The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-22
COTTON FUND BILL LOST.
Money Finds His Friends Have Gone Back on Him,

l ohCh OA x1llus
 | Washington Special to N. o. Picayune. l Senator Moneys bill for the distribu- ton of the fund in the Treasury which accrued from the sale of captured cotton | during the Civil War, and in which the | people of Louisiana and Mississippi whc
 suffered during the war have taken grep, | interest, is practically dead. When the committee reported an amended bill
 which was virtually a substitute, as 1 stated in these dispatches, It's author.
 though disappointed. expressed the belief 1 that he could get the floor and secure the passage of the measure as originally in- troduced by explaining its provisions.
 Today Senator Money consulted with
 some of the Republican leaders. with a
 view to calling up the bill. and great
 was his chagrin when they who previously
 had professed to be friendly to his meas
 ure frankly told him that the bill could
 not come up. First they evaded by ad-
 ter to push his bill Why said he.
 that's what you said in the last Con
 gress. I waited until the short session,
 and then there was no time to get it down and barefaeed hostility drowned upon him.
 T suppose there is nothing more for me
 to do,' said Senator Money discussing the matter with The Picayupe correspon- the bill come up. and I see no way to get it up. I expect to make speech on the measure at the first opportunity and explain the situation. but that is as far as can go under the circumstances. 'T fail to understand the cause of the opposition to this bill, unless 1t lies in the fact that the money would be dis tributed through the South, Instead of New England, under It's terms. There are Senators who voted for a favorable report on tho measure who always ab- sent themselves from the Senate when they see that an effort is to be made to | f So rnF fhtnlx ret votes on final passage. although person. ally some of these are very friendly to me.
 Senators suggested to me to provide in my bill that the fund should be dis tributed among the people pro rata. replied that such a provision was wholly unnecessary, because the persons who are entitled to share in this distribution are officially named in reports now in the Treasury. Every man who had his cotton taken has opposite to his name on the brand and its price, He, or, in the event of his death, his heirs alone can claim the price which his cotton brought. The United States Supreme Court has decided cited. time and again. and there can be no doubt any Senator will find if he will inquire of Secretary Shaw, that there is such a fund in the Treasury today. al- though 1t Is not segregated. In dstribut- ing the fund a deficit. as was suggested by some Senators, is impossible; on the other hand, 1t Is highly probable that there Is q surplus. because some claim ants may have died or may have moved away. without knowing anything abou the fund in the Treasury. It Is perfectly | clear that the Government cannot lose anything.
 ''All that is asked is permission for those whose trust is held to 90 into court and ask that the Government be relieved of this trust, which it has held forty years. Had it been a New England maj ter, I fancy 1t would have been settled at the close of the war. As it is a South. ern case. cannot say when 1t will be settled"