Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1912-09-04

h4aI BSfe ~
Slightly acquainted with Mr.. Green
but judging by the result in the Sen
ate on more than one occasion, since
be was selected as the agent for the
Association we should say that he was
pretty clever agent, and that ne de
serves all that he will get out OF the
claim. But that is neither here nor
there.
If we admit that the rs per cent that
is to 90 to John Doe" is matter oyer
which the Association had not con-
trol.and Mr.. Green was promised only
small compensation for the work
that he was to perform and has, in "a
measure, performed, and the facts and
the records show these TO be so, and
the writer alluded to admits them; it
they are so, what in the name of com
mon sense has any one got to make
such fuss about and try to rake
mud out of a dung hill and raise a
miserable stencil, about nothing!
Every intelligent man and woman IN
Alexandria would be glad to see tnis
avenue built, every one of them
would be glad to secure the money in
question and Sc it put into the avenue
so that other sums could be secured
Tie implication that the Association
or its members are the parties TO
whom the 25 per cent commission is TO
be paid, is absolutely false. TO whom
it is ii ebe paid we have not the slightest
idea: but we understand that before
the var the claim was turned over
to the Alexandria & Orange Railroad
to help build the road from Alexan-
dria to Orange, and that an irrevo-
cable contract was made by which the
agents of the state were to get rs per
cent of any sum collected. 1t will thus
be sen that Virginia has twice given
this claim for projects that were Tor
the benefit of Alexandria.
After the war the State assigned
this claim to the Mount Vernon Asso-
citation for the purpose of building
or aiding in building, the avenue, and
did so with the distinct understand
ing written in the billy, that the
form er agents were to be paid, and yet
a Sc ond Daniel comes to judgment in
these later days and raises .h-,-no'
we meant to say cain.
Another fact unknown to our peo-
ple remains to be told and it is this:
That when Governor Tyler came into
office he appointed Mr.. NJ B. Har-
low of this city to act as state agent
for the collection of this claim lit will
be remembered that Mr.. Harlow, is the
originator of the avenue plan, and
that ne is the secretary and treasurer
OF the Association). Mr.. Harlow &C
ceptcd the appointment with the ex-
press stipulation that the rs per cent
coming to the agent was to go either
into the treasury of the State or Of the
Association, if the Legislature SO de-
,cided.
But a few weeks later the Governor
wrote to Mr.. Harlow that he had made
H '
mistake in making the appointment
owing to the facts above stated. So the
old contract still stands. And under
Federal rules it is likely to stand as
Uncle Sam always sees that men who
first present claims against him are
protected.
Under such conditions how any man
or raper could endeavor for sensa-
tion;l purposes to asperse an organI-
zaticn whose only object is to aid in
the betterment of the State and COM
munity, is incomprehensible.
In this connection we desire to add
that the statement of one of these ar
tcles that nothing had ben done, or no
money spent on the avenue, with Its
implication that the charter OF the
Association had been forfeited there
by, is only another misrepresenta-
ton. as the facts are that at the In
stance of the Association, anc
through it's influence, Congress appro'
priated $4,000 which was spent un'
der the direction of the War Depart
ment for surveying three routes tc
Mt. Vernon, and in addition the cost Of
printing the reports and maps was sew
eral thousand more.
One of the principal reasons why the
claim did not 60 through Congress
was that the Treasury claimed thai
Virginia owned the government large
sums of money, but in recent Con
gress Senator Martin secured the pass
age of a bill that settled the amount
of these claims and the adjustment
was in favor of Virginia.