Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-03-31

Claims as ndu DeeH prOpciiy hSSoSA
gated, and the amount in the report
we have recommended covers that
claim, Mr.. President Now have no
personal interest in this matter. gen.
tlemen of the Senate. think no
member of the committee on Claims
has any personal feeling in the mat
ter at all. / regret only that I must
oppose the Senator from Penobscot.
In justice to the committee I felt
this statement of facts was necessa-
ry, and / want to say, gentlemen OF
the Senate, that we members OF the
committee on claims have tried our.
best to our our duty as we have seen
it, and we make this recommends
ton to you, telling aften hearing all
the testimonyAand we went into this
case very thoroughly-that we have
made just report. Nevertheless. If
after hearing the presentation of the
case, the very able presentation made
by the Senator from Penobscot, you
vote to allow the claim, we shall feel
perhaps that we will not feel very
badly about it, but we will feell that
perhaps justice has not been COM
pletely done in the matter.
Mr.. THOMPSON of Knox: Mr. Pres
ident, in the observations of the Sem
ator from Penobscot there seems to
have been certain insinuations which
perhaps I. do not quite understand. II
I understood them as being any per-
sonal reflection on the committee, he
is welcome to them. ! will only say
in behalf of the committee that the
committee have tried to act with the
utmost fairness on the evidence be-
fore them. A committee in acting on
such matters as that acts judicially
and is entitled to hear the testimony
and to draw such differences as may
seem reasonable from the facts, not
only the facts themselves but the con-
sequences that may flow from them.
Now in this matter the Senator from
Penobscot jumps too quickly at his
conclusions, as it seems to me, and 1T
seems to me also that there is a lit
tie of what Judge Peters has called
in a certain legal opinion "uncon-
scious admission" Let me read to
you a sentence from the letter of Mr..
TarboX which he read in our hearing,
but on which he did not comment so
extensively as he did on later sem
tence.
This is it: I'm going back to the
selectmen of the town of Prentiss, /
am convinced that they will demand
better proof in the future on the fowl
situation" There you have it, gem
tlemen, right there they will demand
better proof" Isn't that an admis-
~, I,4 4..f nf hi Sfat 1ntn
tive that these people who are now
putting in this claim did not make
themselves good under the law as re-
quired by our State?
Another suggestion that he makes.
He told us and think | have his fig
ures here-and if l am wrong he will
correct mel understand him to say
that the valuation as returned for the
present year is 1912, 905-for the year
1920. In 1910 1 have it $4,000; 1900,
$4,000. So you see that commence
ing back in the year 1900 the valua-
ton of the little town of Prentiss.
which he describes up there in the
woods, has gone from $4,000 to $212,-
000-s1Oo,O00 in that many years-pret-
ty good, submit, for little town. At
the same time he has pictured to you
the dwindling of the population. Has
it occurred to you, Sepators, that
while this population has been dwind-
ling the town has been getting rich
from comparative point of view?
While the population has gone down,
the valuation in 20 years has gone up.
1t has gone up 800, 900. Now why?
Do you wonder that a town would in
crease in valuation when it brings in
a resolve directing the State to pay it
$500? Do you wonder a little town
will grow rich quick even though it
loses it's population? j don't put that
argument up to you, but 1t is there
just the same AS l say, it is what
Judge ePters once saw fit to call an
"unconsciou admission"
Now on the valuation Of this town.
If this business is kept up through
the State, you will find that the State
will have bills to pay up to the amount
of 100000 every year, and, incident
ally, gentlemen, that will help to
solve the traffic question. The rail-
road question will not trouble US so
much as it did if the State of Maine
buys it's own poultry, and if the people
of Bangor, or Carroll, or the little
town of Prentiss up there want TO
swap money for poultry. that gives
them an opportunity to do 1t and gives
an excellent opportunity to escape the
high paynentof freight which now OBJ
tains upon our railroads. We find
from an official investigation that IN
the year for which this claim is put
in there were 1928 fowl and the num-
Der killed was 1867. They killed all
the fowl in town except 361.
Now the committee there find that
there were 35 sheep killed, Is lambs
and one calf. They allow for them
the sum of $500 which we were satis-
fled was paid according to law. l take
exception to another form of argument
suggested by the senator from Pc
nobscot when he held out his hand
there. and in that hand he held re-
ceipts showing that the money had
been paid. Very true. That the COM
mittee do not dispute. And 1 say
that is an unfair inference on the in
tegrity and fair dealing Of the commit
tee to show them, to draw that con-
clusion, which understood him to
make. We do not dispute they paid
the money. Bat 1t is not a sufficient
answer that the State should respond
in damages and payment simply be-
cause they paid the money. They
must pay it according to law, and the
fact that man pays it is not suffi-
mic l.,