The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-02-18


Commenting upon this exhibit, Mr. Vest said,
with a frankness and candor that do him infinite
honor:
Sir I was a member of the confederate senate
and if our cause had been successful would have
voted pensions and arrears of pensions to the
vivors of those gallant brigades whose tattered
gray was so often hurled against the Union lines
by Lee and Jackson, until not one dollar of money
or acre of land could have been found to meet the
Just demand And now, standing before victors
and vanquished, ! declare that while the cOnfede-
rates cheerfully accept the result which leaves to
them only the consciousness Of honest motives and
the history of unquestioned heroism. they accept
the further result which gives to the soldiers of the
Union what has been awarded them by grateful
country. If there be fraud | ready to assist in
its prevention and punishment; if there be delay
am ready to remove its causes; but l will never
vote against the principle incorporated in existing
statutes as to pensions, or to take cent from
those for whose benefit these statutes were enacted
Senator Plumb, of Kansas, devoted his remarks
chiefly to the charge that the was calcu
lated to encourage fraud and that as stated by
Senator Vance, large proportion of pension claims
were bogus. Said he:
My colleague treated of the more obvious phase
of that question by reference to the records of the
army showing that much larger number of per-
sons were reported upon the rolls as having in
Cured disease and having been wounded than
there the pension-rol. But back of all them
are the two million of people who have not found
record there, the two million out OF two million and
half, much larger proportion of whom suffered
some serious detrment to their health by reason of
the exposures and hardships of military service
Some did not apply because their circumstances
were such as not to make a pension a necessity
and l entirely agree with the Senator from Con-
necticut when he says that the of honor among
that class of persons is high that of any other
class and that they would be the last to prefer
fraudulent claim, the last to stand by comrade
who would do similar thing. They put their
services upon higher plane, and not to be
warded in money merely. And thus it is that
very large number Of persons who are entitled to
pensions never have made application, and never
will Besides very large number have made ap-
plication who have not been able to make the re-
quired proof, and in that connection l desire to
refer to the statement of the Senator from North
Carolina MIR. vance, that there was a presumption
that when person had made an application for
pension and had not been able to establish his claim
that that indicative that the claim fraudu-
lent one.
"Any one familiar with the practice of the Pen.
sion Office will know that that is not the The
pensioner is not only required to establish his dis
ability, giving the particular time and circum-
stances under which 1T was incurred together with
ample proof that point, but he is obliged to con-
meet that with his present condition by proving by
medical testimony or that of his neighbOrs or by
both his physical condition during each year Of
the time that has elapsed since he was discharged
from the army up to the filing of his application
for pension-a very hard thing to do The shifting
of location the lapse Of time destroying recollec-
ton the death of witnesses contribute to the
difficulty of making proof and it is not surprising
that so many fail, and that many others, actually
needy, refrain from making application, knowing
its futility Failure to complete proof under THESE
circumstances is no evidence of fraud No doubt
large majority who fail are much entitled as
those who succeed but their proof is not attanable
Mr. Plumb then went Oh to quote from his own
personal experience to the difficulties in the way
OF establishing even the most meritorious claims,
and concluded by saying that the question Ought
10 be taken out of debate here as elsewhere and ap
preparations for pensions put upon the same footing
as the regular appropriations" To shirk this duty
because 1t was charged that fraud existed to small
extent under the pension laws was, in his opinion
pleading the baby act"
Senator Teller, of Colorado discussed particularly
the failure of Congress to provide the necessary