The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-07-31
THE FIRE CLAIMS
At WASHINGTON
SPECIAL COMMISSIONER PRATT
REVIEWS THE
SITUATION
Lack of Statistics and Proofs Delayed
Matters-Cannon Not Hostile-Bnl is
Now on Calendar.

| The Fire Claims measure is EN-
phaticaly not a dead issue 1t is now
ron the calendar for consideration after
! the recess as an original measure and
despite the thousands of bills on the
calendar that have never yet been
taken up, stands, with due fostering.
an excellent show of being made a law.
sue"
Fire Commissioner j. G.. Pratt. re-
turned from Washington on the Ven
tura, after over two months assiduous
work on the fire claims relief measure
as a representative of the Chamber Of
commerce and the Merchants Asso-
citation is still hopeful of the ultimate
ly successful issue of the memorial
1t will be impossible for me to go
into more than the general story with
you, until l have made my report to the
combined associations" said Mr.. Pratt
this morning. From the time 1 arrlv-
ed on April 22 until Congress took their
recess, every minute was occupied
can assure you. l have gone after ele-
ven o'clock at night to get a few words
with a senator who had an appointment
with Senator Hale to talk with him on
his way to see the president the follow
ing morning. Every minute is import
ant especially when you arrive at a
time when everyone has their hands
ruiz and oVerlioWing with their own
business. 1t is asking a material favor
of senator or congressman to play for
you, one of the few cards that he is en-
titled to hold and play on the board in
the big legislative game at Washing
ton. He has his own constituents to
look after and they are very jealous of
their own interests naturally and would
resent Hawaiis interests being push
ed by their representative to the detri-
ment of their own.
You all know down here from the
press what has been openly accomplish
ed. l secured the hearty consent and
cooperation of the California delega-
tion through the hearty approval of
their commercial bodies with Hawairs
request. OF course that was a business
arrangement. What benefited Hawaii
benefited California but the help was
substantial When 1 arrived. in Wash
ingtOn L had already wired the gov
ernor, the delegate and others that 1
was coming and for what purpose. Mr..
Boyd met me at the depot and we all
the governor, Mr.. Boyd, Mr.. Thurston,
Mr.. Haywood conferred together while
got in touch with Senators Clark and
Mitchell, Representative Mondell and
others of my personal friends.
There were many handicaps. Mr..
Wilcox was sick and unable to be on
the floor when his measures came up
This was unfortunate although we
made of our very weakness, strength
in appealing for aid, as we had none to
help us, our congressman being ill.
Then there was my lack of statis-
tics. l did not know the exact amount
of the fire claims. 1 did not have a
whole lot of prima facie evidence
vouchers photographs and correspon-
dence which were vital. l was asked
by one of the members of the commit
tee on the Pacific Islands and Porto
Rico Mr. Mallory very clever lawyer
the pertinent question, do we have
to take your word for all this Mr..
Pratt?' 1t was lengthy job to unearth
the correspondence between Governor
Dole and the State Department which
showed that the federal officials here
were cognizant and practically directing
affairs and that President Mckinley
approved, practically, of the payment
of claims. 1 had no actual dates and
the mass of filed correspondence at
Washington is no light matter to go
through even with the cordial assist
ance of the department. When the de-
legate's bill asking for remission of the
customs dues came up the organ of the
administration, the Washington Post
ridiculed the idea in it's columns. Mr.
Thurston Immediately replied and ul-
timately we showed that Hawaii while
annexed at the time of the outbreak
and it's suppression, really had no
machinery of its own, that every local
official was practically a quasi-federal
official, and that during this inter-reg-
mum period, We had funds coming in
that would have paid our Indebtedness
This done there was the task to get
committee members interested,
might say right here that we brought
up the matter directly in committee to
save time and really the procedure gave
it a strength that it will not possess as
an original measure Had we first in
troduced it as such it would have
only harked back to the committee af-
ter the second reading. Then there are
prejudices. Some objected to the ap-
preparation If any large percentage
was going to Chinese or aliens. Others
insisted on the ten per cent lawyers
fee clause The committee introduced
that, claiming that if the fees were
contingent it would be the attorneys
interests to make the claims as large
as possible.
"Time was so limited that my bulky
exhibits, my arguments compiled after
long work. had to be boiled down be-
fore they would handle them. Joe Can
non wanted me to reduce the whole
affair to about five hundred words. I
got IL down TO uNe pages aIIer an all
night session. Mr.. Cannon is not hos
tile to the measure. He took his stand
on his position as the watchdog of the
treasury" as chairman and because he
had not had time to thoroughly ac-
quaint himself with the merits or de-
merits of the case,
THE fight between the two bodies
over the Senate amendments to the
Army and Navy bill was also unfor-
sigrh h.af h.
of our request. The House
was disinclined to ask for the amend
ments on its own bill including the big
appropriations for the various eXposi-
tions and Hawaii under the circum-
stances.
Most crushing blow of all, after we
had been referred back and forth to this