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This conclusion is in accord with the rule of the English cases. In Dodd v. Churton, L. R., 1 Q. B. 1897, 562, 568, Chitty, L. J., said:

"The law on the subject is well settled. The case of Holme v. Guppy, (3 M. & W. 387), and the subsequent cases in which that decision has been followed are merely examples of the well known principle stated in Comyns' Digest, Condition L (6), that, where performance of a condition has been rendered impossible by the act of the grantee himself, the grantor is exonerated from performance of it. The law on the subject was very neatly put by Byles, J., in Russell v. Bandeira, (13 C. B. (N. S.) 149.). This principle is applicable not to building contracts only, but to all contracts. If a man agrees to do something by a particular day or in default to pay a sum of money as liquidated damages, the other party to the contract must not do anything to prevent him from doing the thing contracted for within the specified time."

The same rule was followed with approval by the New York Court of Appeals in a well considered case, Mosler Safe Co. v. Maiden Lane S. D. Co., 199 N. Y. 479, in which it was held that, even where both parties are responsible for the delays beyond the fixed time, the obligation for liquidated damages is annulled, and in the absence of a provision substituting another date it cannot be revived, and the recovery for subsequent delays must be for actual loss proved to have been sustained.

This principle is applicable here, the conduct of the Government's agents had caused the delays up to May 1, 1903, and the subsequent delays though chargeable to the claimant would only give rise to a claim for damages measured by the actual loss sustained. Mosler Safe Co. v. Maiden Lane S. D. Co., supra. We think the application of this rule is not changed by the difficulty suggested that it might be impracticable to prove actual damages. This fact, if such it be, would not permit the Government

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by its own fault to prevent the performance of the contract and to do that which amounts to a waiver of the stipulation and then insist upon it as a rule of damages. We think the Court of Claims was right upon this principal branch of the case.

There are certain minor assignments of error to the conclusions and judgment of the Court of Claims. The Government was held responsible for the extra cost of enclosing certain machinery in casing necessitated by its building a plank walk across the top of the pipe in the pumping plant to protect its workmen from high speed gearing. The Court of Claims found that this expense was made necessary by the Government and allowed for it. We find no error in this. Also, as to the assignment of error to the judgment of the Court of Claims under Finding XI, awarding damages for repairs made necessary by the breakage of certain pipes caused by sudden increase in the pressure in the salt and fresh water systems in the Navy Yard, the Court of Claims found that these breaks were caused by the Government without notice to the claimant and without its fault. We find no error in the judgment of the Court of Claims awarding damages under this finding.

It follows that the judgment of the Court of Claims is

Affirmed.

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UNITED STATES v. FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DETROIT, MINNESOTA.

UNITED STATES v. NICHOLS-CHISHOLM LUMBER COMPANY.

UNITED STATES v. NICHOLS-CHISHOLM LUMBER COMPANY.

APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT.

Nos. 873, 874, 875. Argued April 7, 1914.-Decided June 8, 1914.

The natural and usual signification of plain terms is to be adopted as the legislative meaning in the absence of clear showing that something else was meant.

The rule that words in treaties with, and statutes affecting, Indians, must be interpreted as the Indians understood them is not applicable where the statute is not in the nature of a contract and does not require the consent of the Indians to make it effectual. The after facts have but little weight in determining the meaning of legislation and cannot overcome the meaning of plain words used in a statute; nor can the courts be influenced in administering a law by the fact that its true interpretation may result in harsh consequences.

The responsibility for the justice and wisdom of legislation rests with Congress and it is the province of the courts to enforce, not to make, the laws.

The policy of the Government in enacting legislation is often an uncertain thing as to which opinions may vary and it affords an unstable ground of statutory construction.

Congress has on several occasions put full blood Indians in one class and all others in another class.

If a given construction was intended by Congress, which it would have been easy to have expressed in apt terms, other terms actually used will not be given a forced interpretation to reach that result. While the early administration of a statute showing the departmental

Statement of the Case.

234 U. S.

construction thereof does not have the same weight which a long observed departmental construction has, it is entitled to consideration as showing the construction placed upon the statute by competent men charged with its enforcement.

Courts may not supply words in a statute which Congress has omitted; nor can such course be induced by any consideration of public policy or the desire to promote justice in dealing with dependent people. The Clapp Amendments of June 21, 1906, 34 Stat. 325, 353, and March 1, 1907, Id. 1015, 1034, removing restrictions imposed by the act of February 8, 1887, upon alienation of Chippewa allotments as to mixed bloods apply to mixed bloods of all degrees and not only to those of half or more than half white blood. Such was not the congressional intent as expressed in the statute and this court cannot interpret the statute except according to the import of its plain terms.

208 Fed. Rep. 988, affirmed.

THESE Suits were brought by the United States in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Minnesota against the appellees to set aside certain conveyances under and through which the appellees claimed title to lands, particularly described, in the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. The decree of the District Court (which had succeeded the Circuit Court) in the first two cases in favor of the Government was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, while the decree dismissing the bill in the last case was affirmed (208 Fed. Rep. 988).

By the treaty of March 19, 1867, 16 Stat. 719, creating the White Earth Indian Reservation, the Chippewas of the Mississippi ceded all their land in Minnesota, except certain described tracts, to the United States and the Government set apart the White Earth Reservation for their use, and provision was made for the certification to each Indian of not to exceed 160 acres of the land of such reservation in lots of forty acres each, upon the cultivation of ten acres, provided, that the land should be exempt from taxation and sale for debt and should not be alienated

234 U. S.

Statement of the Case.

except with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and then only to a Chippewa Indian. The act of February 8, 1887, c. 119, 24 Stat. 388, provided for the allotment of land in the Indian reservations in severalty to the Indians and that (§ 5) upon the approval of the allotments patents should issue therefor in the name of the allottees, which should be of the legal effect and declare that the United States held the land for twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom the allotment was made, or, in case of his death, of his heirs, according to the laws of the State or Territory where the land was located, and that at the expiration of that time the United States would convey the same to the Indian or his heirs in fee, discharged of the trust and free of all charge or incumbrance whatsoever, provided that the President of the United States might in his discretion extend the period, and provided that any conveyance or contract touching the lands before the expiration of the trust period should be null and void. The Nelson Act of January 14, 1889, c. 24, 25 Stat. 642, provided for the relinquishment to the United States of that part of the reservation remaining after the allotment, subject to the act of February 8, 1887, supra, in severalty, to the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, the act to become operative only upon the assent of a certain number of Indians being obtained. By the act of February 28, 1891, c. 383, 26 Stat. 794, the allotments were limited to eighty acres to each Indian, but by the Steenerson Act of April 28, 1904, c. 1786, 33 Stat. 539, the maximum allotments of the White Earth Reservation were made 160 acres. The acts of June 21, 1906, c. 3504, 34 Stat. 325, 353, and March 1, 1907, c. 2285, 34 Stat. 1015, 1034, in what is known as the Clapp Amendment, removed the restrictions upon alienation as respects mixed blood Indians, but left the matter, so far as full bloods were concerned, to the Secretary of the Interior.

The Government relied, in the first case, upon its title

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