Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-23

surplus Of the Geneva Award.
The United States Senate has been debat-
ing for many days bill for disposing of the
large balance of the Geneva award which has
not been paid out to claimants. This ques-
ton is thought by many to touch the nation
al honor, some going so far as to maintain
that if we have received for damages n larger
sum than is required for satisfying the Just
demands of private claimants we are bound
in equity and honor to refund the residue to
Great Britain. This quixotic notion can ca
silly be exploded. 1t implies total absence of
exact knowledge of the facts of the case and
the history of the treaty.
The Geneva Commission, acting under the
treaty of 1871, awarded the United States
gross sum as a compensation for the dam
ages inflicted by three rebel cruisers built and
fitted out in British ports, conceding to the
American government full discretion as to
the distribution of the award Secretary
Fish took special precautions against any
committal by the agents and counsel of the
United States as to the disposition of the sum
which might be recovered Our government
did not appear at Geneva as the agent or
trustee of private claimants for damages. 1t
demanded redress for the destruction of
American property, reserving to itself full
liberty to act on its own sense of justice in
dsposing of whatever sum it might recover.
The Geneva tribunal awarded us a gross
sum of fifteen million five hundred thousand
dollars in full acquittance of all claims which
had been presented or might thereafter arise
for depredations on our commerce by rebel
cruisers fitted out in British ports The award
of a gross sum- to be distributed at the dis
erection of our government, released us from
any responsibility to the British government
as to what we might do with the money.
In 1874 Congress passed an act regulating
the distribution of the award. In pursuance
of that act tribunal created under its pro-
visions passed upon LOGS claims and award
ed judgments amounting to S9.3lG, l20, leav-
ing balance which amounts at present. with
accrued interest, to about 5000 900.
1t is this handsome little sum which the in
surance companies would now like to get
hold Of. Their case rests upon technical
rule of law. 1t is a well established princi-
pie of maritime insurance that when under
writers have made compensation for losses
they are entitled TO the recovered relics of
the property. If, for example, ship strikes
upon a rock and sinks and the underwriters
pay the insurance the ship and cargo belong
to them when raised to the surface by buoys.
This right of what is called "subrogation' is
the basis of the claim made by the insurance
companies for the large residue Of the Gene
va award They maintain that the recovery
of the value of the ships by the government
is the same in law as the recovery of the
ships from the depths of the sea, and that
their rights of subrogation hold equally in
either case. In a case of this kind however,
the government is bound by broad principles
of substantial justice rather than by technical
rules of law established with q view to a
wholly different class of cases, and the ques-
ton therefore is simply, What does justice
require Certainly not that compensation
be made for losses that were never suffered.
The act of 1874 was strictly Just. 1t proyid-
ed that every shipowner and cargo owner
and that every insurance company should be
made whole. If ship and cargo were de
stroyed by a rebel cruiser the act provided for
full compensation if there was no insurance.
If the vessel or cargo, either or both, was in
sured the insurance m oney received was to
be deducted from the compensation. The
actual loss was fully reimbursed, and there
could be no just claim to anything further.
The act of 1874 dealt with the insurance COM
panies in the same spirit They We're re-
quired to strike a balance between their war
LOSSES and their war profits and if the losses
were in excess of the profits the companies
were made whole by reimbursing the differ
enee. The act of 1874 thus provided for all
real losses and precfuded all claims for fcti-
tous or suppostitious losses. 1t was not
known whether the money would hold out
for the full payment of real losses, and it was
accordingly provided that if it fell short the
awards should be paid in ratable proportion;
but that if it should prove to be in excess the
balance should remain in the treasury to be
disposed of by Congress, Under the equita-
BILE principles which clearly govern in this
case, the government must pay such real
losses as come within the general scope of
the award, but pay nothing to insurance COM
panies for damages they never suffered If
a balance should remain it might be devoted
to some purpose of national charity, but
there would be no justice in making gift of
it to wealthy insurance companies and their
attorneys.