The National tribune., 1883-02-22
PENSIONERS RIGHTS.
Interviews With Logan and VOORHEES,.
Questions Before Congress.

| by representative of The TRIBUNE whether
/ there were any prospects of new leglS-
lation on the subject of pensions or bounties in
| the immediate future. Said he: There are
| several bills which have been brought forward
| and pressed, some of them for years. Among
/ others most prominent is that to pension the
| soldiers of the Mexican and various Indian
| wars and the $40 bill for the benefit of those
! who lost an arm or leg in the service. l
think that there is profound distrust among
| many of the pensioners of the country lest the
! law granting them what is called arrears of
! pension may be repealed. / do not believe
that they need have any fears of that. Such
apprehenSiOnS are naturally caused by dis
cussiOns in the Senate as to whether a pension
is the carrying out of a contract with the SOL
dier, the confession of an obligation or a
charity. Then, too, the widest statements are
made as to the amounts which will be required
to pay the pensions under the arrears act. l
have heard Senators on the floor give amounts
which varied hundreds of millions of dollars,
| each of which purported to be the correct esti-
mate of expenditure for this purpose"
" In what light do you regard the relation
of the soldiers to the Government in the matter
of pension?"
In any war or for any duty where war
occurs between Governments they are enlisted
| under law which proposes to pay them GER
| tain amount per month or per annum, as the
case may be. The law which provides for
/ certain dlIlUuub pcI lDUHll pei " luC
soldier or officer, under which he enlists, is
contract between the soldier and the Govern
ment and presume no court could be found
in this country that would not hold that to be
the case We have laws following up the en-
listment of solIiers which provide bounty of
$100 per annum for a certain number of years.
presume no lawyer would say that that was
not contract between the soldier and the
Government If those two laws present con-
tracts between the Government and the soldier,
what about the other proposition? The same
law provides that if the soldier in performance
of his duties under this contract with the
Government shall be disabled from disease or
from wounds he shall be placed on the pension
roll and the law provides that the pensioner
shall receive so much per month, provided he
has a certain character OF wound, and that he
shall receive so much for another character of
wound-that is. that he shall be graded accord
ing to the character of his disease or wound. l
! would like to know if that is not also con-
tract between the soldier and the Government
when chat law exists at the time and is part of
the inducement to the soldier to enlist for the
performance of his duty to-aais Government.
1t is a contract between the Government aud
the soldier that the Government cannot gain
say
over the amount of money required to pay
these pensions?"
"The question of arrears of pensions has
| been discussed on the ground that it required
great amount to pay them. That is not the
| legal question at all; but the question is: If
soldier is entitled to a pension on account of
his wounds when is he entitled to that pen
sion If he is to receive pension because he
has been wounded, when he receives that
wound a pension attaches. If the law says for
wounds received in the service he shall be pen
sioned,' what does the law mean? Does 1T
mean that the Government will pay soldier
twenty-five years after he received the wound?
Is it not the true construction of the law that
| the pension attaches at the time the disability
attaches to the person2 VIII any one pretend
| to say that that is not the reasonable and
proper construction of the lawP l think not"
What is the trouble with the arrears of
pensions act, them"
1.-The trouble is not that the act is wrong but
that when the law granting pension to the
wounded soldier was first passed, it provided
that the pension should attach at the time the
soldier made his application. There was the
fault. 1t was in providing that the pension
should attach only at the presentation of the
application instead of providing that it should
attach at the time the wound was incurred.
Suppose man is crippled by railroad acci-
dent. Under the law if the injury is received
on account of the negligence of the officers of
the road, he is entitled to damages. Will any
one say that the damages do not attach at the
time the injury was received? If the damages
are given for the injury, then the responsibility
for the damages dev0lves upon the party at the
time the injury was received. In the courts
of justice every day questions are tried where
persons are entitled to pay for injuries, for
trespasses, for injuries to property or injury to
person, and the responsibility attaches at the
time the injury was done. Now, the law
which made the pension attach at the time of
the presentation of the case instead of the time
when the injury was received was the fault of
@l~aL 1,xr f4l
The law, therefore, giving arrears of pension is
merely an amendment to that law, saying that
the pension shall attach at the time the dis
ability was incurred. 1t is merely doing that
which Congress should have done at the time
it passed the pension act, dating the pension
from the time the injury occurred instead OF
from any other time. 1t is merely, then, the
correction of an error that grew up at the
time when the act was passed in Congress, and
is not an error itself because of the amount
which is expended"
"Then you do not take much stock in the
constant camor in the New York papers about
frauds on the Government through the arrears
of pensionsp
"No do not There have been frauds prac-
tced doubtless in this as there have been in all
matters where money is obtained from the Gov
ernment. Still the fact that some soldier may
have received pension, when in fact he was
not entitled to it, does not prove that those
VINO are entitled should not receive their PEN
sion. 1t only proves that there is perhaps
want of energy on the part of those making
the examination of the cases. 1t is only proof
of the want of good faith on the part of some
officer in making report that is not warranted
by the condition of the person who makes the
application. That does not prove that the law
is wrong. 1t only proves that some person is
wrong; that some man has deceived the officers
of the law; and that is all it proves. man
who violates the criminal statutes by commit
ting larceny or a robbery may escape punish
ment, but that does not prove the law is wrong.
1t only proves want of vigilance ON the part
of those who are charged with the execution of
the law. In spite of all the criticism of the
arrears act, there is just one thing to be kept
in mind. 1t is not the fault of the pensioner,
not the fault of the amount of money, but the
fault of the first act of Congress by not placing
the pension at the proper time The arrears
act was only an amendatory law for the pur-
pose of changing and putting the first one right,
as it should have been at the start But time
and again, when / have heard so much of frauds
talked about in the Senate, / have demanded
the name of single case, and l never yet have
heard Senator name one. l have declared
that if any Senator knew of fraudulent claim
on the pension-roll, it was his duty to state the
fact to the Commissioner of Pensions. If /
knew of one to-day l would do it. But there
are Senators who have annual spasms about
pension frauds and make periodical raids against
pensioners. But not one of them has had the
manhood vet to stand I'D and say there is a