The National tribune., 1884-05-22

Senator Van Wyek ON Determinations In Pension

Eases.
In the Senate, on the 18th inst, in the course of
q debate on the bill to pension Mary F. McBlair,
daughter of Thomas Parkin MeBlair, late pur-
ser in the United States navy, on the ground that
since attaining her sixteenth year, When the
pension allowed her during infancy expired by
limitation, she has been disabled by sickness
from earning 8 living, Senator Van Wyck of
Nebraska, announced himself as in favor of
the passage of general law to meet such
eases. Said he:
The Senator from New Hampshire says there
are bat few such cases There are many if they
could reach Washington; and the great difficulty,
he knows is that we have no general law under
which these cases can be reached. and for one
have feat that we should stop in the committee
room hearing special cases and bring in some gen.
eral law which could reach everybody the woman
in Washington, the woman in New Hampshire or
the woman on the prairies of Nebraska. But il
has not been so, we know, and most OF the spc-
cial cases Of the kind which arc provided for are
those which reach and come up to from Wash
ington, where great social and political influences
surround them that they can be heard. And /
would say TO my friend from New Hampshire that
when we can pause long enough in the Committee
on Pensions to frame some general law, the TRACE
dies which lie referred so elOquentiy few days
ago. the tragedies as he called them in the Pension
Department, will not agitate US That is what
desire.
One thing Is renrarkable-and have a right to
allude to that-that in the various cases which
come before the committee IN great numbers from
the city of Washington, the wives Of rear-admirais
and the wives OF con;modoEes, and the wives OF
major-generais able to secure prompt atten-
ton. We find that sometimes iii one year from the
time the sod covers the dead body of a rear-atmiral
or commodore majOrgeneTal, or in less than a
year, the application OF the widow wiz go into and
come out of the Pension Office. Why? Your
widow in New Hampshire cannot enter the PEN
sion Office and get out in q year; your widow in
Tennessee cannot enter tho Pension Office and get
out of il in year. Ii is time that thing stopped,
| and when we can have some general law we shall
be able TO stop it.
thank the Senator from Tennessee for declaring
the doctrine upon which pensions should be grant
ed, and say 20 him that trust the Committee
Pensions viii present bill that viii increase
the pensions of widows from 8 TO at least SD per
month, and then trust that viii stand I'd
tooppoSe that, because | say, in the language
of the Senator from Tennessee If You give a pen
sion 10 those who are needy. necesssous, and poor
iien give them enough 10 taSe them out OF their
| unfortunate and Impoverished condition Ii sl5
| be not enough for this woman single will any
body this chamber rise and tell me that s.
month IS enough for the widow who i left with a
! family Of children TO rear, and whose husband
/ persisted the battlefield, and whose resting
place is marked only By the board that records the
/ burial of an unknown soldier?" / thank the
Senator from Tennessee for that. and 1 trust the
| time viii come when not only to this woman q
| the commodorcs widow, and the Tear-admiFats
/ widow, and the najo generals widow but ihs
widow of the soldier who fell and was buried in an
unknown grave, the same degree OF lIteraiity viii
be extended and on the same basis that you apply
TO those who specially provided for, CAREFUL
looked up and nursed by all the peculiar influence:
/ which surround everything that comes before any
committee OF this body from the capital Of the Ma
/ ton.
| do not wish to be misunderstood. I hope my
| friend from New Hampshire does not misunder
stand me. / in favor of any amount tina
might be placed IN this bill matter what. IhS
Treasury, he says, is OVERLOOKING. and this IS in
tiniteiy the best way to depiee IT, Let raise tl
| pensions of the widows Of the common soldiers
let raise those who have been struggling let Us
| make haste to take the widows of soldiers gu
/ OF the poor-houses where they have died, let u
fgI-
| for the Union made happy whether lie seryeC
one or two or three four years under the flag .
| the Union, by the generosity o. the Government
which viii give him sufficient TO subsiss himself