’FRISCO MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 136, 19 June 1901, Page 3

’FRISCO MAIL NEWS.

(Per R.M.S. Mariposa at Auckland,

[By Telegraph.]

Auckland, last night the McKinleys. San Francisco, May 20.

The visit of President McKinley to the Pacific coast proved to be an occasion of anxiety and distress. Though many of the original plans were carried out, and there were some enjoyable functions, Mrs McKinley’s illness was most alarming, and for some days the people of the city watched from hour to hour for the flags which waved so gaily over the city to be placed at half-staff. Before the day set for the launching of the battleship Ohio the suffering lady was much better, so that it was . possible for the President to carry out the programme for the occasion in which he was to play an important part. Mrs McKinley has been invalided many years, and the fatigue of the journey culminated in an attack of dysentery, which was expected to terminate fatally. The President was most attentive to Mrs McKinley, and for many hours could not be induced to leave her bedside even to take needed rest. The party remained in San Francisco nearly two weeks, and from there returned to Washington by the most direct route. THE STRIKE. Two days after the President had visited the Union Works, and had there delivered an address to the workmen, which w'as most enthusiastically received, mechanics of the works, together with

thousands of other machinists, went on strike. The strike was ordered by the National Organisation, and affected about fifty- thousand workmen employed in plants along the Eastern Seaboard, and in other localities besides tho Pacific Coast. Tho International Association of mechinists will confer at Toronto, Canada, on June 3rd, and the strike situation will bo fully discussed. Many employers in the East have granted the demands of the strikers, which are for a nine-hour day, with a new scale of wages which will permit them to so shorten the hours without decreasing their earnings. The demand, which has met with most serious opposition, at least in this locality, relates to settlement by arbitration, and makes it necessary for the Employers’ Association to treat officially with the union. This tho employers are refusing to do. They express a desire to treat with their own men, but so far re-

fuso with determination to recognise the union, or meet committees with the idea of settling differences in that way. The situation is most inconvenient for shipowners here, and at all Pacific Coast ports many steamers were undergoing repairs or in need of them, and the trade has been seriously crippled already. The Govern nrent would have been in grave difficulty, but for the fact that the men employed in their yards havo eight hours a day already, and thus are not implicated in the present trouble. Vessels in the hands of local firms for] repairs have been, or will be sent to Mare "island or Puget Sound, where Government will be able to keep all transports in condition for the present. If these accommodations are not sufficient, ships of the service can be repaired at Hongkong.

IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. The judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in relation to Porto Rico is a matter of great moment. It has been decided that under the Constitution the Government cannot require payment of duties on goods brought into tho United States from Porto Rico, but such duties may be laid upon such imports by special Act of Congress of the United States. It is believed that the President may decide to call an extra session of Congress during summer, so that the duties can be collected on sugar and other products of Cuba. The judgments of the Supreme Court' do not appear to have affected tho importations from the Philippines, but the merchants of San Francisco aro much worried lest tho industries of the Pacific Coast be affected by the new order of things. It appears that the matter must now be thoroughly gone ovor, and it is likely that the representatives of tho Californian Congress will bo called back to see that that part part ofsic country is protected from competition with the cheap labor of the Philippine Islands. AQUINALDO.

Aquinaldo has expressed a desiro to visit the United States in order to study tho institutions and customs at first hand. Ho wishes to come immediately after September 15, when he will be at liberty. NEW BATTLESHIP. The launching of the battleship Ohio was indeed a noticeable event. The vessel is one of the three largest in the American navy. The new Maine and Missouri are sister ships of equal size and power. They will be in every essential, size, power, weight of metal thrown, destroying power of guns, speed in class, armour and appliances, equal to any of the world’s battleships. The Ohio is forty feet longer overall than the Oregan, and has a thousand tons greater displacement. The Spanish war proved to the naval experts tho uselessness of enormously large gun calibres, and the pound for pound six and twelve inch guns are expected to exceed the eight and thirteen inch guns of the lowa and Oregon. The Ohio and her class are tho first battleships in the American navy in which water tube boilers are provided. The construction of the Ohio and her class was authorised by Congress in 1898 at the contract price of two millions, eight hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars for hull and machinery. She will be ready for service in about a year. Preceding the launching of the great ship, the President delivered a grateful speech, which was received with most enthusiastic applause by the three thousand or move. men assembled. The President expressed his thankfulness to God for the merciful change which had permitted him to be present, and spoke feelingly of his interest in battleships which would carry the name of his own beloved State into tie far seas. He responded to the presentation of a beautiful gold plate, which the workmen had prepared as a souvenir to him of the occasion.