The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-07
Washington Bureau st. Paul Globe, J
CoYeorGn Building.
Special to The St. Paul Globe.

Special to The st. Paul Globe.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.-The specter
of Southern claims has arisen once
more over the horizon. Anyone who
mas supposed that the war was end
cd in good faith has only to read the
volume Of more than 200 pages put
forth by the senate committee on
claims as its response to the clause in
the general deficiency act Of last ses-
sion directing 1t to prepare a compre-
henslVe Dill disposing Of the whole
mass or accumulated claims against
the United States, now before con-
merit.
This accumulation embraces a great
variety or cases, which the committee
mas divided into seven classes. The
largest class, in point Of the total
amount Of money involved, is that of
the claims Of states, which aggregate
1858, 12S.57. The next largest is the
class of cases arising under the Bow
man act, chiefly for supplies appropri-
ated by the federal army during +ha
war. and which have been passed bv
the court of claims, together with some
cases in which compensation was al
lowed by the court for occupation Of
real estate, destruction of property
etc, under other acts; this class in
wolves $1,S41, 56S.17. The French spolia-
tlon claims already passed by the
same court, come next with 81 ,O43,-
117.04. Naval contracts which were
not wholly fulfilled leave remnants
amounting to 1892, 50O62. Churches and
schools in the South, whose propertv
was despoiled, want 1865, 974 96 Mis-
cellaneous claims, mostly growing out
of the civil war, and including settle
ments with insurance companies, ETC..
amount to 1897, 49, Finally, there is
a class Of unadjusted claims, which to
the committee seem to have more or
less merit, and which might be scaled
down to $50, 1914. The whole amount
winch the government is asked to paw
to claimants of all sorts is SO, 765, 823. So
This amount, by the way, is independ-
ent of a number Of claims which are
treated in separate bills providing for
their reference to the court of claims.
or the total here given, however
easily from $6,OOO,OO0 to $1,000 900 grow
out Of the civil war, which was off,
cially ended more than thirty years
ago. In the meanwhile, the great mass
| OF persons who were depended upon as
witnesses for the claimants, and were
old or of middle age at the time the
essential events occurred, have either
died or become feeble in body and I'M
certain in memory. They have not
been, as a rule, subjected to the
searching fire of a ross-examination
Oughly conVersant with the evidence
on the other side. In short, the gov
eminent has had no adequate defense
The most it could do was to stand it's
ground and throw the burden of proof
upon the claimants. Here and there
where government agents have been
sent into a district to run down a spe-
cial case, they have been able to dis
cover some affirmative proof in rebuff
tai; but in most instances the situa-
ton has resembled that of the ancient
legal tradition of the stolen horse,
where six good citizens sWore that
they saw the prisoner steal it, and
six equally good citizens SWOre that
they didn't see him steal it. The
friends and neighbors of a claimant
have usually willing memories, and
are quite ready to go upon the stand
and assure the court or board or COM
mittee who are scrutinizing a claim
that the claimant actually suffered
seizure or destruction Of property Of
a value approXimating such and such
q sum. and that he was loyal to the
Union cause; while only at rare inter
walls can one be found who will go
further in the other direction than
merely to say that he does not re-
member the seizure or destruction,
and does not recall any striking proofs
of loyalty ever given by the claimant
The claims resting upon contracts
for work for the navy, still untulhlled
On the part of the government, and the
claims of states for the expense OF
itting out troops in the early days OF
the war. are more easily adjusted be-
cause they were, at the time Oh the &C
currences in controversy, largely the