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Show THE SALINA SUN. SAUNA. UTAH HE BOOMS FRANCE Speeds Work of Court of Claims Change to Seven Judges Expedites Handling of War- Time Suits. Blast Destroys Chemical Plant and Rocks Newark er the saving In Interest to the United States. System Saves Time and Money.' The new system of having trained lawyers lake the testimony and preWashington. As a result of the sent their findings to the court Is creased volume of claims against the also a great help to the plaintiffs. government since the World war the Where under the old method of proCourt of Claims found Itself swamped cedure It was necessary for the plainwith work. It had been Jogging tiff to come to Washington to give his along comfortably with five Judges testimony, the commissioner now goes who were appointed for life. Testi- to him. lie Is therefore spared conmony was taken by stenographers, siderable expense and time. There Is and from this the Judges reached their now in Europe a commissioner taking In many cases the testi- testimony in what is known as the decisions. mony was so voluminous that It took group, which conthem some time to make up their find- sists of eight cases Involving ings of fact so that the case might be heard irr the court With the sudNo foreign subject can sue the den influx of new cases the Judges United States government unless It found the task too great to permit Is shown that his government allows them to handle them with the desired a like privilege to the citizens of the promptness. United States. An investigation Is Last March, therefore, congress au- now being made In Russia to discover thorised the appointment of seven whether the Soviet government procommissioners for terms of three vides for this. In the Civil war years each. They are all lawyers, claims it was necessary for the plainand it Is their duty to take the tes- tiff to prove his allegiance to the fedtimony In cases brought to the court eral government before he might file and then to make their findings of a claim. The Court of Claims Is the facts so that they may be presented court, in the United States where to the court when the case is brought .nnly a citizen may sue the government. If before It. he Is not satisfied with the decision The appointment of these commis- of the court he may appeal to the sioners has not only proved a great Supreme court of the United States. aid in expediting the handling of An unofficial survey recently made cases, but It has saved the govern- showed that of 175 cases taken to ment money. A large number of the Supreme court the decision of the claims bear interest, and It is there- Court of Claims was upheld In 150. fore greatly to the advantage of the Nineteen decisions were reversed, four to have them settled modified, one approved In part and government These are for the most one case remanded. promptly. part cases of refunds of taxes erroIt seems to be little known that the neously assessed. Interest Is also al- Court of Claims handles a great many lowable as part of the amounts due tax cases that Is, those based upon for Just compensation for property taxes, such as taken. -stock taxes, Income taxes, excess As Is well known, during the war profits taxes, beverage taxes, estate the various executive departments taxes, sales taxes and stamp taxes. were authorized to take what they During the fiscal year 1925 this court needed In the way of coal, ships or disposed of approximately 325 of such other things necessary to the success- cases, and there are a number still ful prosecution of war. In a great pending. These are cases where the .many instances the owner was not taxpayer has been dissatisfied with paid the full value of the articles, but the rpllng of the board of tax aphe was permitted to sue the govern- peals and has taken his case to this ment for the balance. Such cases court. are now reaching the court daily. The One of the new commissioners said sooner. they ar.e. adjudicated the great recently that it frequently happens Brooks-Scanlo- n 0. Internal-revenu- e capital- At Their Ancestors Monument Edouard Jonas, French commissioner, has arrived In the United States Intent on persuading Americans to buy homes In France. Left to right are Raymondine, Augustine, Mary Louise and their father, Raymond A. Ponce, viewing the inscription on the base of the monument 'of lonce de Leon in St. Augustine, Tla. The Tonce family is the oldest In the (United Slates, Mr. Ponce having records to prove his ancestry. Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida In 1513 and land grants to the family from the king of Spain show that some members of the family have been in Florida since the latter part of the Sixteenth century. ONCE PROUD MONITOR, LAST OF TYPE, JOINS JUNK PILE I U. S. S. Cheyenne, Still In Good Order, Goes to Keep Her With Davy Jones. Ren-dezvo- Baltimore, Md. Trailing ignominl-ousl- y at the end of a towline, a once proud monitor and last of her type recently moved toward her grave a Jurjk pile at Hampton roads. One of four nlster ships laid down In 1904, the Cheyenne, originally the Wyoming, started her death march alone with the U. S. S. Owl, a" navy yard tug. stealing ahead like a conscience-stricken executioner. The the Inst of her sisters, felt the noet.tlene torch 20 years ago. Sixty-siyears back in American history the monitor type, embodied In John Ericssons Monitor, nemesis of the Merrlmac, revolutionized naval practice. Monitors maintained President Lincoln's blockade of southern jports during the Civil war. N. J., after an explosion that , s - mM iTItrilrl New Veterans Hospital to Be Built in Minnesota that a decision of a single case In the Court of Claims disposes of hundreds of thousands of similar cases without prosecuting further litigation. "Such a decision was recently rendered by the court, he added. I do not know the entire number of cases affected by this decision, but there are 7,000 cases in the Baltimore collection district alone affected thereby. The Court of Claims was established by act of congress February 24, 1855, and was at first merely a commission whose duly it was to file facts regarding claims for the guidance and action of congress. The Civil war resulted In. a great many claims for damage to property and such things, and the court was given general Jurisdiction over cases involving con- tracts. 2,000 Claims Pending Now. There are now pending In the Court of Claims more than 2,000 cases involving approximately $2,000,000,000. In some of these cases the interest amounts to $5,000 a day, so that for each day of delay the government is out that much. It, therefore, behooves the commissioner handling such a case to make all speed possible In collecting the testimony and preparing his findings so that adjudication may be rendered cs quickly as possible. Since the seven commissioners have taken office the length of time between the date of filing suit and that of rendering a decision has been greatly reduced. An interesting anecdote Is told of a former chief Justice of the court. It appears that for a great many years there was pending In the court the case of George V, king of England, vs. United States. There Is also In Washington a firm of lawyers named King who frequently appear before tills court. One day the chief justice, coming across the case, called for the George V. King case. After that the case was known to all employees of the court by that name. The sovereign power of a state cannot sue the, United States government, so that the case above referred to, being really that of a Canadian railroad against the government, was settled In .some other fashion. The title of the railroad company was vested In the crown of England, and this was the reason the suit was filed in the name of George V. Of the cases now pending the amounts involved range from $14, a refund of income tax, to $122,250,000, claimed for the Infringement of patents on projectiles and shells. The building used by the Court of Claims Is in itself of interest. It was the original Corcoran Art gallery and was connected with the old Corcoran residence. On the stairways and on the cornices over the doorways there Is the initial C. It Is said that by many this Is thought to Indicate the Court of Claims, but It really stands for Corcoran." The room In which the judges hold court Is of medium size with high ceilings. In It are benches which were used In the original house of representatives. Their style and manner of arrangement suggested to a visitor the other day a Presbyterian church. The court proceedings, however, probably bear no resemblance to the service In a church of this denomination. absent-mindedl- I This picture shows all that was left of the Gasklll chemical plant in Newark, shattered the buildings and rocked the entire city. Only one man was Injured. A general view of the plan of the new veterans' hospital for general cases to be erected at Fort Snelllng. Minn., near Minneapolis, by the United States veterans bureau. The hospital will cost $1,750,000, and will tain 400 beds. Worlds Highest Dam Will Be Here ALMOST PERFECT y of the Lower Boulder canyon on the Colorado rher that will be the site of the highest dam In the world, nearly twice the height of any dam In America. A reservoir of 20,000,000 acre-fee- t of water, many times larger than any present artificially made body of water, will be formed. The hydro- electric plant will generate one million horse power to supply light and power In Los Angeles and southern California. A large tract of neurly arid land will be made fertile. View Are John and Florence Engaged? , Miss Murciu Page of Alexis, 111., s senior, has been found the most perfect coed at Lombard college, Galesburg, 111. After carefully examining and measuring every girl on the campus, members of the class In anthropometry found that Miss Page was the most perfect with a rating of 96 per cent. CROW IS HER PET Cheyenne came to Baltimore In October, 1920. It Is through no fault of her own that she Is dragged away on the end of a chain, like a criminal to the gibbet. Her engines are sturdy and fit, her propeller trim but she Is obsolete and her crew is gone. Part of her crew has been transferred to Eagle boat' 50, her successor, and the remainder has gone on the Inactive The present and last monitor, living to see her once type belittled by modern development, epitomized naval progress when she served as a mother ship for submarines on the Atlantic and Pacific list with So, her fireroom cold and her coasts during the World war. The decks the last of the monideserted, Cheyenne, then the Wyoming, also tors keeps her rendezvous with Davy was the first naval vessel to feel the Jones. thru-of modern engines. Experiments conducted aboard the Wyoming have since led the Navy department to take steps for the conversion of all remaining coal burners. For more than five years the Cheyenne has served as the training ship of the Fifth Naval Reserve district and with her passing the Baltimore wnter front loses a bit of romance. The original Monitor indirectly was protecting this port when It destroyed the Merrlmac In Hampton roads. Under her own power, around the Virginia capes from Philadelphia, the Good Motto New York. I shall not knock my neighbor," Is the motto of the National Order of Loyalty, to promote neighborly love, Just founded. There are no dues. Hoboes Welcome Buffalo, N. Y. Hoboes will be welcome here. Deglnk institute, which will provide rooms for tramps and try to help them, has been incorporated at Albany. Mrs. R. S. Simmons of Washington. D. C., with her pet crow, which she carries about In a specially made There Is a repoit current that John Coolidge, son of the Pretddent, may be engaged to marry Miss Florence Trumbull, daughter of the governor of hand bag. The crow walked Into her Connecticut, at whose home he was a recent visitor. Aoove are recent por- home one day last summer and since then has been a constant companion. traits of the young people. |