The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1882-08-10
SENATOR PLUMB on PENSIONS.


Daring the debate in the United States
Senate, on the pension appropriation bill, on
the 10Th Of July. Senator Beck. among other
amendments to the pension bill, offered the
following:
land the commissioner Of pensions shall
also cause the lists for each county to be in
serted at least once in each year in the news
paper published in said county having the
largest circulation therein; and if no news
paper is published in any county. then in
the newspaper published nearest thereto;
and in all counties containing town or city
Of ten thousand population or upward, the
commissioner Of pensions shall cause the llsfs
aforesaid to he inserted in the two newspa-
papers, representing different political par
ties. which are published in said county, kav-
ing the largest circulation; and III all cities
Of fifty thousand population and upward, he
shall cause said lists TO be inserted at least
once each year in three of the leading daily
papers published in said city"
In the course of running DEBATE on this
section. senator Plumb made 4 speech He
was often interrog ited and questions asked
which he answered. but we have not the
the space for that portion of the proceedings
but publish the body of the speech in full;
do not object to publicity in connection
with pensions. Any proper measure For that
purpose, inspired by proper feeling, VIII
get nv vote: but at the close OF Il session of
Congress which was opened by general de-
nunciatiou Of the pension roll, where the
general allegation was supported by long
speech on the part OF the Senator from Ken
tueky TO show that the arrears-of-pension act
was fraud. and that persons who bad been
put upon the roll by reason Of that act were
largely persons who were not entitled 10 PEN
sions, | do not mean, If / can heln it, that a
session opened thus shall close by giving ef-
feet 10 his insinuations in the shape Of such
proof as be has offered, or any other.
/ have no doubt there are fraudulent per-
sons on the pension roll. We plss fraudu-
lent claims here every session. You cannot
construct pension roll Of $50 names with
out there being fraud upon it. There is now
and then person upon it who, as the sena-
tor from Kentucky said, incurred his disa-
biIity somewhere else than in the army.
There il now and then widow upon the roll
who has since married; there is now and
then person upon it who was not in the ar
my at all; but such cases are constantly be-
ing ferreted out. Never, until the millenni-
um comes. shall we be without fraud under
the best possible system of legislation but
| say the pension roll whole, not only as
a whole but in nearly all its parts, with few
and minor exceptions, represents men who
were disabled in the service OF their country
and who are legally and equitaby entitled TO
every cent they get.
Ii is asked il these men are fairly entitled
TO pensions, why do they object TO having
their names published. do not know that
they do object; but | know men who are
drawing pensions who seem TO be just as
healthy as / am. thought knew every
man in my regiment as well as it was posi-
BILE for an officer commanding regiment TO
know in it, have been applied TO by men,
beers of my regiment to certify to disability
or to facts which would constitute disability
in their cases, and i declined. why! Not
because necessarily did not feel tie strong
est sympathy with these men, but because !
did not know about them. have been ap-
piled TO in some cases where l believed the
man was not disabled in the service; but
What did that amount to? No officer could
tell as TO any thousand men under him. or
even ar to any hundred men under him,
whether any one OF them was disabled or
not in the war under all the circumstances
which led TO disability in the military serr-
ice.
suppose now we pass this provision and II
has the effect which the Senator from Ken
lucky desires it shall have, there are six men
in a particular township put down as having
received a pension from the government.
When it is believed that the commissioner OF
pensions desires information from the peo-
pie of the neighborbood in regard to those
men, every man in the neighborhood who
has prejudice on account Of personal feel
ing, or on account of any other thing, wiliiit
I'D his voice to say that those men are not en-
titled 10 pensions. Against the judgment o!