Ex-Senator David B. Hill, of New York, asks that his connection with the Equitable Life Assurance Society be investigated by the New York State Bar Association. Three midshipmen are dismissed from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis for hazing. The 200th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin is celebrated in Philadelphia and Boston. Suits for $2,000,000 are filed by the city of Chicago against two street railway companies for running cars overcrowded with passengers. January 18.—Poultney Bigelow refuses to answer questions about conditions as described by him in an article on the Isthmus of Panama, before members of the Senate Committee. He is arrested for contempt, but is later released. Secretary Root states that the United States has no political interest in the Moroccan conference, but has a trade interest, and for that reason the United States is represented. Senator Tillman’s resolution, calling for an investigation of the expulsion of Mrs. Minor Morris from the White House is tabled. Secretary Taft advocates the construction of a direct cable connecting the United States with Panama. The Secretary declares this cable indispensable to the military control of the Gulf of Mexico in time of war. Eighteen miners are killed by an explosion at Paint Creek, W. Va. Congressman Sulzer, of New York, introduces a bill to increase the President’s salary to $100,000 and the Vice-President’s to $25,000 per year. 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.