The National tribune., 1878-02-01
The COMMISSIONS of Pensions.

tlOn; 10 SyStematlZe, arrange, ana expedite tne
business of the Office to put just economy and
vigorous action into the details of the office was
the duty of the Commissioner, and he has done
it creditably and well.
To suggest further reforms in the law by
which the settlement of just claims could be
expedited, and fraud and false representation
detected and punished or prevented is his duty
now. But hemust perform that duty in the spirit
and purpose of the law in just and merciful
spiIit. He must not assume one of old did
when he cried out " In my haste | said all men
were liars"
He must remember that all testimony in all
courts proceeds upon the assumption that men
will tell the truth, and that an oath is binding.
These are the foundations of all judicial in
vestigations, and they apply as well to witnesses
sworn in pension cases rs in all others
Now the existing law recognizes these princi-
pies 1t undertakes to provide the cheapest,
easiest, and most expeditions mode of gathering
up the isolated facts and the scattered evidence
out of which the case must be made
This mode is, and necessarily must be, sec
parte statements. Vouchers are required to
sustain them, and disinterested testimony,
wherever in the nature of things it can be OBJ
tanned.
4 No other mode could ever have done the work
already done; no other mode can do the work
vet to do IF each claim was to be in the ma
ture of law suit, that would imply court
for each--parties, attorneys, witnesses present,
or by commission examination and cross-exam~
ination, and final Judgment.
The delay, hindrance and expense of this
renders the scheme prerosterous and absurd
In the new bill proposed BY the Commissioner,
he goes as far as he dare toward this style of
judicial examination But, after all, as the bill
stands it is nothing more than g &c parte evi-
dence to be given and received. The commits
sion have no judicial faculty or function; there
is no assertion even of their right to cross-eX-
anime; there is no power given to summons
witnesses for the United States They are sim
ply to hear and reduce to writing such testi-
monv as the claimant chooses to bring before
them and, so far as the bill states. have no more
power, authority, or jurisdiction over the mat
ter than the present justice of the peace, who
now takes the same testimony. If this be so,
why send this peripatetic commission on IT'S
travels at Government cost? Why substitute
anew-fangled, complex, and cumbersome piece
of brass amounted machinery into the place of
the plain, simple, and quiet action provided
for now, with which all men are familiar?
If on the contrary, it is meant to make this
commission a court in any sense of the term,
or to give it any power Of judgment and deci-
sion, let the bill be so amended as to say 50, and
it will be easy to show that this proposition is
fraught with great dangers, great wrongs, and
great delays, and involves absurdities as gross
and consequences as bad as can well be imag-
ined.
Let we'll enough alone, Mr.. Commissioner.
Accept the line already laid down, and hew up
to it as closely as you can. Let the poor claim
L., l.nr rr.,cit t,no,n, ntn Alc