Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1872 — The Geneva Award. [ARTICLE]

The Geneva Award.

The Geneva Arbitration is ended. On Saturday the result of the labors of the Tribunal was made known, and the United States awarded damages to the amount of $15,500,000 in gold. Sir Alexander Cockburn, the British Arbitrator, refused to sign the award, but dispatches from London evince a willingness on the part of the English Government to comply with the terms of the judgment, for the sake of peace and for the sake of this improvement in the law of nations. The triumph of the United Slates in this matter, after so many discouraging circumstances, must be a source of pride and gratification to every American. Party? feeling must sink into the background as we contemplate thtrpeacefni achievement, the crowniDg glory of General Grant’s Administration. The press of the country, without distinction of party, was loud in its expression of satisfaction at the conclusion oi the Washington Treaty by which this arbitration waa instituted ; but our gratification at that initiatory step was little to the sense of relief and satisfaction we feel at this final completion of the great work so auspiciously begun at the Capital. The aggregate damages claimed by the United States, before the Commission, were $17,129,209. We are awarded $15,500.000. It is rarely that a suitor retires from eourtwith hia claims no nearly sat isfied. The judgment shows the justice of our demands, and the ability with which they were prosecuted before the Tribunal by our eminent counsel. Yet the award ia the smallest part of . our victory. For years we have been endeavoring to settle this vexed question of international law. Our disagreements arising from it were a source of ever present danger.. We have been repeatedly, on the verge of a war with England growing out of this misunderstanding, and had it not been for the prudent counsels of the President and his advisers hostilities would have long since began. The Treaty of Washington, by which England surrendered ber long asserted position and admitted her liability for the depredations of cruisers fitted out on her shores and escaping through want of diligence, was the triumph of the principle for which America has so long contended. The next step wss to give it a practical application, and this has been done by the award of the Commission. What effect this peaceful settlement of grave differences will have upon the future conduct of contending powers remains to be seen, but it will strengthen the faith of man in man, and lead ns to look with a higher confidence for the coming of that brighter, better time when “nations shall learn war no more.” It is the triumph of heart and brain and Christian sentiment over hatred, materialism and brutal instincts. And as the tidings of the final consummation of this great work is flashed over the world, there will go up from the lips of millions of true men and women that hearty benediction, worth more than the trumpted fame of a thousand warriors: “ Blessed are thepeacemaktrs.” j According to the terms of the treaty the amount of money awarded is made payable.at the city of Washington within twelve months after the delivery of the report of the Commissioners. Our Government will have to make provision for distributing the gross amount among the various claimants for damages resulting from the acts of the several vessels for which England was held responsible.— Inter-Ocean. Wore in the rolling mills in hot weather must he desperate employment, and one of the Pennsylvania papers, in the iron-working regions, tells how the labor of most of the rolling-mill men, who work by the ton, commences in the morning. During the early part of the day the heat, though intense, is patiently borne with the body clothed: bat between 12 and 3 o’clock, when rolls, furnaces, and the iron are all hissing hot, the endurance of the men is taxed to the utmost. The thermometer marks front 125 to 135° of heat. Shirts dripping with perspiration are discarded, and the muscular development may be studied to good advantage. Pants aie wet and steaming hotly, and even shoes must occasionally be emptied of the sweat that runs into them. Superintendent Bixby recently obtained from one of the mines of the Louisville Consolidated Company,.new Jfesnkn, Nevada, a chunk of ruby silver wnljjlk ing about 100 pounds. It Is almost solid silver, and was estimated to assay SIB,OOO • wwaai ■--- -■ - ’ -