Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1880-02-14
The ..slxty Surgeon BILL"

Special Telegram to the Post and Tribune.
The claim agents around Washington
are making great deal of stir in OppO
sitiOn to bill which has been recon-
mended by Secretary Schurz and Com
missioner Bently of the pension bureau,
and was last year favOrably considered
by the Senate. 1t is known as the "sixty
surgeon BILL" and provides for an exam
inatiOn of all the pensioners on the rolls
once in three or four years by corps
of surgeons, with view to increasing
pensions where the disability has in
creased, and reducing them in cases
where the disability has diminished. The
bill also provides that this corps of sur
geOns shall travel through the country
and shall examine applicants for pen
siOns, instead of having them examined
by local physicians; each surgeon shall
have with him at all times clerk skilled
in the law, whose business it shall be to
examine evidence presented in support
of claims for pensions, so that if the bill
is passed no pension shall be granted
upon purely ex-parte evidence. It is es-
timated that this bill will save the gov
eminent from 100000 to 100000 a
year. 1t is believed that out of the $780,
100000 annually paid for pensions by
the United States, at least five per cent
is illegally paid to persons who have no
right to pension; that large sum is
paid to persons in excess of what they are
entitled to under the laws; that there
are hundreds on the pension rolls whose
names have been placed there fraudulent
ly, and that hundreds more are receiv-
ing excessive amounts; while, on the
other hand there are thousands of appli-
cants for increased pensions, many Of
whom are entitled to an icrease.
Mr.. Bentley's bill provides that this
corps of surgeons shall move from place
to place, organized into boards, and
shall personally examine the condition
of every pensiOner on the rolls; this to
be done without expense to the pension
ers; with merely the requirement that
they shall present themselves when call
ed for. In this way it is believed the
impOsterS can be detected, and their
names stricken off the roll, and on the
other hand persons who have not been
justly dealt with can be properly served.
There have been instances where acct
dental discoveries have developed the
fact that people have been on the rolls
for years drawing pensions to which
| they have no claim, and the existing
law furnishes no method by which such
cases can be detected.
The only opposition to this bill comes
| from the claim agents in Washington,
who will lose large fees if it becomes a
law, and whose business. so far as pen
siOns are concerned, will he practically
| abolished. These claim agents have
sent broadcast throughout the country
copies of blank petitions against the
passage of this bill, and the petitions
with large numbers of signatures are
coming back here to be presented to con-
gress. 1t has been represented by the
| claim agents in the circulars which
have been sent ont by the bushel to pen
siOners all over the country, that this
sixty surgeon bill" is bad one; that
the intention of it is to rob the pensions
ers of the government; that If passed it
will subject them to great deal of an
nOyance and expense; that their pen
siOns will be taken away from them;
and various other false statements are
made in order to induce people to sign
the petitions.
In presenting one of the petitions to
the Senate the other day, Senator Kir-
wood, whose devotion to the interests OF
the pensioners cannot be doubted, re-
marked that he believed the signatures
to it had been obtained by deception
and that the persons who signed it mis-
understood the object of the bill they
were opposing, That seems to be the
case all ground. The men who favor
this bill in both houses of Congress are
the same who have always been active
in looking after the interests of the sol
diers, and the men who are opposing ii
are only those who have made their
money out of fees received from pension
ers. 1t is assumed that no honest pen.
siOner will object to having his case eX.
amined once in a number of years, OF
will refuse to bear the scrutiny of sur
geOn. If this bill passes, the cost OF
procuring a pension will be largely di
minished, and the cost of procuring an
increase pension in deserving cases will
be reduced to trifie. The object Of thu
bill is to benefit both the pensioners and
the government, and the only persons
who will be injured are those who draw
pensions to which they are not entitled
and the horde of claim agents that haunt
Washington.