Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-16
PENSION APPLICATIONS.

PENSION APPLICATIONS
Large Number of Ne,c Ctaims-Dtf ficmlties
in the Way of Prompt Settlenp ent- FRO
posed amendment of the Lasv.
Washington Cores pondence Chicago Times.
The expiration on the first instant of the
time for receiving applications for arrearases
ofpensions by the pension bureau has not
had any effect of diminishing the numbers
of new claims fled daily. During the month
of June, when there was rush of claims SO
that claimants might avail themselves of the
benefits of the arrearage act, there were
filed over forty eight thousand applications.
These were partly new claims for arrear-
ages, and partly for arrearages of pensions
only. Since July 1 the average number
of claims filed daily has been
four hundred. Many of these
applications are made, no doubt, with
the expectation that Congress will extend
the time for receiving applications for ar
rearsges at least one year. The business of
the office is such that these new cases can
not be reached for overa year. Mr.. Bently
says that the work of
is much slower than it was some years ago,
and the work is more difficult as the time
elapsing from date of disability increases.
The discontinuance of allowance of arrears
will make little difference in the amount of
work to be done, as pensian claims will be
filed in about the same proportion as before,
with the view of some possible action by
Congress extending the provisions of the
arrearages act. Consideration of a claim is
not less complicated, since arrearages not al
lowed as such of course depended upon the
passage of the claim itself. Mr..
Rert.y says that under the ex.psrte system
claims were settled very rapidly. In the four
years from 1868 to 1867 there were 164,456
pensions allowed, and with not more than
one'third the clerical force now employed in
the pension Office. In 1867 to 1871 settle
ments were only S5,3S6, when the appropri-
ations for clerks were increased 100000
more than the four years previous. From
July l, 1876, to July !, 1880, the number of
claims settled was little over 250,O0O, while
the average annual appropriations for that
bureau were largely increased, amounting to
$3.50, 900. All this is due to the difference in
ACCESSIBILITY OF TESTIMONY
to prove cases. If pension claims were de-
pendent upon the same proof to-day as dur
ing the period from 1868 to 1864, there
would be a great addition in the expense and
difficulty in getting pensions in the same
class of cases, because in that lapse of time
witnesses have died, men have scattered
throughout the country, and are not easily
found, and witnesses recollections have
failed. But the system is different. All the
little details upon which claims formerly
rested are now dropped out, unless con-
nected by some circumstances which may
set the memory in operation. And yet the
work of allowing claims is necessarily slow.
With the difficulty of obtaining proof comes
the greater likelihood of the government
being imposed upon. To facili-
tate the passage of pension claims, and to
insure greater accuracy in allowing them,
Commissioner Bently for two years past has
attempted to secure the passage of law
providing for examination and adjudication
of pension claims by establishing not to ex-
ceed sixty pension districts in different parts
of the county. This proposition has been
pending before joint committee of the
Senate and the House, and this spring q
substitute was agreed upon by the Senate
committee on pensions, which Mr.. Bently
says he will accept. The substitute provides
for the appointment by the secretary of the
interior in each Congressional district of
A PENsIoNER EXAMINER,
who shall be person learned in law and of
not less than five years, experience in the
practice of his profession. and pension sur
geon, who shall have had not less than ten
years experience in his occupation. These
two officers shall constitute board for the
examination and adjudication of pension
claims. They are authorized to take testi-
mony and to visit each county seat in their
district as often as three. times year, un-
less otherwise directed by the commissioner
of pensions, for the purpose of examining
pensioners and taking testimony in pension
cases. The commissioner of pensions is au-
thorized to organize and convene boards OF
three pension surgeons in each pension dis.
trict, to which appeal may be taken by any
pensioner or pension claimant. The details
of the senate bill are approved by the COM
missioner, who says, if carried out, they will
be great improvement upon tho present
system, and hasten disposition of thousands
of claims which are daily accumulat ing un-
der the present mode of adjudication.