The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1886-07-23
THE MEXICAN PENSIeN BILL.
The Senate's Amendments OF a Very
Loose and Sweeping Piece o.
House Legislation.

WAsHIEGTON, July IS.--LHt NJ I.
can Pension bill passed by the House Oh .
the 9Th Of April. under suspension q
the rules. bv vote Of two to one and
nearly twenty yeas TO spare, was so III
considered that It's amendment by The
Senate became q matter of course
This work has now been performed
and it is fairly 10 be presumed that at
least a part Of the notifications OI the
Senate will be accepted.
As passed by the House, Mr.. Vol
fOTd's bill granted life pensions. at the
rate of IS a month, to ''all the surviving
officers, soldiers, AMI sailors who enlist
ed and served in the war with Mexico
for anu period during the years lS45,
1916, 1S47 and 1913, and were hOnoTablv
discharged, and their surviving wild
Ows. A pTOVisO excepted from the
benefits Of the act persons under pOiltl-
cal disabilities.
No excuse could be made for passing
a bill thus wOTded since the phrase,
s'fOT any period - contained in i would
entitle a man to a life long pension who
had only served twenty four hours, and
even the widow of such a man. The
bill passed by the House in the Forty
eighth Congress, for similar purpose,
{ required a service of at least sixty days,
/ or else participation in a batole but
under The one sent to the Senate this
! year a recruit need never have been out
of his native town or within thousand
miles Of the Rio GTaude to get a pension.
! The House bill further provided that
/ where a soldier could not show bis dis
charge papers, secondary evidence
/ should be permitted, possession Of a
/ land warrant, unless proved to have
/ been procured by fraud, being suti-
4 cient.
The Senate has amended the bill
50 as to apply only to those who, being
/ duly enlisted, actually served sixty days
| with the army or navy of the United
/ States in Mexico, or on the coasts or
! frontier thereof, OF en- route thereto, in
| the war with that nation, or who were
actually engaged in a battle IN said war
| and were honorable discharged" " Dur
/ ing the House debate one member de
| claTed that quite forty per cent. OF all
the enlistments were made after the
last battle of the war, ," and that the
majority of these final recruits never
marched toward Mexico at all. If this
statement be even approximately true
the present amendment Is exceedingly ly
important to the Treasury. Again, the
Senate does not give pensions 20 all sur
viYing widows, like the House bill, but
only to those that 'have not remarked. y
Still another pIoYisO is il these terms
And provided that every such officer. en-
listed man, or widow, who is or may become
62 years of age or who is or may become
subject to any disability OF dependency
equivalent to some cause recognized by the
/ Pension laws as a sufficient cause for the al
J lOwanCe of a pension, shall be entitled 20 the
provisions of the act, except where such dis
ability or dependency was incurred IN siding
or abetitiny the late rebellion.
Finally, to gnaTd against duplicating
pensions the Senate has provided that
where persons entitled uuder this law
are already receiving pensions OF less
than s. . month, they shall only be en-
titled to the difference up to s, and they
shall have nothing at all under it if ai-
ready peusIOned at s. or more.
Some. a. least, of these amendments
the House viii doubtless have to accept
in order 10 save The Dill from defeat
/ Exactly how much the measure may
take from the Treasury annually. if lin.
ally agreed upon and enacted, will de-
pend Uu its ultimate shape, but it must
in any event, be several millions. The
estimate Of the original cost of the
b House bill by its leading advocates var
led from four TO eight millions for thl
b. first year, with a diminutiOn thereafter
Some Congressman thought it nigh
/ only cost two millions a year, but Others
fixed the limit at ten. The aggregat,
[ cost, first and last, was estimated Al
! from sixty to seventy millions, or from
, forty 10 fifty millions under the sixty
day limitation. But, as has been said
these estimates must be revised unde
2 the various Senate amendments. Iht
e House bill had mentioned particularly
: / the years 1S45 and lS4S as two of thos
/ HuvTurr which enlist mani and sArr7.a.- So
y / aLy period should secure a pension. Tn
first blood was shed in April, 1916. whel
= some Americans under Thornton wer
q killed, and the last battle was Tough
. the 9Th Of October, 1S47. while tn
: treaty OF peace Was agreed TO Feb.
Z 1S4S.
, IN spite Of the existing differences b.
q tween the action of the House and ths
+ Of the Senate, the Mexican Pension bi
is possibly nearer enactment than eve
before. The amendments Of the Senat
8 are very much the same except for Il
O quiTing two months instead of two week
n service, as those which it added to tn
o TOwnshend Mexican Pension bill, in tn
" Forty eighth Congress. But the Senat
g at that time also added the famous Gu
g lOm bill, pensiOuing Union depender
veterans. al an unknown cost. perhaI
$50, 900. 600 year. This swamped th
, original Mexican bill for that Congress
Y Now the Cullom bill has been passed b
It the Senate as a separate measure, an
II accordingly does not come up to hand
cap the Mexican bill. The fate of tn
= latter measure will be watched with u
J. interest which the fifty millions involve
81 and the momentQus precedent Of per
e sioning troops for mere enlistment dC
AZ Y