Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-07-04
REQUIRES LOTS OF RED TAPE
TO GET CLAIMS BEFORE
THE PROPER COURT.
MUST HAVE SENATE'S o. K.
Compensation Claims Dating Back to
Revolutionary Days Still Are Before
the United States Court of Claims
Noted Case Is Cited.
By EpWARp 3. CLARK

printed that no longer is the Court Of
Claims of the United States called upon
TO pass judgment upon demands made
Tor compensation for losses to private
cltlzenS due to action taken by the
government which existed in the revo-
lutlonary days. There are, it is said,
few such claim cases still pending
and which one day or another will
reach the decision point.
Readers of Mark Twain ought to re-
member his story of the great beef
claim, and of the course of the pro-
ceedlngs before the lawmakers in
washington. In the ordinary pro-
cedure person having a claim against
the united States government must get
the permission of congress to present
IL 10 the court. Sometimes permission
is not granted and then it is under
stood the claimant has no recourse ex-
cept to pocket his loss and to swallow
his disappointment.
Stranger Than Fiction.
when man goes digging after truth
IN the records of congress he finds
some things which are perhaps strang-
er than the romances of the fiction
writer's. The tracing Of the right to
recompenSe from the government for
sacrltices made by ancestors by pres
ent-day people is one of the hardest
tasks known to lawyers. The trails
get confused time after time, and so
1t happens that some people who may
nave legitimate claims against Uncle
Sam are unable to collect them be-
cause somewhere in the chain connect
Ing the present with the past, link
Is lost.
1t was not long ago that an adverse
report on a Revolutionary claim was
made by the senate committee which
has charge Of such matters. The
claim was for the payment Of thirty
loan certificates said to have been is
sued by Richard Ralph Randall May
Is, 1910.
The certificates were for $500 CONT
mental money; specie value, $47.73.
Congress was asked over century ago
to pay the original Of the certificates
with interest to a Randall descendant
who died in 1870. The first claimant
left son William who, when he was
an old man, advertised for the original
certificates which had been lost, and
then he memorialized congress tor
their payment. This claim later was
presented number of times but with
out success. The last time that the
claim came before congress, which was
recently, the committee Of the senate
In It's adverse report, said:
"The fact that the certificates never
were found, that the original holder did
not present them for payment, that his
son waited many years before asking
the aid of congress and the further
fact that early congresses nearer to
the transaction refused to consider the
claim; in fact the doubt. insincerity
and great antiquity Of this claim, Of
fers sufficient reason for not waving
the statute Of limitations in its favor"
Decision Not Final.
Now 1t would seem that this finally
would dispose Of this particular case.
but from the new life that has been
given it from time to time makes II
seem certain that again some day the
claim will be re-entered in congress
and payment asked for the face value
of the certificates and for the interest
on $500, perhaps compounded from the
year ITO to the present date, which
will amount to quite a tidy sum.
Claims growing out Of the war be-
tween the states are of course more
numerous than those growing out OF
the war of tie Revolution, because the
one war is nearer than the other, and
because many Of the active claimants
are living. The senate not long ago
gave the Shawnee Indians of Kansas
the right to go to the proper United
States court to have their claims adj
justed- for indemnity for losses sus-
tanned by them during the Civil war.
1t was claimed that these Shawnee
Indians remained peaceful! during the
trouble between the states. did nor
commit any depredations and vet on
the superstition that they had, done so.
Union soldiers seized the Indians pro-
visions, household goods, cattle, horses
and hogs, and used them without rem
dering any payment therefor. 1t was
claimed also that this was done while
many Of the Shawnees were serving in
the Union army. It has been said that
TIE Civil war is nearer to US than the
Revolutionary war, but the length of
time that it sometimes takes to have
a claim adjusted or even to start it on
the way to adjustment may be known
when 1t is said that this Shawnee mat
ter was pending one way or another
for about half century. Recently
much has been written about the suit
just brought by the Sioux Indians for
S7O0,OO0,00O
Taft In His Element.
Intimate friends of William How
ard Taft, chief justice of the
United States. says that now he
- a. IL