CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE fJ395 The following-named midshipmen to be assistant paymasters in men some things about the United States Court of Claims which l the Navy, with the rank of ensign, from the 6th -day of June, have no doubt som~ of you know. and which I confidently assert the 1929: . balance of you should know. Former President Coolidge quite recently said : " The first duty of a Burl H. Bush. Henry S. Cone: government is order." The assertion exacts simply the statement, it is Ernest C. Collins. Charles A. Meeker. manifest; but governments in all instances depend for perpetuity upon the loyalty of its subjects, and one vital factor indispensable in ex­ CONFIRMATIONS citing the attachment of loyalty is the administration of justice, and Executive nomiMtiom confirmed by the Be-nate Thursday, May no nation is just that does not pay its honest debts. Among the first 16, 1929 bills introduced in the First Congress were several providing appropri­ ations for the payment of private claims against the Government, and CoAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY eacb succeeding Congress was confronted with not only similar but a To be aide (with rank of ensign in tne N acy) constantly increasing volume of similar legislation, until finally the Robert August Earle. Karl Border Jeffers. matter became a subject of concern, eliciting the efforts of our early Harry Franklin Garber. John Francis Fay. statesmen to solve it. CoAsT GuARD It is no reflection upon Congress to state that the adjudication of To be ensign private claims against the Government should be intrusted to the courts. The attention of Congress is centered upon public and impor­ George H. Miller. tant governmental questions; its facilities for obtaining testimony in POSTMASTER such controversies are limited and procedure therewith unavoidably pro­ WISCONSIN longed. Citizens of the country remote from the seat of Government William F. Pflueger, Manitowoc. would be seriously handicapped, both as to the expense as well as ob­ vions inability to secure testimony of greater probative value than ex parte affidavits, and in most instances absolutely precluded from per­ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES sonal appearance before committees. As a matter of demonstrated fact, to restrict the citizens of the United States to the single personal right THURSDAY, May 16, 191£'() of 'Constitutional appeal to Congress for the redress of their grievances would as to private claims be the equivalent in most instances of the The House met at 12 o'clock noon. denial of justice. The Chaplain, Rev. James Shera Montgomery, D. D., offered The Supreme Court of the United States recognized this fact long the following prayer : before it impressed Cong~·ess. Chief Justice Jay, the :first Chief Justice Lord God of the harvest, Thou dost prepare for us a less~n of the United States Supreme Court, said in the memorable case of every morning, and in it is Thy wonderful mercy! Let this Chisholm 1.1. Georgia: ·truth chasten us and impose on us the virtue of humility. Let " I wish the state of society was so far improved and the science of ~ it be strangely urgent and coiiBtraining as its intense reality government advanced to such a degree of perfection as that the whole ~ touches us. · Forgive our foolish ways, clothe us with right­ Nation could in the peaceable course of law be compelled to do justice mindedness; and at the impulse of our better selves may we and be sued by individual citizens." serve Thee. Bless us all with hearts in which hopes and long­ And in several opinions of the same great court the subject was ings, affections and desires, blossom immortally. We pr~ise repeatedly referred to and favorably advanced. The constitutional . Thee, 0 God, that Thy fatherP.ood is best realized in savmg, right to petition Congress for relief was the single available remedy . training, and directing Thy earthly children. So be unto us ; Governments may not be sued except by their consent, and the in­ and at the end of the day let us relax into deserved rest. In creasing demand for the prompt settlement of just governmental the name of Jesus. Amen. debts, the interminable delay in their consideration and allowance, aroused such a formidable sentiment among the bench and the bar of The Journal of the_proceedings of yesterday was read and the country, as well as the claimants themselves, that Congress, in approved. February, 1855, passed an act creating the United States Court of MESS.AGE FROM THE SENATE Claims. The court at first was composed of three judges, and while the A message from the Senate, by Mr. Craven, its principal subject matter ·of its jurisdiction was most comprehensive, its real clerk, announced that the Senate had passed a bill of the fol­ judicial power was exceedingly limited. The right to award a judgment lowing title, in wl;lich the concurrence of the House is requested: against the United States was withheld. The findings and opinions of S. 4. An aat to regulate promotion in the .Army, and for other the court were transmitted to Congress for its approval and awards. purposes. Strange as it may now seem, the judgeships attracted accomplished The message also announced that the Senate had passed with­ lawyers, and the initiatory work of the judges so far commended itself out amendment a bill of the House of the following title: to Congress that in 1863 the court's jurisdiction was enlarged to what H. R. 22 .. An act to provide for the study, investigation, and Congress then believed was authority to award judgments against the survey, for commemorative purposes, of battle fields in the Government, with right of appeal to the Supreme Court by, either party. vicinity of ilichmond, Va. The statute of 1863 contained a provision which took from the court's UNITED 8TATD3 COURT OF CLAIMS judgments the attribute of finality; the Secretary of the Treasury was given a modicum of supervisory power, and hence the Supreme Court. Mr. MOORE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent declined to entertain appeals. In 1866 this error in legislation was to extend in the RECORD an address delivered by the Hon. Fenton corrected, and since then the court has occupied a distinct place in the W. Booth, chief justice of the United States Court of Claims, Federal judiciary system of the country. delivered before the Feder~l Bar Association, in this city. The act of 1863 increased the personnel of the court to one chief jus­ The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Ohio asks unanimous tice and four associate judges, and as such it remains to this day. The consent to extend his remarks in the RECORD by printing an general jurisdiction of the court extends specifically to four classes of address delivered by the chief justice of the Court of Claims. cases: First, to all claims {except for pensions) founded upon the Consti­ Is there objection? tution of the United States. The employment of such aU-embracing lan­ There was no objection. guage in connection with the fundamental law of the Nation is most The address is as follows : imposing. The Federal Constitution prior to its amendment contained but Ladies and gentlemen of the Federal Bar Association, a latitude of one express clause wherein the debts of the Government are mentioned. enthusiasm is allowable when we come to speak of the particular voca­ Article VI, section 1, provides: "All debts contracted and engagement3 tion we have chosen to follow and the importance of the service we entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid render. If one fails in a conscious pride of the institution he serves, against the United States under this Constitution as under the con­ the real importance attached to its history and scope, it were infinitely federation "-a mere acknowledgment of a right without extending a better never to have known of it; for lack of interest in a task and remedy. The original instrument was primarily concerned with tbe lack of devotion to it inevitably spells failure. The organization of organization of the Government, the distribution of power and author­ the Federal Bar Association is an exemplification of what I mean. ity to the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the Gov­ It augurs well for the interests of the Government intrusted to its ernment. The vast majorty of private claims against the United members that sufficient enthusiasm obtains to cement into. an association States result from the functioning of the Government under the Con­ the ladies and gentlemen who compose it, having for its object the stitution rather than from the express provisions of that instrument. betterment of the public service, the suggestion of omissions and The fifth amendment to the Constitution contains among other whole­ commissions, and a loyal and determined spirit of cooper.ation to ac­ some provisions this express one: "Nor shall private property b~ complish that which is best for all concerned. Representing as I do a taken for public use, without just compensation "-a limitation upon court of the United States with wilich every department ·of the Gov· the sovereign's right of eminent domain. The Constitution· gave Con­ ernment either comes into or may sooner or later eXpect to come into gress supreme authority over interstate and foreign commerce. Rivecs contact, it seemingly fits into this occasion to tell IOU ladies and g~~le- ~nd harbors were to be improyed; streams were to be made navigable, 1396 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-' "HOUSE ~fAy 16 and all manner of engineering feats called into play to meet the the record it was aiscovered that the case itself involved innumerable ever-increasing demands of interstate commerce.