Year: 1874




received for war premiums than that pad for
losses


Claims for constructive damages are not allowed
to be entertained. Very full and careful provision.
are made for hearing and determining tho claims by
the courts and for the certifcaton 70 the Supren.
Court Of questions Of law arising in the hearing Of
the cases. Interest the amounts allowed is to b.
paid ut the rate of per cent from the date Of bs
award at Geneva When Judgment is rendered
in favor OF claimant who comes under on.
OF the first four classes the Secretary of the Treasury
is TO pay the judgment Immediately. The claim.
allowed under the other classes are not to DO PAID
until all the others are adjudcated and paid. Thea
the money remaining is to be divided pro rata in
there is not enough to pay in full. The obec-
tions urged to Mr.. Buffers bill arc numer.
Qua. although it is, perhaps. tho whos
the best of the three measures. On.
objection is that the different courts might
vary in their practice in regard TO evidence
some allowing claims that others would disallov
Another is. that the share of the Government the
award is limited to the value of its vessels lost
and does not include any part Of the expenses 1t
was put to by the presence Of the Rebel cruisers
upon the seas. The whole body Of Washington
claim agents Of course opposed to the bill and
so tho insurance companies who will get nothing
if it passes except three whose losses actually
exceeded their premiums


These are in brief the three plans for distributing
the l55OOOOO Of tho award. There is a fourth
plan, which begins to have a few advocates. and
that is not to distribute tho money at all. but 70
cOvor 1t all into the Treasury most properly
belonging to the United States. This proposition 10
by no means so indefensible might appear at first
thought. in its support it is argued that all ship
owners and shippers got insured or If they
did not. were themselves to blame and
preferred to take tho risk. which WA
in some sort nsuring themselves; that the insur.
ance companies have no claim because they made
profitable business of taking risks that in
short neither insured nor insurers have any Just
claim and that as for the uninsured, and tho officers
and crews of captured vessels who suffered loss they
have no more valid claim than thousands Of other
citizens whose property was captured or destroyed
on shore during the war, who suffered personal
injury or hardship. Why should the owner
of ship captured by the Alabama
upon the high seas receive compensation.
while the owner of a steamboat sunk on the
Mississippi by Rebel battery, get nothingf And
why should ship-captain from whom Capt. Semms
took purse or chronome,er be compensated rather
than tho Indiana farmer whose horses tho Rebel
raider Morgan captured, or the Chambersburg cis-
zen whose house was burned' The real sufferers by
the Alabama depredations cannot be reached. and
no one proposes to make their losses good. They
are tho merchants and others whose ships were
driven from the seas when nearly all our commerce
sought British bottoms to escape capture. and the
masters and sailors who were forced to seek other
callings to earn their livelihood.


OF course these ideas will not prevail. Tho
sl5,5OO,OOO will not be allowed to go into tho
Treasury to help make up Secretary Richardson's
deficit This great sum is a great temptation. Ia
the language of an eminent urist. it is "a fund TO
steal.r and there will be a great scramble for it.
What distribution will finally be made OF 1T cannot
now be predicted but it is easy TO foretell that ~
disposal will give rise to great deal of discussion In
Congress.