Show Thursdays Washington Gossip INFORMATION WANTED WASHINGTON April 26The committee commit-tee on ways and means agreed to Breckenridges resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treasury for the following information FirstWhat number of persons in each of the gainful occupations vein engaged in the branches of which product of like kind could be imported from a foreign country in any measure or quantity sufficient to call for the attention of the legislators Second What number in each caegory might be considered wholly free from foreign competition ThirdWhat number of persons might bo considered in some small measure subject to foreign competition JJFourtl The number of persons he represented repre-sented by the report or prtducts of agricultural agricul-tural manufacturers aud mining to be estimated upon the relation of the value of the quantities of such experts to the value or quantity of the tOt h product in other words the number occupied in production for export EXCEPTIONS TAKEN The Republican members of the ways and means committee met today in tile room of the committee on banking bank-ing and currency for the purpose of hearing about a dozen persons representing repre-senting manufacturing interests and labor organizations The statements of these persons in brief were to the effect that they desired to take excep tion to the remarks on the floor of the House by the friends of the Mills bill that the laborers and manufacturers derIve no benefit from the present tariff law They also made an energetic pRO togt against the action of the ways and means committee in refusing to hear from the representatives of tbe interests inter-ests which would be affected by the passage of the pending bill In reaching a decision in THE CALIFORNIA CONTESTED ELECTION CASE of Iynch vs Vandever the House elections committee held and it is probable this question will be strongly set ont in the report that the election officers acted improperly in rejecting thevotes of such persons as attempted to register Dy affidavit after expiration of the time for registration registra-tion nxed in the published notice It was held that the register officers acted outside of authority in limiting the time for registration to a shorter time than that xed by the State law and the affidavits of those persons who failed to register in the appointed time although presented nut collected by ersons not legally qualified should have been received and the persons allowed to cast their votes The votes rejected by the election officers weN counted by the House committee with the result that they reduced Vandevors majority to about thirty votes but as this was not sufficient to reverse the result re-sult the committee declared in favor of the claims ot Vandever THE PRESIDENT will go to New York on Decoration Day and take part in the memorial services of the Grand Army of the Republic |