The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-11
DR.. HERR ASKS $5,OOO,OOO
CLAIM AGAINST FRANCE THAT is
SAID TO BE WITHOUT PRECEDENT.
American Citizen Seeks Damages for
Persecution in Connection with
the Panama Canal Scandal.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.-Messrs. Often
hoefer Lauterbach & Limberger counsel
for DIR. Cornelius Herr to-day appeared be-
fore Solicitor Penfeld at the State Depart
ment and presented a claim for indemnity
in the sum of 5000 900 against the French
government for an alleged attempt to per-
secute Dr. Herr. The case is remarkable in
many ways and, it is said at the depart
ment, is without a precedent. The facts
in brief are that DR.. Herr, whose name
stands very high in scientific circles as an
electrician and physicist, although born in
France, of French parents, is an American
citizen. When he was about three years of
age his parents came to New York and ac-
quired American citizenship. Young Herr
was educated in the New York Free Acad-
emy, now the College of the City of New
York, and received two degrees He round
ed this out by courses in Heidelberg and
other great European universities. At the
age of sixteen years he was a lieutenant in
the United States army. In 1871 he was
charged by the municipal authorities of Chi
cago with mission in connection with the
reconstruction of the city after the fire. He
afterwards held posts of responsibility and
honor in San Francisco and New York
Meanwhile his fame as an electrician had
spread, and he did much to extend the study
OF this branch of science, besides establish
ing, as his brief claims, the forerunner of
one OF the largest of the great electrical cor
porations now in existence in this country
lie married an American woman, and when
his children were born in Paris, he caused
them to be registered as American citizens
at the consulate.
Jan. 10. 1893, his troubles began. He was
stopping at Bournemouth, England, with
his wife, in bad health, when he was ar
rested under extradition proceedings on
warrant from the French government
charging him with fraud and embezzlement,
growing out of the Panama canal scandal.
Under the law, a prisoner wanted for ex-
tradition must appear at the Bow-street
Police Court. Herr was confined to his bed
and SO unable to appear. The case was kept
open and he was continued under arrest In
his bed four years, during 1S93-4-5 and 1886
Then the British Parliament came to the
mitted the magistrate to attend Herr S
bedside and take his testimony. This
declared that the charges were ut
terly invalid and scarcely deserving
of notice. That was on Nay 2, 1896, and
Herr was released from arrest. Meanwhile,
the French government had instituted nu-
merCus proceedings against him in France
and coniiscated all of the property of him
SeII ana or ms wife. LIT. Aefz alleSeS InaC
this was persecution pure and simple, and
that the French government knew that the
charges against him were baseless before
his tria.
Therefore, claiming to have been injured
in Nome and ir health ard in other ways,
he demands that the State Department shall
prefer a claim against the French govern
ment in full reparation. Although he names
no special sum the brief shows that he de-
manded the sum of $5,00O000 in a letter he
sent to the President of the French Repub-
lie, but which was never answered. The
State Department has taken the case under
adViSement.