This is the land now used by the Mount Olivet Cemetery Association and which it is now desired to extend. Annexed hereto is a statement from Hon. Joseph Howell, the author of the bill, which is made a part of this report. Hon. JOHN A. T. HULL, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: The Mount Olivet Cemetery Association, which desires the legislation contained in H. R. 23863, is an organization of the different Protestant churches in Salt Lake City, each communion having a right to representation on the board of trustees. It is purely a benevolent institution. The money arising from the sale of burial lots is entirely devoted to the improvement and beautifying of the cemetery. The officers serve without compensation, and no one connected with the association realizes gain from any of its operations. Yours, very truly, JOSEPH HOWELL. CERTAIN CLAIMS IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI. JANUARY 12, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HASKINS, from the Committee on War Claims, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 6764.] The Committee on War Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 6764) authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to make an examination of certain claims of the State of Missouri, having examined the same, have taken favorable action thereon and recommend its passage. A favorable report of this bill was made by the Committee on Claims of the Senate of the present Congress. The facts involved are set forth in that report, which your committee adopt and make a part of this report. A copy of the Senate report is hereto appended, and also Senate Report No. 3790 of the third session of the Fifty-eighth Congress. [Senate Report No. 601, Sixtieth Congress, first session.] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 6764) authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to make an examination of certain claims of the State of Missouri, having examined the same, reports it favorably and recommends its passage without amendment. In support of this report the committee begs leave to refer to Senate Report No. 3790, third session, Fifty-eighth Congress. [Senate Report No. 3790. Fifty-eighth Congress, third session.] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 6875) authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to make an examination of certain claims of the State of Missouri, have investigated the same, and report it back to the Senate favorably, recommending its passage amended as follows: Strike out the preamble to the bill. It is claimed that the State of Missouri, in complying with the request of the President to aid the United States to raise troops for the suppression of the rebellion, was obliged to and did incur large expenditures in equipping, supplying, paying, and otherwise providing for said troops, but had no funds in her treasury with which expenditures could be paid; and to liquidate this indebtedness to her creditors the State of Missouri, by virtue of an act of her legislature, pa-sed and approved March 19, 1874, authorized and provided for the issuance of state scrip, or warclaims certificates, such certificates to be issued for the amounts found due for services in the Enrolled Missouri Militia, and for supplies furnished, upon creditors' expense vouchers, which were passed upon, audited, and allowed by a commission created under and by virtue of the authority contained in the aforementioned act of legislature. Under the provisions of said act of legislature, and by virtue thereof, the legally authorized state officials issued such scrip or certificates, and delivered the same to the creditors of the State of Missouri, taking in exchange therefor the original vouchers of expenses of her creditors for services or supplies; and the vouchers so procured by the State from her creditors, and the proof upon which said scrip or certificates was issued, were afterwards filed by the State of Missouri on December 21, 1874, in the United States Treasury Department, as a claim of the State of Missouri against the United States; but as there was no authority of law for the examination and settlement of the claim it has never been considered as regularly before the department. Subsequent to the issue of genuine certificates by the legally constituted authorities of the State of Missouri, certain fraudulent certificates were circulated, purporting to be based upon the original vouchers of expense above referred to, and the fraudulent certificates, having interfered with a further consideration of the genuine original vouchers, one of the purposes of this act is to prevent any future consideration of any or all of these questionable or fraudulent certificates and to allow a report to be made by competent authorities upon the genuine and original vouchers now on file in the Treasury Department of the United States. Your committee referred the bill S. 6875 to the Secretary of the Treasury for his report as to its merits. The Secretary's letter is quoted hereafter; also its inclosure, letter of the Auditor for the War Department, which contains a general history of the so-called "Crafton commission claims." TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, February 4, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo, inclosing S nate bill 6875, "authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to make an examination of certain claims of the State of Missouri," and asking information relative to the claims mentioned therein. In reply I inclose herewith copy of the report of the Auditor for the War Department in the matter, dated the 3d instant, for your information. Respectfully, Hon. FRANCIS E. WARREN, L. M. SHAW, Secretary. Chairman Committee on Claims, United States Senate. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF AUDITOR FOR WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 3, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to return the inclosed Senate bill (6875), authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to make an examination of certain war claims of the State of Missouri, which was referred by you to this office for report. These claims, which are referred to in the inclosed bill as the "third installment, Missouri war claims," are known in this office as the "Crafton commission claims," and were filed in the office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury on December 21, 1874, and transferred to this office under act of July 31, 1894, as claims arising under the jurisdiction of the War Department. There being no authority of law for the examination and settlement of these claims, they have never been considered as regularly before the department, and have therefore not been disallowed, as stated in the preamble of said bill. As shown by the abstracts, these claims are divided into two classes, the first being for military service, consisting of 1,355 vouchers, aggregating $1,414,325.65, and the second being for supplies and property of various kinds, consisting of 3,542 vouchers, aggregating $965,807.02, or a total on both accounts of $2,382,132.67. The following extract from a report made to the Secretary of the Treasury by the third auditor under date of March 13, 1891, would appear to be equally applicable at the present time, and is as follows: "These cases were sent by the State to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1874. It was not claimed that the State has made any payments on account of any of the cases. Neither did the state authorities present them for any adjudication. On the contrary, they explained that they were aware that no act had yet been passed by Congress authorizing any adjudication, and there might be some legislation in the future. **Shortly afterwards Adjutant-General Bingham, who had succeeded Crafton in the office of the adjutant-general of the State, denounced the cases in the repeated letters to this department as chiefly frauds, fabrications, and forgeries. It appears that Crafton and some parties who had been clerks under him were indicted, but the finality of the prosecutions I do not know. "Mr. Cockrell inquires whether this department will examine cases; also, whether any list or statement of the cases has been prepared in this department and of which a copy can be furnished. "There is no law of the United States under which this department has been or now is authorized to make any official examination of the cases, and for that reason there has been no occasion in this department to make any detailed list or statement of them." The present bill authorizes an examination with a view to ascertaining "what amounts, if any, may be due the State of Missouri for expenditures incurred or amounts assumed by said State for supplies furnished or in raising, paying, and supplying troops to aid the United States in the suppression of the rebellion." So far as this office is informed the State of Missouri has not paid any of the items for which claim is presented in this installment, nor has it assumed said amounts except upon the condition that the amounts shall be first paid by the United States to the State of Missouri. In view of the fact that these claims are largely tainted with fraud, it is doubtful whether any ordinary examination which might be made in this office would satisfactorily determine what portion of these claims are proper charges against the United States and what portion are fraudulent. In this connection your attention is invited to the following copy of a letter addressed to the Attorney-General by the United States district attorney for the district of Missouri, under date of February 1, 1876, the original of which is on file in this office: UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SIR: My attention has been called by the adjutant-general of this State, Hon. George C. Bingham, to the claims now on file in the Third Auditor's office of the Treasury Department, and known and designated as the third installment of the war claims of Missouri. The claims purport to have been audited, adjusted, and paid under an act of the general assembly of Missouri approved March 19, 1874, and abstracts and vouchers therefor were returned to Washington December 21, 1874, by the Hon John D. Crafton, then adjutant-general of the State, and filed in the Third Auditor's office, to the amount of $2,382,132.67. The vouchers are alleged to be for payment for service of troops of the State engaged in the suppression of the rebellion and for property alleged to have been destroyed or taken by military officers for the service of the United States. The act referred to, under which these claims were audited and allowed, provided for a commission to examine and approve such as were found to be justly due, and also for the issue of certificates by the adjutant-general for the amount found due to claimants. A certified copy of this act was forwarded by General Crafton to the Third Auditor at the same time the vouchers were transmitted, to which I respectfully beg to refer you for detail of the regulations required to be observed in the adjustment of the claims and the issue of certificates therefor. An extended and somewhat thorough investigation made by myself in conjunction with General Bingham has developed gross frauds in the claims themselves and the manner in which many of them were allowed, to the extent of over $1,000,000. In many cases the claims of entire organizations that were not properly or never in the service of the United States have been allowed under vouchers and pay rolls that were false and forged for the occasion. Certificates to a large excess of the claims filed have been issued in the names of fictitious persons, and in many other ways frauds have been perpetrated either with the active cooperation or consent of General Crafton, then adjutant-general; so much so that any payment of the claims in their present condition by the United States would be a manifest injustice and an imposition. It is true these claims can not now be paid, nor without further legislation by Congress can they be paid at all, but as they are on file and a part of the records of the Third Auditor's office, and in all probability an effort will be made to secure their payment and allowance in their present condition, I have thought proper to call your attention to the true character of the burden thus sought to be imposed upon the Government and to ask your advice as to the policy of taking such action through the courts here and by means of a criminal prosecution against the proper parties to expose and place upon the record the infamous means by which they were made, presented, "audited, and allowed" by General Crafton and his confederates, and thereby prevent, as far as can be done, the perpetration of a fraud of this great extent upon the United States. I would respectfully ask your consideration of the premises and await your action thereon. The next grand jury of this district will be in session from and after the first Monday in March next. A reply before that time will greatly oblige me. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. EDWARDS PIERREPONT, Attorney-General, Washington, D. C. JAMES S. Botsford, United States District Attorney. Attention is also invited to the fact that all papers and vouchers now on file in this office are the result of an ex parte examination and audit by a commission appointed by the State of Missouri, on which the United States was not represented in any manner, and that no examination has been made on the part of the United States with a view to determining whether the claims were based upon services actually rendered and supplies actually furnished for the benefit of the United States. While the examination of these claims as proposed by the inclosed bill will require a large expenditure of time on the part of the clerical force of this office, it would appear to be absolutely necessary, if it is the intention of Congress to assume any liability by reason of these claims, and there would, therefore, appear to be no objection to the bill as presented. Respectfully, The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. F. E. RITTMAN, Auditor. O |