The National tribune., 1882-08-26
The Pension Office Force.

sion Bureau was authorized by Congress,
during the recent session, four hundred have
already been selected and assigned to
duty, and the balance viii probably be
chosen within the next thirty days. Before
the expiration of that time doubtless, the
force of the Surgeon-General's and Adiutant-
Generals Offices will also have been increased
to the extent provided for in the Iegisla-
tive, executive and judicial appropriation
bill, and there will then be no further ex-
cuse for the delay which has heretofore at
tended the adjustment Of meritorious pen
sion claims. The appointments already
made, it is understood, are partly expert
| mental, and it is the intention of Commis-
| sioner Dudley, we believe, to retain only
such clerks as prove by the work actually
performed their fitness for the duty assigned
them, and if this rule is faithfully applied
it cannot fail to promote the efficiency of the
service. The examiners employed in the
Pension Office ought to be men of more than
average intelligence and judgment, for the
interests alike of the Government and its
pensioners are involved in their decisions,
and ignorance and incapacity are always
productive of evil The record of work ac-
complished by the Pension Bureau during
the next two months will show whether
these new appointments are of the right
sort or not.
Now that Commissioner Dudley has
secured the increase of force which he has
all along declared essential to the proper
dispatch of the business of mis- Office, and
which THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE so per-
sstently advocated itself, our ex-soldiers have
a right to expect a marked increase in the
rate of pension adjustments, and we trust
that they will not be disappointed. 1t is
notorious that Commissioner Bentley looked
upon the pension system as an instrument
of fraud, and his efforts were directed rather
towards the rejection than the allowance of
pension claims. He was in favor of making
the requirements as to proof even more diff
icult of fulfillment than they now are, and
the fewer the number of pensions granted
the better he was pleased. Commissioner
Dudley, on the contrary, is believed to re-
gard the speedy adjustment of the claims
on file in his bureau as duty of the highest
is delayed the greater must he the suffering
of the claimants, and the result of his efforts
to expedite the business of his Office will be
watched by our veterans, therefore, with IN
common interest. The responsibility which
has hitherto rested upon Congress has now
been transferred to his own shoulders, and
our pensioners and applicants for pensions
will be disposed to hold. him accountable
should the increase in the clerical force Of
the bureau fail to bring about q proper
tionate increase in the rate of adjustment.
Poor fellows! 1t is enough to bring the
tears to ones eyes to think how long they
have been compelled to wait for the pay
ment of the debt which is due them from
the Nation. The bondholders have been
paid with the regularity of clOckwork, and
their claims have never been disputed, but
our old soldiers, whose valor and patriotism
preserved the Union from destruction, have
been treated as if they had no rights
which the Government was bound to re-
spect 1t will always be a reproach to the
Nation that after it had recognized the
equity of their claims and authorized their
settlement, it neglected to provide the nee
essary machinery to secure that settlement |
Some of the claims now on file in the Pen
sion Bureau have been pending for years,
and many poor soldier has died in poverty |
and want because he could not collect the |
debt which the Government admitted that |
it owed him. Senator Hawley says no gov |
ernment ever treated its invalid soldiers so |
generously as ours. That may be, but it is
equally true that no Government ever per-
pSUidIct u IuOES CIuel Ill uSLlCS upon 1IS SOL |
diers than did ours when after conceding |
the equity of their claims it left them to |
secure their payment as best they could. |
The period of anxious, almost hopeless, |
waiting is now, thank God almost over,
and Commissioner Dudley should esteem
himself happy that it has been given to his
administration to repair, so far as may be,
the evil of the past, and at this late day Sc
cure to the helpless defenders of our country
the aid to which they have so long been
entitled. 1t is work worthy of any mans
ambition and we trust Commissioner Dudley
will prove fully equal to it.
The Arrears Act and the Press.
The Arrears of Pension Act" remarks
one of the leading journals in New York,
I" will forever stand rs a monument to
the Ignorance and improvidence of the Con-