The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-03-04

he delivered on the 18th inst, in support of an
amendment to the immediate deficiency bill to
appropriate $1739OO for the payment of the cler
ical force in the Pension Office for the remainder
of the present fiscal year, SO that members of
that body cannot plead ignorance hereafter as an
excuse for not voting the money that is needed
by the Bureau.
It will take ten years, as we have shown, to
adjudcate all the claims now pending and that
force in the Pension Office be increased. Is it
just that any of the claimants, many of whom
have already waited for years and are now in
actual distress, should be put off another decade?
No better answer to that question could be de-
sired than is contained in the following passage
from the speech of Mr.. Browne, already referred
to- Said he:
at is nearly seventeen years now since the
last gun was fired, since the last man incurred
disability in battle, or on the march, or in
hospital, and it is high time the books were
closed. We all want to know how the account
stands If pensions are due the gallant men
who fought in our armies, or to their widows or
dependent children they should be paid, and a
patriotic people will not hesitate to pay them.
These claims should be paid to the last penny,
and paid without delay. The system of payment
should secure equal justice to both claimant and
the Government. 1t should be system securing
the most expedition possible compatible with
tIa Of As fho hxy
witnesses important alike to the claimant and the
Government, are disappearing forever. A few
years more of delay and it will be impossible to
ascertain the exact truth in any case, and then
either the claimant or the Government must
suffer To delay this business much longer will
result in a practical reputation of this sacred
debt. Why delay?"
Why delay indeed! Of all the Departments of
the Government the Pension Bureau alone is de-
MED the necessary clerical force to dispatch it's
business as rapidly as it comes before it, and of
all the Governments creditors the soldier is the
only one who cannot collect what is due him!
Think what monstrous thing it is that 1885, 1888
claimants whose rights are blood-bought should
be kept shivering for years on the steps of the
Treasury while the sleek bondholder, whose
rights are but those of an ordinary money-lender,
should be promptly paid off!
In answer to all this what have the time
servers in Congress to say? Absolutely nothing,
except that the Government can't afford the in
creased expense which an enlargement of the
Pension Office force would entail, as if by their
own admission the surplus revenues of the
Treasury were not $15O,OOO,OO0 per year! No
such scruples of economy interfered with the
passage of the appropriation bills for the Census
Office deficiency, nor has the business of any
other Department ever been permitted to get so
seriously in arrears as that of the Pension Office,
yet prompt payment of our debts to the Nations
defenders is surely as important as the settlement
| of any other obligation. 1t is time that our
| veterans resorted to concerted action to compel
Congress to do it's duty in this matter. Let
| them appeal by letter and in person to their
Representatives to protect their rights and save
the country from dishonor