The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-09-13

the most commodious and the most con-
venient building for the dispatch Of
business that the Government has ever
possessed in this capital. ! could not
detract from the credit Justly due Gen.
eral Black. But he has only been adj
ninistering Republican laws, and he is
in full sympathy with the Republicans
in the matter of pensions. And Just
here desire to call attention to the diff
ference between the making and admin
istering Of law. General Black is an
efficient administrator OF the law. But
the law itself confers the right TO the
pension, not the Commissioner. Those
who made the law and conferred the
right are entitled to the credit for the
increase.
WIDOWS ARREARS ACT.
There is still another law the credit of
which is claimed for the Democratic
party, the widows arrears act," which
passed at the present session OF Con.
gress, and was approved June 7, 1888.
Let us look at that for moment and
see where the credit of It belongs. I
have searched the Record in vain to find
whether any other gentleman introduced
widows arrears bill I; that is, bill to
date the pensions OF widows back to the
death Of their husbands. know that /
did introduce such bill, and the gen.
tleman from Kansas Mr.. MORRILL, in
troduced a bill declaratory of the exist
ing law. Those two bills went to the
committee and were never reported
back, but upon the pension appropria-
ton bill my Republican friend from
Iowa, Mr.. Conger, moved an amendment
almost in the terms OF the bill had in.
troduced, giving arrears to widows from
the date OF the death of their husbands.
The chairman of the subcommittee in
charge of that bill, the gentleman from
Ohio Mr.. FoRAN, Democrat, raised a
point OF order against the amendment,
but the Chairman of the Committee OF
the Whole MIR. HATCH, OF Missouri,
Democrat, overruled the point OF order,
and the amendment was adopted with.
out a division. The bill with that
amendment went to the Senate. There
it was debated at great length. There
motion was made bv the Senator from
Missouri Mr.. CocKRELLl to strike out
all words that would apply to widows,
whose pensions had been Heretofore al
lowed, namely, the words (which have
been Or" This would have cut off all
widows, about 10000. A division was
had, and the vote was as follows: For
striking out 20-every man Democrat.
Against striking out, 23-of whom 22
were Republicans and Democrat. All
honor to that lone Democrat!
So the amendment of Mr.. CoNGER was
concurred in by the Senate and became
law, and ten thousand widows may
thank Republican of the House and
the Republican Senate for their arrears.
That amendment was Republican in its
origin, was introduced here by Repub-
lican, and the point of order against it
was made by the Democratic chairman
OF the sub. committee. 1t went to the
Senate, and there 1t was retained in the
bill by strict party vote except one,
the Republicans voting in favor of il
and the Democrats against it.
have gone over all the new pension
legislation, the credit of which is claim.
ed by the gentleman from New Hamp.
shire for the Democratic party, and
: have undertaken to show that every one
) of these measures, the widow increase
/ bill, the amputation bill, the Mexican
r pension bill, and the widows arrears
bill, every one OF them was passed by
} Republican votes, and would not have
been passed If left to the Democratic
| side. Such is the fostering care of the
Democratic party of the soldiers of the
country and of the soldiers widows.
THE vEToEs.
. The gentlemen tells us that the pres.
ent President OF the United States has
signed more private pension bills than
any other President has ever signed
but he does not tell us how many such
bills the President has vetoed, nor what
is the proportion between the number
: OF his vetOes and the number OF yetoes
of other Presidents.
claim that the issue is not how many
!! bills President signs. That is not
test of his friendliness to the legislation.
The test is,what proportion of the bills
! sent to him does he treat in friendly
manner? / undertake to say that
PresidentC Cleveland has vetoed more pen.
sion bills than all OF the Presidents oi
: the United States from George Wash.
ington down. Not only that, but he has
vetoed twenty-five times as many as all
the other Presidents of the United States
: from Washington down. In the Forty.
ninth Congress there were sent to Presi.
dent Cleveland for his action 049 pen
, sion acts. OF these $40 he vetoed l24
he disapproved but allowed to become
!: law without his signature 1855, and 90
he failed to sign, which failed for want
OF his signature, making a total of 2Sl
out of the 949 presented to him that he
failed to approve.
have recently had occasion to inves.
tigate this matter, and l here give re.
suit OF that investigation. The account
: stands thus:
Grant approved 575, disapproved 8 Hayes
approved 307, disapproved NONE; Arthur ap-
| A N