong Committee, which conducted the recent insurance investigation in New York, with a view to bringing about uniform insurance laws.
January 20.—The Senate Committee on the Philippines takes under consideration the Philippine tariff bill.
Robert H. Todd, Mayor of San Juan, Porto Rico, appears before the House Committee in behalf of the Larrinaga bill to reorganize the Porto Rican civil government. He declares that American members of the executive council are doing the insular Government a great injustice by occupying as residences Government buildings needed for the housing of courts and departments of the Government.
January 21.—Eighteen negroes are killed and fifty injured in a stampede following the discovery of fire in a church in Philadelphia.
The thermometer registers 86 degrees in Pittsburg. One person is overcome by the heat. Cities all over the country report much suffering from the heat.
Congressman Sulzer, of New York addresses a mass-meeting of citizens at Washington, D. C., and declares that the Powers must end Russian cruelty. Congressman Rainey, of Illinois, in addressing the same meeting, said that the United States had saved Russia from the victorious Japanese and ought now to save her from herself. Congressman Towne, of New York, introduced a resolution thanking the President for his efforts in bringing about a cessation of the unspeakable crimes against the oppressed people of Russia.
January 22.—Senator Burton, of Kansas, who has been convicted of malfeasance, appears in the United States Senate for thirty seconds. This entitles him to collect his $1,000 mileage.
Secretary Taft denies that any member of the Philippine Commission or any army or naval officer owns directly, or indirectly, any lands in the Philippine Islands.