The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-01-10
The Course Of Pension legislation.

The Course or Pension Legislation.
If we may Judge from the character of
the measures proposed for the consideration
of the present Congress, the discussion of
the pension question is likely to take wide
range during The present session. Among
the bills already introduced, or shortly to
be offered, is at least one locking to the i'm
mediate pensioning of all survivors of the
war who saw certain amount of service,
several providing for the pensioning Of all
veterans on their reaching a certain age,
and still another-the essential feat
ures of which are described in another
column providing that all ex-soldiers who
are now suffering from disability shall
be placed on the pension roll without
being required to prove that their disability
was incurred in line of duty; and, diverse as
their provisions are, it viii be seen that they
have common obiect-to meet the def
ciencies of existing law. Tt is no secret that
for several years past feeling of intense
dissatisfaction with the practical operation
Of the pension laws has prevailed among
our ex-soldiers, and although the suppressed
ure Of Commissioner Bentley by Commits
sioner Dudley served to allay for a time this
dissatisfaction, it has lately manifested itself
anew and in a more aggressive form The
fact that In spite of the increase of the cler-
zeal force of the Pension Office and the gen
erous appropriations voted by Congress, in
response TO the Commissioners urgent rep
reservations of the needs of his Bureau,
there still remained on the files at the close
Of the last fiscal year 272,2 unadjudicated
claims, has alcne served to convince our
veterans that in order to insure the speedy
payment to these claimants of the pensions
due them, resort must be had to some en-
tirely new method of procedure. If the
present delay in the settlement of pension
claims is due, as now claimed by the PEN
sion Office, to the failure of the applicants
to furnish the technical proofs required, that
is all the more reason, they argue, why the
existing pension laws should be hberalized,
since, as time goes by, the possibility of es-
tablishing these pending claims-owing to
the disappearance OF death of essential wit
nesses and the inevitable decay Of human
memory-by the rigid rules of evidence now
in force, must steadily diminish. They feel
and naturally, t0o-that the withholding
for SO long period of the pensions due
these nearly 100000 applicants, amounts to
practical notification Of the provisions
made by the Government for the support OF
It's disabled defenders, and that unless some
radical change is made in the present method
of allowing claims many deserving claim
ants VIII never receive the pittanee due
them
As to precisely what form that change
should take, they may not be entirely agreed,
4 bAs 4IOiu t3lC tCuoI Vi tic lCttSfc WHICH MS
are daily receiving it is clear that they are
disposed to look with favor On any measure
the effect Of which viii be to afford imme,
date relief to those of our ex-soldiers whose
disability whether or not they may be abls
TO produce hospital record or otherwis,
establish the origin Of their infrmity-ii
real and permanent That, after all, is thu
result to the accomplishment of which Con
gress should address It's eiTerts. So long a
through the interposition of technical OBJ
stacles single soldier, despite the gravit,
Of his disability is denied the pension t,
which he is entitled, the reproach mus
rest upon the Government that it has takel
advantage of the helplessness of It's defend
eTs TO eyade the payment of its obligation
to them.