The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-07-09
SENATE VS.. PRESIDENT.
The Senate Pension Committee Criticises
the Late Presidential yetoes.

The Senate Pension Committee Criticise.
the Late Presidential Vetoes
WARRINGTON, July 3.-The senate commit
tee on pensions, in it's report recommending
the passage over the presidents veto of the
Oil granting pension to Mary J. Nottage.
says:
so great has become the number of such yetoes
interposed by the present executive all within
lie" week past, and so extraordinary the CEN
sure. sometimes rudely expressed, in nearly
every instance severely implied OF the action OF
the TWO houses OF congress and to their commits
tees, upon which has devolved the wearsome
ana generally unappreciated labor OF inyesti-
eating the claims, accompanied in many cases
oy such ridiculous and evident disgust with the
claims themselves, that your committee feel
bnat Iney are Justlhed in a brief review Of the
circumstances involved. In doing this strong
effort viii he made TO restrain a natural feeling
oI lnolgnatlon, which If permitted to assume
The proportion which the provocation iust,fias
would wholly destroy these respectfni
forms OF expression which must be main
aimed In official intercourse between the differ
1nt IN. oncers and departments OF the government
Ihls becomes the more necessary in propor-
lion as 1t is rendered the more difficult by reason
Of the unjust and unexampled style in which
some OF the messages OF the president are ex-
pressed. IL shall be the effort OF the committee
20 get on in this difficult matter without yIolat-
ing the courtesiss of official intercourse by in,i-
!ating an example whsh, so far as we are aware,
IS wlthout precedent, and which, so far as we are
concerned, shall remain So Twenty-Five per
cent OF the senate bills and only l2 per cent of
the house bills submitted to the president have
been vetoed. IL Is not insensible to the snecial
condemnation which this disparaginu contrast
ntiicts Much criticism has been INDUCED in
by the president of the methods of legislation
pursued by the two houses Of congress, and
however unlnformed he may be upon the sub
iect, and however uninten tionaly by reason of
want or knowledge, he NAV have misrep resent ed
10 the country the methods of legislation which
have been pursued in like cases ever since con-
gresses and parliaments have existed and which
have, since parliaments became free. been safe
from kingly and presidential interference all
the same the people are misled by the unwar-
ranted statements of the president as 10 the
manner in which legislation upon 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.
THE sHARPEsT OF THRUsTs.
Those members of the committee who have
performed the most have been as careful as any
and derisionf OF their patient, conscientious
abors to help along these noblest and best
portions of Gods poor and the countrs's bena-
factors can originate only in wise and noble
nature which is msled, or in one that, IL informed
sadly needs reconstruction or recreation. The re-
port embodies copyof instructions by the assist
ant secretary OF the interior to the commissioner
ot otpenstons, asfollows: Please cause the same to
be critically examined and report TO this depart
ment whether, in your opinion, any objections to
their approval are known to exist. In cases
where objections exist they should be spe-
;ifically set fort ;" This indicates the commit
tee says, Enthusiastically, that the president re-
lies upon the commissioner for his faces. Why
the president should initiate this game of shut
lie cock and pelt coordinate department. of
jhe government with vetoes based upon the re-
view OF the action Of congress my some subordi-
nate OF the commissioner Of pensions, is topic
which will bear thought, but perhaps may be
left without discussion Why the finding OF
The two houses OF congress should be discredited
and attributed TO unworthy motives indiffer-
ence or incapacity while the reassura,loe by the
pension clerk that he is right and
congress wrong, is accepted as the
basis of fact in these numerous veteos it
Is 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
.he general law. The jurisdiction of the legis-
iative power of this government is larger than
that OF the commissioner of pensions and
sooner or later, although it may cos the country
prolonged and steady effort. this truth will be-
come apparent. But it should be remembered
that in very large number Of these bills passed
by congress important original written evil
dences are filed with the committees or pre-
sented verbally, as In hearings before other COM
before legislative bodies. and often the applicant
disabilities. This evidence is not available to
the executive, at least without the asking, and
never has been in possession Of the pension
congressional statement stands upon stronger
proof than the finding Of facts which the presi-
dent sets up in disapproyal OF the BILL