The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-09
THE WAIL OF NTMRoD


Trouble brewing down in Hades by the
90 waters of the Styx;
CerberuS is barking madIv: moor old
Plutos in a fix: ~
All because a new arrival lacking cour-
Has informed the shade of Niurod of a
most alarming fact.
Nlmrod knows that he's dead one when
oe ne hears the story told
- Ieddy, stanch and bold;
But the barb which wounds the sorest
rs ana the gall within the wine
- lIe I,of5t fact that willy Teddy sport with
And the shade of mighty Nimrod waxeth
TT. SJre with righteous rage
Ihat he should have lived and hunted in
an uncommercia1 age;
Anu ne gr1ndS his teeth in anger,
a. groans as though in deadly pain,
AT the thought that all his labors, from
that viewpoint were in vain.
Now his his fellow-shades are wearied by the
Which he pgdter utters wait Witbout ceasinq since
..o he's heard the. Roosevelt tale:
otten have slain and hunted rarest
But never sold the story for one dollar
cash per word
New York Times.
A Bad Debtor,
one of the most sinister and abhor-
rent tragedies of Washington is that
enacted in the Court of Claims. This
tribunal; able, contentious, hard
working. The judges pronounce upon
the government, and as a rule they do
so with an enlightened and Iab6rious
Justlce. Big men have sat upon this
clustered bench. Men wise in public
life and equipped with long and var
led experience have Joined in it's coun-
ellis and contributed to it's verdicts the
fruit of years of study and endeavor.
The court constitutes the medium of
NTl1 INN 1ifsaf ion hafx
and the thrice barred Treasury and
history has shown that it is usually
impartial and dispassionate as it is
equitable.
Not there, however, is the tragedy
enacted. It merely begins there. The
decision of the Court of Claims simply
launches the successful claimants up
on the troubled sea of politics. There
pretentions have been examined, their
rights defined, their awards diStribut-
ed, and then begins the heartbreaking
struggle to get the money from con-
gress. A verdict in the Court of Claims
is success of more or less academic
import To realize upon it an appro-
priation is indispensable.
The United States government is the
most ignoble debtor upon earth. An
Apache Indian is better and more
cheerful pay. Creditors may prove
their cases a thousand times over,
the court may sanction them with all
the authourity of law and evidence,
vet the claimant is no nearer his re-
ward when the court has done with
him than he was before the obligation
was contracted. He must inaugurate
the dreary, often the despairing, pro-
cess of solicitation. His rights have
been adjudicated, his dues have been
defined, and yet in order to collect a
penny he must buttonhole congress-
men who never heard of him or his
affairs, and confront strong and strange
faces with his mysterious grievances.
1t has come about that the Congress
of this day knows nothing and cares
less about the sorrows and the injuries
of the claimants of the forgotten past.
presumably just debts have been ac-
after careful, almost microscopic, in
gants have died in the course of ma
ture; others are tottering upon the
brink of longevity and decrepitude.
OF these, the heirs and beneficiaries
remain. and most of them are inept
lobbyists; but the government owes
the money, so far as that fact can be
ascertained by human agencies, ana
almost any other government than
ours would pay it over automatically.
The pathos of the tragedy consists IN
the fact that Congress is, perhaps,
willing to pay its score, but is ignorant
or preoccupied with no one to hold
it to its duty or point the way to
righteous restitution.
This is no new thing. 1t is familiar
and disheartening occurrence.-Wash ash-
ington correspondence in the New
York Sun.