Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-10-25

| special aet az Congress The Pension ono
holds that it can not increase mis- pension anC
refuses to do SO because Congress has fixed MI
rating. He is therefore compelled TO go Il
| Congress r further relief and an act is passeS
to give him sl6 per month. But the Presi
dent vetoes this bill holding that the claimant
now has liberal rating for a gun-shot wounC
through the face and shoulder. which affects hi.
sight and hearing and causes HIM constant neu
ralgic pains. But he seems TO have no consci
entio scrupies in signing bill to increase the
pension OF Benjamin F. Kelley 10 800 per monts
for gunshot wounds which do not dIsqualify
him for high grade clerkship in the Pension
ONCE.
Joseph Romiscr was member Of Maryland
volunteer militia company. In an emergency
the company was called on by the Government
and sen: TO Cumberland TO repel Confederate
| attack. This soldier, while in the ranks, WAS
wounded by the accidental discharge Of gUr
In the hands OF comrade. the ball passing
through his head and destroying the sight OF Ole
eye and the hearing OF one ear.
| Congress could and did pension him by a
special act, but the President vetoed the bill
because the man was not mustered into the
| United States service. But this was too fragrant
an abuse Of the veto power, even for servile
Democratic House, and the bill was passed over
the veto by q vote of 175 to IS. In the Senate il
passed unanimously, 50 votes in the affirmative
| and none in the negative.
Scores OF cases OF bills approved and bills We
toed might be cited to show the utter inconsist-
ency OF the President in considering these case
1t is fact known TO every one familiar with tie
| work of the Committee on Invalid Pensions
that the President has repeatedly vetoed tie
| strongest bills and signed the weakest; that he
has repeatedly vetoed bills for certain reasons,
| and approved other bills where the same rea-
| sons existed.
! It is unquestionabiy true that the President
has little sympathy for the Union soldier, and
would have vetoed many more cases II he had
had time, he plainly declares; and his hos
tility and utter lack OF sympathy with this large
class constantly crops out in trivial and sarcas-
tic sentences in his messages. For instance:
| NO statement is presented of the bounty re-
| ceived by MIN upon either enlistment" PROB
ably there were those who found their interest
in such an appeal Ito Congress). THE num-
| Der of instances in which those OF our soldiers
who rode horses during the war were injured by
| their saddles indicates that those saddles were
dangerous contrivances." After this brilliant
service with a terrific encounter with tie
| measles Whatever else may be said of tbfs
| claimants achievements during his short MIL
| tary career, it might be considered that he &C.
cumulated a great deal Of disability" Many
| more quotations might be made OF similar char
| acter from his veto messages. They are coarse
undignif ed and utterly unworthy of the Chief
Executive OF This great Government.
THE DEPENDENT PENSION BILL.
If any further evidence is required to show
the utter lack of sympathy on the part of the
President for the soldiers who followed their
country's flag in the late rebellion it is fully
| furnished by his action in vetoing the Depend
ent Pension bill passed in the Forty-ninth Con-
gress.
The Committee on Invalid Pensions COM
posed OF nine Democrats and six Republicans,
in an able and exhaustive report unanimously
adopted, say: TT passes the comprehension of
this Committee to understand how the Presi-
dent could have overlooked in another bill what
are alleged as faults in this bill.
1.-THE bill we refer to passed the House the
same day as this did and met with his unhesi-
tating approval 1t is the bill to give pensions
to the survivors of the war with Mexico, etc.
Under that bill, if one VINO was soldier in that
war and is now under sixty-two years of age
applied. he must allege and prove some degree
of dependency, and no matter how slight, quite
vague and indefinite, and any degree of disaDil-
ity is sufficient, no matter how incurred ex-
cept in the military service against the United
States; and no matter if he be worth millions
he need only show sixty days service he need
not have been in an actual engagement with
the enemy or subject to any OF the actual dan
gers of war, or even that he should have been
in Mexico or on the coasts or frontiers thereof;
and it embraces within its provisions more per-
sons than are to be benefited by the bill now
under consideration. 1t grants the pension to
every soldier over siXty-two years of age with
out any condition as to his circumstances
or necessities. and without requiring any dis
ability as the result of services, even though he
be a member of Congress- drawing salary of
5000 per annum. 1t gives pension to every
soldier under sixty-two years for any disability,
even II the disability resulted since his vice
and from his own vicious habits or gross care
lessness, and for this he gets 50; while the
Union soldier for the same disability. received
in the line of duty and while in the service,
would get perhaps only 81; and it gives a pen
sion to every widow Of soldier in that war
who is now siXty-two years of age, whether she
was the wife of the soldier or not at the time of
his service, without reference to the cause of his
death, even II he were killed in battle while
serving in the Confederate army.
1.-The committee would rejoice if there could
even now be found some indefinite vaguencss
or latent ambiguity in the Mexican Pension law
that would enable the President to say that
these results were not foreseen by him when he
was approving the one and contemplating a
veto of the other.
THE bill we presented to the House was
broad liberal and patriotic. 1t struck down
any disbarment from the pension list on account
of any service against the flag excepting such
persons as were laboring under political diff
culties. 1t was intended to reach mainly the
survivors of our civil war who had fought for
the Union, but it embraced within its
generous terms the survivors of the war
Of 1872. the Indian wars, and the
war with Mexico; all who could show
that they were totally unable to labor and were
dependent upon their daily labor for support
could appeal to its provisions, and all were to
be treated exactly alike II this bill fails to be-
layv iSf;0
acts Of the Executive in approving one and dis
approving the other that the committee can not
believe it will be Endorsed anywhere by the
patriotic sentiment of this country"
INSULTS BY THE PRESIDENT
In the message returning that bill to Con-
gress without his approval, he made the fol-
lowing grave and unfounded charges against
The committee answers these base calumnies
in the following emphatic language:
THE President says: Recent personal OBJ
servation md experience constrains me to refer
to another result which will inevitably follow
the passage of the bill. 1t is sad, but neverthe-
less true, that already in the matter of procur
ing pensions there exists a widespread dsre-
gard of truth and good faith stimulated by
those who, as agents, undertake to establish
claims for pensions, heedlessly entered upon by
the e1pectant beneficiary and encouraged or
a. least not condemned, by those unwilling to
obs:ruct neghbors plans
Your committee do not share in the opinion
that there exists a widespread disregard OF
truth and good faith in the prosecution of pen
sion claims. Nor do we believe that the ex-
soldiers Of the country are prone TO commit
fraud, perjury and subornation of perjury for
that purpose or for any other. II. however,
such be the fact, it does not appear to be pro-
ductive of result in the successful issue of fraud
ulent claims in any appreciate degree.
1.-The late Commissioner of Pensions, hon.