which the town site of Powell was established, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make appropriate reservations within the town for public purposes, such reservations to be improved and maintained by the town authorities, and upon the organization of the towns as municipal corporations such reserved tracts are required to be conveyed to the municipal corporations by the Secretary of the Interior, subject to the condition that they shall be used forever for public purposes. Block 31 was reserved under said act. The department is not advised as to the particular reasons for this measure, but knows of no reason why same may not be granted to the school district if Congress shall see fit so to do. Very respectfully, SAMUEL ADAMS, First Assistant Secretary. CONGRESS PRIMARY NOMINATING ELECTION FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT. APRIL 5, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. LOBECK, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 21768.] The Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred the bill H. R. 21768, report the same back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass with the following amendments: Page 1, line 6, after the word "election," insert the following: Except in the year nineteen hundred and twelve, when said primary election shall be held on the fourth Tuesday in May. Page 5, line 6, strike out the words "second" and "April" and insert in place thereof dashes. Page 5, insert after the blank following line 8, after the word "herein," the following: Provided, That in the year nineteen hundred and twelve said petition shall be filed at least five days prior to such primary election. Page 8, add at the end of line 10 the following: Provided, That in the year nineteen hundred and twelve the said commissioners shall perform the duties provided for in this section and the following section as soon as possible after the passage of this act. Page 10, add after the word "act," in line 9, the following: In the year nineteen hundred and twelve said registration shall take place as soon after the passage of this act as provision can be made therefor, and any time thereafter up to within ten days of said primary election. Page 10, line 11, add at the end of said line the following: In nineteen hundred and twelve, as soon as possible after the passage of this act, and up to within ten days of said primary election, and thereafter. Page 13, line 21, insert at the end of said line the following: Provided, That in the year nineteen hundred and twelve, the said registration books shall be closed at noon, ten days before said primary election. Page 15, line 4, add at the end of said line the following: Provided, That in the year nineteen hundred and twelve the commissioners shall make said appointments as soon as possible after the passage of this act. Page 16, strike out the word "April" and insert in lieu thereof a dash wherever the same occurs in said blank notification following line 15. Page 17, line 19, strike out the word "April" and insert in lieu thereof a dash. Page 18, line 21, add at the end thereof the following: Provided, That in the year nineteen hundred and twelve said publication shal❤be made as soon as possible after the filing of said nomination papers. Page 21, line 3, insert after the word "primary" the following: But in nineteen hundred and twelve as soon as possible after the passage of this act. Page 22, line 12, insert after the word "third" the following: In nineteen hundred and twelve as soon as possible after the passage of this act, and in years thereafter. Page 34, line 18, strike out the word "April" and insert in lieu thereof a dash. Page 41, line 24, strike out the word "April" and insert a dash. Page 42, line 8, strike out the word "April" and insert a dash in lieu thereof. 62D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session. TO REVIVE RIGHT OF ACTION UNDER CAPTURED AND ABANDONED PROPERTY ACTS. APRIL 6, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. BYRNES of South Carolina, from the Committee on War Claims, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 16820.] The facts out of which this bill for relief arises will be found correctly stated in House Report No. 1075, first session Sixtieth Congress, a copy being hereto appended and made a part of this report. Your committee recommend the passage of the bill. [House Report No. 1075, Sixtieth Congress, first session.] The Committee on War Claims have considered the bill (H. R. 16732) to give the Court of Claims jurisdiction of claims for captured and abandoned property which was sold and the proceeds thereof placed in the Treasury of the United States, and submits the following report and recommends that said bill do pass: By the act of March 12, 1863, known as the captured and abandoned property act, and acts amendatory thereof, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to appoint special agents to collect captured and abandoned property in the States then in insurrection, the proceeds thereof to be paid into the Treasury of the United States. The act provided that the property to be collected under it “shall not include any kind or description which has been used, or which has been intended to be used, for waging or carrying on war against the United States, such as arms, ordnance, ships, steamboats, or other water craft, and the furniture, forage, military supplies, or munitions of war. Nine districts were established, and an agent appointed for each. A large amount of property in the States in insurrection was seized and the proceeds, amounting to over $30,000,000, reported to the Secretary of the Treasury. The money was treated as a trust fund under the control of the Secretary. Under joint resolution approved March 30, 1868, it was provided that all moneys derived from the sale of captured and abandoned property "which have not already been actually covered into the Treasury shall immediately be paid into the Treasury of the United States." The balance covered into the Treasury under this resolution was $20,971,790.96. The third section of the act of March 12, 1863, provided as follows: "Any person claiming to have been the owner of any such abandoned or captured property may, at any time within two years after the suppression of the rebellion, prefer his claim to the proceeds thereof in the Court of Claims; and on proof to the satisfaction of said court of his ownership of said property, of his right to the proceeds thereof, and that he has never given any aid or comfort to the present rebellion, to receive the residue of such proceeds, after the deduction of any purchase money which may have been paid, together with the expense of transportation and sale of such property, and any other lawful expenses attending the disposition thereof." (12 Stat. L., 820.) Under this provision a considerable number of claims were preferred to the Court of Claims and judgments recovered. The following is believed to be a substantially correct statement of the payments that have been made from the amount covered into the Treasury under the said resolution of March 30, 1868: On judgments under act of Mar. 12, 1863 On judgments against Treasury agents.. Disbursed for expenses under joint resolution of Mar. 30, 1868 Paid on special acts of relief.. Paid by Secretary of Treasury under act of May 18, 1872. On judgment Court of Claims, Duffy, Report C. C., 24275. Under private act to Briggs, paid Mar. 24, 1894 Total..... $9,852, 956.95 65, 276.79 242, 140.34 451, 125. 38 195, 896. 21 15, 270.00 32, 669. 20 88, 104.21 10, 943, 439. 08 Deducting the above amount from the amount covered into the Treasury under the resolution of March 30, 1868, it will be seen that the sum now in the Treasury, and undisposed of, is $10,028,351.88. The sole purpose of this bill is to extend the limitation upon the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims for a period of two years to entertain suits to recover the proceeds of the property of claimants where it can be established that such proceeds were actually covered into the Treasury of the United States under the act of March 12, 1863, and the acts amendatory thereof, and at the same time to safeguard every right and proper interest of the Government. This money does not belong to the Government. Proper legislation should be enacted with a view to distributing same to its owners. Many questions arose under the act of March 12, 1863, such as, "What constituted proof of loyalty?" "When was the rebellion suppressed?" and "When did the two years expire within which suit could be commenced?" All of which were vigorously contested, and in which the court ruled strictly and rigidly against the claimants, rendering appeals to the Supreme Court necessary, and by which the owners of the property were delayed or deterred from preferring their claims under the act. In December, 1869, the Supreme Court of the United States decided, in Anderson v. The United States (9 Wall., 56), that the rebellion was suppressed on the 20th of August, 1866, the date of President Johnson's proclamation of pardon and amnesty, with restoration of civil and political rights, and the limitation of the right to commence suit took effect or expired on the 20th of August, 1868. And it thus appears that the period in which the claimants could bring suits to recover the net proceeds of their property had expired more than one year prior to the decision fixing the date of the close of the war was announced and when it was too late for the claimants to derive any benefit from the decision. It was not till 1871 that the Supreme Court gave full consideration to this act of March 12, 1863. In December of that year, in the case of Klein v. The United States (13 Wall., 128), the court decided (1) That it was not the intention of Congress by the enactment of that statute that the title to property seized under it should be divested from the loyal owners. (2) That the proceeds of the property should go into the Treasury without change of ownership. (3) That the same intention prevailed in regard to the property of owners who, though then hostile, might subsequently become loyal. (4) That it was for the Government itself to determine whether those proceeds should be restored to the owner or not. (5) That the President's proclamation of pardon and amnesty, with restoration of rights of property, and particularly that of July 4, 1868, was a decision on the part of the Government which decided affirmatively the right of the owners of such property to the proceeds thereof in the Treasury, and the restoration of the proceeds became the absolute right of the persons pardoned. (6) And that "the Government constituted itself the trustee for those who by that act were declared entitled to the proceeds of captured and abandoned property, and for those whom it should thereafter recognize as entitled." And in its opinion the court uses this language: "That it was not the intention of Congress that the title to these proceeds should be divested absolutely out of the original owners of the property seems clear upon a comparison of different parts of the act. "We have already seen that those articles which became by the simple fact of capture the property of the captor, as ordnance, munitions of war, and the like, or in which third parties acquired rights which might be made absolute by decree, as ships and |