The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-01-28
How They Handle the Money of the
People.


People.
Mr.. II. b. HAYES, struck by that impo-
tence which Is his necessary characteristic
rs a Fraudulent President, has signed the
Pension Arrears bill. and for the first time
Congress can appreciate what 1t has done.
This law may take from the public purse
Sls,OOooOO. az reckoned by Mr.. INGALLS,. who
steered 1t through the Senate. s52,OOOOOO az
estimated by Mr.. BENTLEY of the Pension
Bureau, or $1O0,OO00OO as figured by JOHN
SHERMAN.
To say that gratulty bill. whose cost is
guessed at all the way between nineteen
and hundred millions, and cannot fall be-
low the former, is run through the House In
June with almost as little debate and quite
as much wlnking and joking as the bill for
Private Illness trousers, aud then in Jan
nary Is taken up, debated. and run through
the Senate within the limits OF a single
afternoon, on n record Of "A yeas, nays,
and % not voting, is to show at once the
character OF Congressional action upon this
measure.
The Forty-fourth Congress passed. by
majorities as overwhelming, gratuity bill
OF bounty equalization, involving an un-
known expenditure Of scores or hundreds Of
millions; the House throw the responsibility
on the Senate. the Senate threw II on GRANT
aud GRANT, promptly accepting it. crushed
the measure. Yet the parallel between that
and the Pension Arreayage bill has failed
in the last stage for the latter has at last
become q law.
This law s founded on the desire 10 act
generously and justly by a class Of claim
ants, some Of whom appeal strongly TO pub
lie sympathy; and had the legislation under
taken by Congress kept only this in view.
that body would not now stand aghast at
the tremendous burden which its want OF
consideration has imposed upon the people.
Section 4,709 OF the Revised Statutes reads
rs follows:
An pensions which have been or which may here.
after be granted In consequence VI death. occurring IRON
which originated in the since the 4h day
OF March 1851 IN consequence Of wounds injuries
received Grase contracted that date shall
mence from the death or discharge II the person
Whose account the claim has been hereafter granted
IRON the termination the right Of party LAVln.
puor title to such pension. Jtotls the apple alton for
such pension has been Is hereafter aed with the Com
missioner OF Pensions within nve years after the right
thcreto has accrued, otherwise the pension shall
the date Of hng the last evidence
0estabnsh the same"
The law now enacted has simply repealed
this five years proviso. When this section
OF the law was passed. not quite six years
ago, nobody questioned the propriety or
justice OF afIlxlng some limit Of this sort,
nor was it deemed anything but liberal TO
make five years the limit. Nevertheless,
applications for pensions have continued
to pour in surprisingly during the past half
dozen years, and those that have been
~ ~. cpnofol Ifiiu
in Congress, have begun TO run at the later
date prescribed by the five years proviso.
In some cases the delay OF the applicant
was undoubtedly not his or her fault. Inde-
pendently OF cases OF absence, ignorance Of
legal rights, or an unwillingness to apply
for Government relief until poverty COM
PEELED. there were Instances OF inability to
procure the proper evidence for founding the
claim. For example, Senator HERMAN said,
In debating this bill:
There wasa statute OF limitations shorter than
lists In my STATE Tor ordinary debts class Of pension.
unable 20 perfect their claims within the ave
prescribed have their letters here In my drawer
numbers OF them letters from widows who could not
md the oceT TO whom to give the ceruncate that their
husbands dead That class VI exists am FOR
waving that statute in such eases, and II shall ever
vote for snioreins IT, as would against claims, 1t
will he in regard " different class VI claims from
those
But instead Of combining the bill, by amend
ments and safeguards, as in all ordinary
legislation, to those cases where justice or
even generosity demanded its operation, the
Senate followed the House in opening wide
the fioodgates, by an absolute repeal of the
proviso OF 1873. Whatever the reason for
delay, all cases were put on the same foot
ing, and now Congress has an enormous de-
felt 10 provide for.
To Illustrate this action, II may be noted
that one class OF disabilities for which PEN
sions have been granted consists OF those In
which no disability was known to exist until
five years or more after it occurred; but
then, becoming developed by age or other
disease was traced back TO the war. Thus
q paralysis, which occurred only last year
was traced back fourteen years to a concus-
sion from falling OF Il horse during the war
though during all the interval no Ill effects
had been felt. Nevertheless an amendment
reading: And that no pension FOR disa'
bility shall be granted for any period before
such disability occurred" was defeated IN
the Senate by vote OF ~ yeas ~ n nays, q
not voting.
Such was the spirit in which this bill was
.ushed through both Houses, every dema
gogue in either showing himself shy OF doing
anything by amendment that might hurt
what he calls his record. Now. as result We
shall probably find efforts 10 do by supple
mentary legislation the work OF amendment
that ought 10 have been done before the bill
was enacted.
Matthews Afraid of Investigation.