Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-12
Potomac flats case. recently decided by the
Supreme Court in its favor.


sc. Nor is such transfer at all needed
by circumstances, for one copy of the orig
inal division of squares is, should be, in
the poss ession of the local surveyor. Errors
which have from time to time been claimed
in them cannot be corrected from any Of
the other originals, because they are identi-
cal. and. as a matter of fact 1t has turned
out in the past that a few of the squares
which it was sought to correct had no ex-
for which very sufficient reason they had
never been recorded. Moreover, these
United States records have been. and are
still. easily accessible to all proper exam
nation for legitimate business, although
not to parties whose wish to examine tn I'M
is not altogether legitimate, which class
IS not stranger to the custodian of these
records.
~. Again. the custody Of these records
for the United States by the chief of eugi-
neers of the army is a great protection to
the interests of private land owners as well,
because records 50 kept by the general gov
eminent are q check against the possibility
of fraud in the lant records of the city of
Washington and District of Columbia, at
tempts at which are not unknown in the
past: and. as shown above. all the records
needed for ordinary daily use are now avail
able for the general public in the office of
the local surveyor.
%. The transfer proposed by the bill
would endanger the safety of the records
themselves, which can never be replaced
They are stored by themselves in a separate
room of the War Department, one of the
safest buildings in the world against fire or
theft. and when the room is open there is
always an official present there
Records Now Safe and Guarded.
Section . of the bill does not of itself
provide the safety it calls for, which can
not be greater than it is a present. where
the records are also as accessible to proper
examination as they can be made anywhere
and also where they are in the personal
charge of n gentleman who is more init
mately acquainted with them and knows
more about than than any one now living,
and who is available to assist in reference to
them one else can. The gentleman
referred to is Captain John Stewart. c. E.
an able. faithful, efficient and valued en-
ploye of the United States for over twenty
five years past.
Government interests to BE Consider
ed.
SO. In this case, again, as happens so
often in Washington it is the interests Of
the general government that should pri-
marily be considered and not merely local
interests. For this is not any ordinary
municipality; 1t is one city out of all the
country: it belongs to the people at large
and the interests of all the other people of
the United States must overbaiance the
purely local desires of the few who actually
live in Washington. There has been in the
past car2leSSnesS in work done and records
kept in the District of Columbia, as almost
any antiquarian knows from his researches.
How else have valuable collections been
bought and paid for by the United States
containing many papers and records which
have always belonged to the United States.
but disappeared somehow and had to be
bought in order to regain possession of
them? As said above, there was a period
of, roughly, forty years. from about 1890
until the close of the civil war, when the
offices of the United States city surveyor
and of the local or corporation surveyor
were held by one and the same man. during
which time the United States records were
very carelessly handled, and il Is in this
way that many OF the United States rec
ords passed into improper hands, from
which they have not yet all BEEN regained.
Salvation OF the Records.
1.-The famous Tin Case Map was found
| By one of the commissioners of public
| buildings and grounds in the Office of Mayor
Force and formed the subject of correspon-
dence before it was returned. 1t was the
| salvation of those records when they were
placed in charge of the chief of engineers.
United States Army. system for their
| care was adopted and carried out under
| the chief of engineers These records have
| been classified. partially indexed and exam
| ined and arranged. so that it is now known
what Is missing. Some of the missing rec
| ords have been traced and obtained others
4 traced to the collections of DIR. Toner Mr.
/ Peter Force and the Oldest Inhabitants So
| ciety; and. strangest of all, some are known
TO be In the possession OF the local city sur