New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-01-25
TIE PENSION BILL TO BIZ SIGNED.
Al long CABINET SESSION AT WHICH THE ELL Is
DIscUssED-rIIE PRESIDENT IN FAVOR OF IT.

4 long CABINET SESSION AT WHICH THE ELL Is
DIsCUssED-TTE PRESIDENT IN FAVOR OF IT.
liY TELEGRAPH TO TIE TEIBCNE.I
WASHINGTON, Jan. 2l.-Ihc Cabinet held the
longest session to-day it has held for a year. As
result it Is announced that the President has con
cuded to sign She Pension bill, passed by the Sen
ate last week, and will probably send the notice of
bis approval of it TO the House of Representatives
tomorrow.
At the Cabinet meeting to-day Secretary Schurz
presented a letter from Mr.. Bentley, Commissioner
of Pensions. giving the result of a careful inves-
tigatiOn, made since the bill passed the
Senate, an estimate that $36,000,OOO Will be
needed at to carry out the provls-
Ions of the law. and that extra appropriations
of several millions will have to be made i'll coming
years. He also reported that since the passage of
the bill by the Senate The number of letters asking
for Blank applications for pensions has increased
fourf0ld. As the law has heretofore stood, when
pension has been granted it has begun from the
time the certificate was issued, and there have
been no large single payments TO tempt people.
Now every new pension granted will date back
from the time of the death discharge of the sol
der so that the longer the application is delayed
the larger the first payment will be. This makes
pension worth having, and Will induce every man
who served in the army and who thinks that there
Is any possibility of securing pension to make
application for il, while before he might not have
Thought it worth while to prosecute claim. This
explains the increased number of applications for
blanks.
Secretary Sherman thought to-day that the bill
would cause a very heavy drain upon the Treasury
that could not be met except by the sale of bonds
or the lcvying of new taxes. He said that the IN
come of the Government is now only sufficient
TO meet the regular expenses and interest on the
public debt and if this law should go into actual
effect IT would certainly cause deficiency.
Other members of the Cabinet said they thought
that the Government of the United States had al
ready been more generous to its pensioners than any
other Government on earth; that ii had already
provided for those who have been disabled by rca-
son of service during the time The disability con
timed and that il Is not called upon to do more.
They said that there thousands of instances OF
persons being able TO earn q livelihood for
wears after their discharge from the army. remain
ing, during all the time, substantially able
bodied. Ii after ten or fifteen yeasS they become
disabled, and can trace their disability TO wounds
or disease contracted while III the service, then
they are DensionCd, bnt under the new law they
will be penslOned for all the years when they were
well and the pension for those years viii be paid
to them III lump.
In spite OF these objections a majority of the
members of the Cabinet were in favor OF the al-
prova of the bill, and even If they had not been,
The President would unquest10nably have signed
it, acting on his own Judgment.