The National tribune., 1881-01-01
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE.
Cost of the Arrears of Pension Act.

the enormous cost to the public treasury arising
from the passage of this law.
They do not stop to consider whether the law
was right, but now that it is law, they extrava-
gantly overestimate the money which will have to
be paid out.
Tho law was passed to carry out contract, as
sacred as any other contract ever made by the
United States to which the public faith was fully
pledged as it ever was to any debt
The United States assumed as one of the terms of
enlistment, that if the soldier enlisting should be
wounded or disabled in service, by disease, he
should receive pension that if he died in the SER
vice, his widow, children, or certain dependent rel
atives, should in like manner receive pension.
This was the offer made by the Nation--and by
enlistng in its service the soldier accepted the offer
and the contract complete.
When the death or disability occurred the right to
pension accrued and dated from the moment when
when the discharge was given That the soldier
did not apply for it at once that he allowed years
to pass before he did apply does not at all diminish
his right to receive according to his contract And
the Arrears of Pension law simply gave him an
opportunity to make claim, which the United
States without his consent had barred by statute
of limitation. Under this law very large number
of claims have been filed the sum to be paid to
to these applicants though small in each case is quite
large in the aggregate
But it is the effort Of those in authority to swell
this sum into enormous and false proportions. And
i Mr. Bentley has lent himself willingly to these
schemes and makes himself responsible for them by
furnishing false data and therefore false calculations
on which to rest the unreasonable amount he
claims.
In his letter to Mr.. Davis, chairman of the Com
mittee on Appropriations hestates two proposition
which are the foundation of his figures neither 0
which is true, and the falsehood of which he wa
bound to know.
He grossly and willfully misstates, and oyerstates
the existing number Of live claims" pending in hi
. office. This is of course one factor of great i'm
t portance.
e Mr. Bentley officially states the number of " liy
: pending claims" at 3O7,697. page % Report {
l880)
Yet it appears by his own report of former year
that nearly, if not quite 100000 of these are nc
g. alive" but dead
4 That they are not "pending," but rejected
# that they are settled" disposed Of" These al
4 his own words in the Reports of 1878 1879 an
1880
Does any one believe that it is ignorance th
makes such criminal blunders?
re- He himself hitherto has classified these claims
d. matters that belong to the "rejected files" b
q for certain purposes of his own he has so manage
H. his Office that there are longer any "reject'
ce fles.n All cases, good or bad, alive or dead pen
te ing or rejected are swept promiscuousy togethe
IN are added up in one immense total and are ma
ar by this false system of bookkeeping the basis
on false estimates to be gravey received and act
all upon by Congress.
Mr.. Bentley knew better, and Congress ought
know better. Thus, then the first factor in his
innate it is shown to be wfully misstated
!, The second false item is in the estimate OF t
60 "lfe of pension" and the duration of a soldiers
&c. in receipt Of pension. These two elements OF
rf number of pensioners, and the probable duration