The committee recommends publicity of names and addresses of policy-holders and the giving them the right to verify statements and prosecute for falsity. The committee recommends requiring statements in elaborate detail covering all transactions, and favors giving the Superintendent of Insurance power to examine under oath.
February 23.—Stuyvesant Fish resigns as a trustee from the Mutual Life Insurance Co. and will head a committee of policy-holders to fight the present management.
Insurance men plan to fight the new laws recommended by the Armstrong Committee before the New York Legislature, and, if unsuccessful there, to carry the matter before the courts.
The Hepburn railroad rate regulation bill is reported by the Senate committee without any amendments. Through trickery of Senator Aldrich, the bill will be presented to the Senate by Senator Tillman as a Democratic measure.
The House of Representatives passes a resolution ordering an investigation of the relations between coal and oil carrying railroads and coal and oil companies.
Commissioner Garfield again testifies in the trial of the beef packers at Chicago. He admits that the Department of Commerce and Labor furnished the Department of Justice with evidence.
Johann Hoch, the noted bigamist, is hanged at Chicago.
February 24.—The House Committee on Immigration unanimously agrees on a bill to amend the immigration laws. The new bill will make naturalization uniform throughout the United States, and confines the issuance of citizenship papers to United States Circuit and District Courts, and to the highest court of original jurisdiction of each state. The bill further provides that an alien must be able to read, write and speak English before he can become a citizen.
Since Senator Aldrich’s trick of having Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, report the Hepburn railroad rate bill, which makes it a Democratic measure, Washington despatches state that the long standing feud between the President and Senator Tillman will end.
February 25.—C. Augustus Seton, who is under arrest in New York City, confesses to forging $4,300,000 worth of Norfolk and Western Railroad stock certificates.