The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-10-24
claimants for pensions, who do not happan TO 90
employees in the pension bureau.

| crease OF pension, to take erect from
| long anterior date, and to have been against
tine repeated testimony of men not only COM
| petent, but selected to determine the cases
| The secretary's letter then continues:
/ will not go into the other cases. They are
| before you. / have said enough, thlnk' 10
| show that tho secretary may well call matt IN
| til these cases can be more carefully examiner.
| YOU have such regard for your own official and
personal reputation. and the reputation OF your
bureau that you will not permit these cases TO
| remain as they are at present, but Will order
| each one of the claimants for medical examina.
tion before men whose word upon medlcai
| points will be unchallenged when stated, ana
will stop at nothing which shall keep all faint OF
| suspicion from the action of your office. Ihis
| certainly would be proper proceeding II IL al
| fected the question in hand, and / appreciate
your desire to maintain the integrity OF your
character an the legality OF your proceedings:
but il Is not the question what may yet ana
| hereafter be found out about these men. Inc
question is
WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE
upon the record as it stood when the Judgment
was rendered, aud the materiality and impor-
| tance Of this question arises. not only from the
eject it may have upon the particular individuals
named in these several papers, but upon the
course of procedure that will affect, If IL goes
money at the command Of the government.
which might be distributed, illegally and sum
marily, to those who are not as much entitled to
| it as tens OF thousands whose cases have not
yet been heard. II may be that this government
| is strong and great, and has at its command
| a surplus that no other nation has ever had,
but II sums Of money to the amounts above
! mentioned may be granted without any further
consideration of fact or law than seems to have
been given in the sc cases. 1t will Gepend solely
on a single officers disposition whether the
sources Of the government shall be sufficient for
its maintenance or not. There are more than
enough Of these applications aneady IN the field.
and increasing daily. to exhaust indeed the sur
plus, of which much has been said in connec-
tion with this matter, and am informed that
the applications for reratngs are greatly on the
| increase. and now reach the amount Of from
| seven to eight Thousand week. do not ask
nor desire, so far as am concerned, a re-exami-
nation of these applicants: but what / insist
upon ia that there
SHALL BE A RECONSIDERATION
| Of these allowances on the Record, and that any
| further allowances for them that NAV be made
shall be made in due course of proceedings upon
new application. new evidence and without any
advancement of the cases before those OF others
equally meritorious Your statement
| that the pension board of review reported that
| out of twenty-four cases re-rated one was
broadly and TWO reasonably open to suspicion,
| in connection with what have already pointed
out in these other cases. indicates that there Is
| need of far greater circumspection and rigid
| enforcement of the law in these mat
ters than has been recently prac-
| ticed for the public safety. But when it
| becomes question Of official authority and Of
t1cial responsibility and the good of the people,
| the preservation of the treasury and the melting
| out of exact justice to all and giving the pen
sloner who is abroad and unprotected the same
rights and same sums of money as to him who,
| by official influence attempts to get his claim
preferred. shall act. as am doing in the pres
| ent instance, regardless Of personal considera-
| tions, and intent upon the strict and exact en-
! forcement Of the law
The secretary further says that he intends
| to have all these cases re-examined and has
ordered an investigation of the practices of
the pension Office and that he will defer any
further orders until the investigating bonrd
reports The letter closes as follows: II
write this that you may be fully advised of
my views and purpose and my belief in my
authority to control all abuses in this de-
partment by whatever means I deem legal
and efficient"
| THE FIRST TNSTALMENT.
Secretary Noble Intends in few days TO
| give to the press the entire reports submit
| ted by the board appointed TO investigate
| Commissioner Tanners administration of
the pension Office The letter given to- night
! is but the first instalment of what is to be q
| vigorous defense of the position of the ad-
| ministration taken in relation to the man
agement of the pension Office under Tanner
1t has been decided that the Administrations Is
side of the case shall be given to the public
| IN few days The annual report of the
| fiscal year 1SSS-S9 of the commissioner of
pensons has been submitted to the secretary
of the interior. There were at the close of
the year 489,725 pensioners There were
added to the rolls during the year the names
of 81 .921 new pensioners, aud the names of
1754 whose pensions had been previously
dropped were restored to the rolls, making
an aggregate of 53,675 pensioners
added during the year; 16,507
pensioners were dropped from the
rolls for various causes, leaving a net in
crease to the rolls of 81, 169 names Ths
average annual value of each pension at the
close of the year is shown to have been
$13S. Is. The amount paid for pensions
during the year was $S9. PTS, 1929. The
total amount disbursed by the agents for all
purposes was $S9, 131. 968 a. Amount paid
as fees to attorneys, 81 .365, 593. AT. There
was disbursement of $14, ,515.72 for the
the payment of arrears of pensions in cases
where the original pension was granted prior
to Jan. %, 1879, and the date of commence
ment of pension was subsequent to discharge
or death. In the aggregate 1 ,24S, 14G pen
sion claims have been filed since 1861, and
in the same period 7S9, ,121 have been al
lowed The amount disbursed on account of
pensions since 1861 has been ST. ,O52, ,21S,-
413. II. The issue of certificates during the
year shows a grand total Of 145,29 OF
this number ST. ,921 were original certif-
Gates
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS
Commissioner Tanner recommends the es-
tablishment of two additional pension agen-
ces to relieve the overworked Offices at
Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Indianapolis and
Topeka, Kan. He recommends that con-
gress be asked to amend the act of June 6,
1874, so as to extend the benefit of all ben
sion laws as to rates to all pensioners whose
pensions have been granted by special
acts passed subsequent to said date.
and that the benefit of pension be
granted to the widows of soldiers
who died from causes originating in the ser
vice prior to March 4, 1861, during the time
of peace. He further recommends, as did
his predecessor, that the act of March 3,
1877, be amended so as to grant pensions TO
those who, having participated in the rebel
lion against the United States, subsequently
enlisted in the navy and were disabled
therein. The act referred to confines it's op-
erations to those only who under the same
conditions, enlisted in the army Of the United
States. The commissioner calls attention to
many irregularities in the rates of pen
sions Eighteen dollars per month, it ap-
pears. is the highest rate of pension which
, may be proportionately divided for different
degrees of disability IL such disability or dis
abilities are not equivalent to the loss of q
hand or foot If, however, pensioner-has
Lost hand, for which existing law now pro-
Vides the rate of $50 per month, and has
also received in the service and line of duty
an injury OF the back, for example, which
would alone entitle him to pension of $24
! per month, he can receive nothing in excess
of $50 q month for
THE CONFINED DISABILITIES
resulting from the loss of his hand, and hi.
said injury, unless, by reason of them, he il
totally helpless or nearly so, as to require
J the constant aid and attendance of another
person, for which degree of disability the
rate Of $50 month can now be granted !
will be seen, he says, that the pensioner il
such a case actually receives nothing fol
} his said injury, as the loss of his hand sion,