The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-09-02
UNCLE SAM a DEAD BEAT.
It's a Shame the Way he Falls to
Pays his Debts.

Pays his Debts.
Correspondence Of the Pressl
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3O.-If you want to
have your faith in Uncle Sam shaken
come down to the capital and note the
manner in which he pays his debts. |
say 1t In sorrow and humiliation that
Uncle Sam is dead beat. We all know
he lsrich, and constantly growing richer
that he has millions of dollars locked up
in his strong box, and yet he never pays
n debt if he can get out of it by hook or
crook, and if nothing else will release
him from his obligations he stands ready
to plead the Statute of Limitations. One
day last week the country was told in
the press reports of the passage in the
house of representatives of the famous
Mckay claim. No doubt that was a
just claim or it could never have run the
gauntlet of legislative scrutiny. But
thousands upon thousands of claims
equally just are pending before congress.
Some of them have been pending for
twenty-five, fifty, even hundred years.
Not few of them will be pending half
century or century hence.
You may see in the corridors of the
Capitol here, haunting the rooms of the
various committees on claims, the grand
sons of men who filed claims in their
prime, and who died poor and disap-
pointed, leaving as heritage to their
sons and their sons sons and grandsons
an unhonored obligation of the 'great-
est government under the sum-" There
are in the pigeon holes of the claims
committees, dust covered and spider
webbed, bushels of claims growing out
of the Revolutionary War, the War of
1912, the Mexican War. Wagon loads of
claims arising out of the war of the
rebellion are here. All the claims COM
mittees are years behind in their work.
Sometimes they work pretty hard, too,
despite the discouraging outlook They
know very well that not one in hun
dred of the claims which they examine
and find good and valid will ever be
paid. 1t is loves labor lost, but still
they go on grinding out the bills.
When claimant succeeds in coaxing
member to introduce his bill he thinks
the battle half won, and in his dreams
sees piles of government gold and green
backs spread out before him. When the
bill is reported favorably by the COM
mittee, and placed upon the calendar of
the house, the claimants hope natures
into confidence. 'It is just bill-does
not the committee unanimously say so?-
and of course Uncle Sam pays his honest
debts, doesn't he?" In week, or a
month at the latest, the claimant thinks,
his bill will become law and the treas
ury doors will open to him.
The experienced congressman tells his
claimant to go home that nothing is to
be gained by remaining here Lucky
the claimant who accepts this good ad-
vice, and goes home before hotel bills
have eaten up the little substance he has
and left him stranded. Many poor fell
lows-and poor women, too, for many
women come to congress pressing claims
stay here till they can't get home, and
remain to haunt the corridors as living,
pitiable witnesses of the red tape and
impenetrable barriers great govern
ment hedges its treasury with. The
calendar is full to overlooking with such
bills. There are now more than 1900
private bills on the calendar, and not
two dozen of them will succeed in rum
ming the gauntlet to the statute book.
Many of these bills on the calendar have
been put there by successive congresses
for dozen or thirty years.
Just claims that ought to be paid?
Yes. Obligations which solvent, hon.
est individual or respectable railway
or other corporation would pay? Yes.
And yet the government will never pay
per cent of them. OF course it is not be-
cause the government is dishonest, nor be-
cause members of congress are faithless. |
indolent or ungenerous 1t is the fault |
of the system of government by con-
gress. Congress has too much to do 1t
is big machine, but it is unequal to the
task which comes to it, It's members,
its committees, its rami6cations are |
many, but the question III congress al
ways is which dozen of ten thousand |
meritorious measures shall we consider |
and pass? And so the claimants come
and go, the private calendarpiles up and
up, and no progress is made toward
liquidating the many millions which
Uncle Sam owes.
Many remedies have been sought for
this deplorable, almost disgraceful, con-
dition of affairs, but none is more prac-
teal than the suggestion of Representa-
tive Springer, who would have court |
OF claims, with jurisdiction over all such /
cases as are now pending before con-
gress. The radical and unjust method /
OF passing a constitutional amendment /
taking claims away from congress en-
tirely, and compelling claimants to
make their cases in the ordinary courts
of law, has been proposed. Speaker
Reed favors sweeping away all the
claims that have been pending more
than ten years, because this would ''re-
move the temptation to waste lives and |
hopes in chasing the will-o -the-wisp of |
congressional justice" The speaker
adds, Energies which could have made
new fortunes have too often been spent |
in vain pursuit of decisions of congress
which never have been obtained"
Mr.. Springer, who was once a member |
of the committee on claims, and who 1
gave up the Craftsmanship of that COM
mittee and resigned from it because he
did not like to have his heartstrings
tugged at twenty times day by deserv
ing but hopeless claimants, says the
honor of the government is involved in |
the question of providing means of adj
Indicating and paying all the public OBJ
legations. There is now court of
claims, but it has jurisdiction over those
cases which congress refers to it, and |
over none other. Mr.. Springer wants
court of claims that shall have original |
jurisdiction, with appropriations in /
lump to meet the judgments. 1t is found
now that it is almost as difficult to get
claim referred to the court of claims by |
congress as it is to induce congress to pay
the claim outright. Surely congress has
enough to do without sitting as a court
on the number of hogs and chickens
taken from loyal citizen by the fed
eral soldiers. And surely the govern
ment Is great and rich enough to pay for
all the chicks and pigs it has taken with
Out compensation, and all the countless
other obligations which it has incurred
in war and peace.
Government claims present curious
admixture of misfortune, accident creed
patience, millions and pennies. One man
wants pay for steamboat, another for
a horse. Here are the French spoliation
claims, involving fortunes. They origi-
mated more than "a century ago. All the
original claimants and most of their
heirs are dead. The claims are still Wig |
o,.o,,s1v ,,ressed however, by the attor- |