The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-11-22
afford to refuse payhleaf of the claims of
the Farragut veterans when their validity
has been passed upon and definitely affirmed
in the courts.
A Sound Decision.

The letter from the Hon. Secretary of the
Interior to the Commissioner of Pensions,
in regard to the construction that should be
placed upon section 1907 Revised Statutes,
providing for pensions to dependent moth
ers, which we publish in another column
this week, will be read with interest, we
are sure, by every one of our readers for its
effect viii be to very greatly liberalize the
practice of the Pension Office, and bring
about the allowance of claims which, under
the rules heretofore in vogue in the Pension
Office, would necessarily have been rejected.
No ADLER, juster, or more patriotic decision
has ever been rendered in connection with
the Interpretation of pension laws than is
rendered in this clear, logical and public
spirited letter from the Secretary of the In
terror. He bases his conclusions not simply
on the technical language of the law, but
upon its obvious intent and purpose, and he
very truly says that q the statute was en-
oCVSN W SsiNO oAlS iCi0eiNSS Soi-AS
compensation for the damage they have sus-
tanned by the loss of the persons on whom
they did, in fact, depend or might depend
under the law, for their support, and mast
haze liberal construction, so as to include
all persons that, from all the circumstances
and words of the statute, the legislative mind
must have included at the tiae of its pas
sage" Hitherto the disposition has been to
exclude from the benefits of this statute all
mothers who were not actually dependent
for support upon the sons labor at the time
of his death, notwithstanding the fact that
the mother might, at any time thereafter,
become dependent, and that, had the life of
her son not been sacrificed in the service of
| the Government, she could have looked to
him for support whenever the occasion for
it arose. The mistake that has been made,
therefore, in Interpreting the law has been
in supposing that Congress, when it passed
it, did not contemplate this possibility. To
argue that it did not contemplate such a
possibility is evidently absurd, since the
mother was entitled to the aid Of her son,
| not simply during the period of his service
in the army until his death, but for the
whole period thereafter, and until her own
death, and in recognizing her claim to pen
| sion, it WAS the future, as well as the imme-
date, dependence of the mother that it IN
dertook to provide for. This is clear, as
Secretary Teller declares, alike from the cir
cumstanees of the enactment of the statute
and the language employed therein; yet, il
| is a fact that through the narrow interpTeta-
ton of the law, which has hitherto obtained
the needy mothers of many brave and
gallant soldier have been compelled to bat
tie single-handed with poverty and disease
Loyal and patriotic people everywhere will
be glad to know that the uncertainties
which SO long have hung about the opera
ton of the statute providing for the pen
sioning of dependent mothers have finally
all been brushed away by this just and
clear-sighted decision of the Secretary O
| the Interior, and it viii be taken as sigr
that hereafter the pension laws as whole
will be executed in the spirit in which they
were conceived.