The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-25
NAVY PRIZE MONEY.
The Sums Paid in the Past to Conquer
 ing Officers and Men-Admiral Farra- gut's 40,0OO-Rich Rewards for

The Sums Paid in the Past to Conquer
 ing Officers and Men-AdmiTal Farra- gut's ,000-Rich Rewards for
 Sampson and Dewey-Probable Abo- lition of the Blood Money Laws.
 The first law Allowing prize money and bounty to officers and sailors of the United States navy was passed by con- gress March 2, 1799. It was amended in an unimportant manner April c3 1900. The original law stood practical ly unchanged until July 17, 1862, when the civil war and the capture of Con- federate vessels necessitated a change to meet the situation at that time On June 30, 1864, the law was again amend ed, but has since remained unchanged. It does not differ materially to-day from the time it was first passed in 1799 nearly one hundred years ago. The men who destroyed Spanish vessels at Manila and at Santiago will receive their bounty under these laws, which, 1t is held by Auditor Morris of the Treas ury cover both the subjects of prize money and bounty. Prize money goes to the crews of vessels capturing mer- chant vessels of the enemy or of any country violating neutrality laws Bounty goes to the officers and crews of vessels which have captured or de- stroyed the vessels of war of the ene- my. The amount paid in bounty is far in excess of that derived as prize mon- ey.
 A comparatively small amount of money was paid by the United States as prize money and bounty up to the time of the civil war, but as a result of that conflict millions of dollars went to fortunate officers and seamen of the United States. In some cases the amounts paid were small fortunes. Sampson and his men will be thousands of dollars better off when they are giv- en their money for sinking Cervera's fleet off Santiago. Dewey and his men will get small amounts, inasmuch as the ships destroyed by them were not nearly so valuable as those sunk at Santiago, and because the number of Spaniards on board the vessels at Ma nila was much smaller than at Santia- go Dewey fought forts as well as ships, but his fight with the forts brings no pay from Uncle Sam.
 The records of bounty payments Up
 
 the auditor for the navy department, but since that time complete record has been kept. Congress appropriated one hundred thousand dollars for the captures made from the Algerians. A large amount of this was never collect ed by members of the crews of the ves- sells which fought so gallantly in that short skirmish. Something like fifteen thousand dollars is still in the United States Treasury subject to p roper claims. A man recently went to the | office of Auditor Morris thinking he had claim for prize money arising out of the Revolution, but he soon found that there was no law to pay claims of that kind.
 From the time the laws were first ! passed until now 196,551 claims have been adjudicated by the courts and treasury department. All of these have been paid except 43,811. The total amount paid out on the claims set i tied was S15, ,145,57S leaving s901, ,709 still in the treasury due men who participa- ! ted at some time or other in naval con- | quests or victories. Nearly all of this amount is due to men who participated | in the civil war. Speaking on this sub- | Ject Auditor Morris says: ''The ratio | Of unclaimed money to the whole amount of prize money awarded is a i fraction less than six per cent. The i number of claims uncaIled for is a little ] over twenty-five per cent. of the whole number awarded. The difference in the ratio of money and claims is accounted