The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-04
THE PENSION vETOES.
A Dignified but Singing Rebuke Of the Presi.
dents COarseness and Brutality.

WASHINGTON, July 3-The Senate COMMITTEES
on pensions, In its report recommending the pas
sage over the Presidents veto of the bill grant
ing pension to Mary J. Nottage, says:
$50 great has become the numberof such vetoes
of the present executive all within few weeks
past, and so extraordinary the censure, some
times rudely expressed, and in nearly every
instance severely implied, of the action Of thu
two houses of Congress and of their committees,
and upon which has devolveG the wearisome and
generally unappreciated labor of these claims,
accompanied in many cases by such ridicule OF
and evident disgust with the claims themselves,
that your committee feel that they are justified
in a brief review of the circumstances involved
In doing this, strong effort will be made to re-
strain not unnatural feeling of indignation,
which, If permitted to assume the proportions
which the provocation justides, would wholly de-
stroy those respectful forms OF express
sions which must be maintained
in official intercourse between tho
different officers and departments of the govern
| ment. This becomes the more necessary in pro
portion as it IS rendered the more difficult by
reason of the unjust and unexampled style ia
which some of the messages of the President are
expressed. 1t shall be the effort of the commit
tee to get on in this difficult matter without vio-
lating the courtesies of official intercourse by
initiating an example which, so far as we are
| aware is without precedent, and which, so far
as we are concerned, shall remain So"
The committee proceeds to show that &c per
cent of the Senate bills and only 81 per cent Of
the House bills submitted to the President have
been vetoed and says it is not insensible to the
special condemnation which this disparagne
contrast infiicts. ''Much criticism" the report
continues, ''has been INDUCED in by the Presi-
dent of the methods of legislation pursued by the
two houses of Congress, and however uniformed
he may be upon the subject, and however un-
Intentionally, by reason Of want Of
knn vIoHr hn mo haC rnic tad IN
the country the methods of legislation which
have been pursued in like cases ever since con-
crosses and parlaments have existed, and which
have, since parliament became free, been safe
from kingy and presidential interference. all the
same the people msled by the unwarranted
| statements of the President as to the manner in
| which legislation uron pensions claims and the
| like Is, and of necessity must be, conducted.
| The pension business of the Senate has never
been better done than during this session. Those
| members of the committee who have performed
| the work have been careful as any, and dcrison
| OF their patient, conscientious and exhaustiug
| labors to help this noblest and best portion OF
| Gods poor and the countrys benefactors can
| originate only in a wise and noble nature which
| is misled, or in one that if informed, sadly
needs reconstruction or recreation"
The report emoodies copy of instructions by
| the Assistant Secretary of the Interior to the
Commissioner of Pensions, as follows
please cause the same to be critically examined and
report to this department whether in your opinion
any objections to their approval known to exist
In where objections exist they should DO spe
officially set forth.
This indicates" the committee says ''unmis
| takeably, that the President relies upon the
Commissioner for the facts" The report con
| tinues:
"Why the President should initiate this game
| eff shuttlecock, and petit coordinate depart
ment of the government with vetoes based upon
review of the action OF Congress by some subor-
6inate of the Commissioners of Pensions is
vvhic will hos OH Init, rhan
be left without discussion. Why the fnd-
ings of the two houses should DO
| discredited and attributed to unwor.
thy motives, indifference or incapacity.
while the reassertion by the pension clerk that
he is right and Congress wrong is accepted as
the basis of fact in these numerous vetoes, 1t Ia
hard to perceive. But all through these vetoes
there seems to run the fallacy that the power Of
Congress to grant pensions is limited to what
may already be done by the Pension Office under
the general law. 1t is difficult to write In
that rudimentary way upon the nature
of pensions and the various grounds
of compensation, charity and public
policy which is necessary in order to remove
this impression. 1t is sufficient to observe that
the jurisdiction of the legislative power of this
government is larger than that of the Commits
soner of Pensions, and that sooner or later
although it may cost the country a prolonged
and steady effort, this truth will become APP
parent. But it should be remembered that in "a
very large number of these bills passed by Con.
gresS, important original written evidence Is nleQ
with the committees or presented verbally as
in hearings before other committees
upon all public questions which come before
legislative bodies; aud often the applicant ID
present with his statement and his pal pable dis
abilities This evidence is not available to the
executive. at least without the asking, and neye6
mas been in possession Of the Pension Office.
Consequently. in nearly evory case. the con-
gressional statement stands upon stronger PROF.
than tho finding of facts which the President seta
up in disapproval of the bill"