The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-03-25
PENSIONS.
SPEECH OF HON. P. B. PLUMB
Delivered in the Senate OF the United
States, on the Sth day Of February
IS81-The soldiers Cause
Ably Upheld

Ably Upheld
In the United States senate, on the 9Th
Eamong other proceedings were the fol
flowing, on the pension bill.
The presiding officer. The senator
from Kansas Mr.. Plumb offers an
amendment which shall be read.
IL The chief clerk. Alter line II il is
Proposed 10 insert:
* 10 provide additional examiners for the
pension officer. and the number of clerks for
The pension Office and acknowledgements and
rg ~ rnar tiTe sbe of si heees
aminers. the sum of $500 600 to be Immediate
y available
Mr. Withers: / raise the point of or.
der on that amendment.
4 Mr. Plumb. l desire to call the at.
tention of the senator from Virginia to
the fact that while we have voted down
the proposition to amend the law by
substituting new machinery for the old
it is conceded by every one that the
pension law, as it at present stands, is
not executed as rapidly as it should be
10 meet the necessities of the case The
trouble is not so much with the law as
tits with the delay in its operation; that
the pensioners are obliged to wait an
unreasonable time for the adjustment OF
their cases, and while good deal has
been safd about frauds on the govern.
ment in the obtaining of pensions under
the present law, still l think in the main
the great complaint, and that which
most induced the pension committee to
offer the amendment which it did, and
| which has also been at the bottom of the
various devices for new legislation, has
been the fact that the present law does
not afford to the applicant a speedy adj
justment and determination of his claim
for pension. My proposition is that the
force engaged in the consideration of
pension cases shall be increased
If one hundred and fifty examiners
can dispose of fifteen hundred cases a
month, two hundred examiners ought to
be able to dispose of proportionately
| greater number. 1t is one OF those cases
which If we do not settle it now is going
to be an occasion of great reproach. 1t
is no saving to the government to post
pOne the payment of the necessary sal
aries for the employment of the requisite
| force TO properly consider and determine
| the pension cases pending and those
which are constantly filled. The senate
having said bill No. 496, as it was called
is not IN order Us an amendment TO The
pension appropriation bill, practically
SAYS that there shall be no legislation
| which will give either increased force
or increased opportunity or efficiency to
men whose applications are now pend
ing in the pension bureau shall continue
to cool their heels waiting upon the slow
| processes of administration under the
present law.
The present condition of things is, |
think, national scandal. If we cannot
agree that there shall be no law, we can
at least agree that there shall be added
force for the purpose of carrying out the
Lid IL
pose affords the only chance for legisla-
ton upon this subject the present ses-
sion. 1t is only a question of an ex-
penditure of $500, 600 more in an endeav-
or to expedite the business of the pension
| bureau; and this expenditure is as MOTH
4 ing added to the amount we already eX-
/ pend, and even less, when compared to
i the obligation we are under to the appli-
| cants whose claims are postponed and
retarded either by the lack of proper leg
islation or of proper administration of
| the law already on the statute book.
| Sometime this cost has got to be incur
red, unless the government means forev-
er to shirk its obligation to do justice to
| these men.
And while am on that subject l de-
| sire to say something about that part OF
this discussion which relates to frauds
on the government. / am not on the
committee. 1 do not undertake to saw
because do not know anything about
the percentage of frauds; and with all
due respect to everybody L do not be-
lieve anybody else knows anything def
mite about the percentage of frauds per-
petrated. The present law may be in
| efficient for the detection of frauds, and
/ yet it has been shown in this debate that
the money heretofore appropriated by
congress for the purpose of detecting
| frauds has not all been expended. 1,
| therefore, assume that in the jude
ment of the commissioner of
| pensions there was not sufficient
| ground for the use of the
money voted and the employment of nee
essary force for the purpose of discover
| ing frauds. Only about One-half of this
money was expended, as the senator
| from Illinois reminds me, and If we ex-
pect to legislate so as to prevent all
fraud we must legislate so as to practic-
| ally prevent all pensions. You cannot
carry on machinery of such magnitude
| without some fraud being committed.
Fraudulent claims are passed in the
quartermaster's department, and equally
there is fraud in the allowance of claims
in the commissary department. There
are frauds committed in all branches of
the public service; they are inseparable
and always will be from large govern
ment instrumentalities of administra-
ton.
This allegation of fraud, however, in
| this case has been a matter of sore and,
as l think on the whole, just compliant
from the great body of ex-soldiers of
this country. 1t has been so persistently
| urged, so constantly and always insisted
| upon, stated in so many forms, applied
in so many ways, alleged to be of such
| - I.
that every pensioner, more or less, con-
siders himself under the suspicion of
| ''the powers that be- and of the public
as man who has committed a fraud
upon the government in the obtaining
| of his pension. l think, therefore, Mr..
president, that this debate has
| gone far wrong in that particular.
! do not believe that the frauds
occurring in the pcnsioa bureau bear any
greater proportion to the amount dis
bursed than they do in other depart
ments of the government l believe they
are only such as are inseparable from
the administration of machine like that
| bureau. OF course there is opportunity
for fraud On account of the large number
of cases and the er pdrte nature of proof
permitted by law; but l believe that in
proportion to the amount expended the
frauds are even less than in other depart
ments of the government, and do not
believe any practical system we can
adopt will wholly prevent fraud. The
millennium is not here, nor is IT coming
this year. But, however this may be,
the first obligation on the part of the gov.
eminent is not to detect fraud, but TO dis
charge faithfully and fully the obliga-
tions it is under to these men.
| A good deal has been said, not only in
debate, but in public prints, about the
amount of money involved in the pay.
ment of pensions, present and prospect
i've. / do not know where all these
statements emanate from, nor how au
thentic they may be, but 1 am prepared
SO far as my action is concerned, to &C
cept the statement that the amount OF
money which will be necessary to pay
the arrears of pensions is $4,000. 600
and, assuming that to be the obligation
due the pensioners growing out of the
loss of health, of limb, or life, I shall
not hesitate TO vote for its appropriation
nor would hesitate if the amount wert
four times greater, no more than I would
hesitate to vote for the amount. however
large, to meet the ordinary and necessary
J expenses of the government.
1t is, after all that can be said, only &
question as to whether great govern
ment will pay its debt, not a debt in thu
ordinary sense of the term, but q deb
that is more sacred, a debt that should
rest upon the government with higher
sense of obligation than a debt repre-
senting money borrowed or ordinary sci
vice rendered. The question of amoun
: does not properly come in. 1t is ques
. ton as to the existence of the obligation
, and as to whetherthe government is abl'
to discharge it.
i 1t has been well said that things seeI
. are mightler than things heard. TIT
> time was when this nation did not thirl
of higgling over the question of its obi
cations to these men, and when those ii
: station there and the loyal people of thu
' whole country considered only whethe