The National tribune., 1889-09-26
wANToNLY sLANpERoUs.

It seems TO be very doubtful whether Gen. Geo.
s. Merrill will accept the Office Of Commissioner OF
Pensions, which is supposed to be at his command.
One objection which the Commanders of the
Grand Army said TO find to the place IL that it
is Subordinate" to the Secretary of the Interior.
In other words. they would not be able, any more
than Corporal Tanner, to distribute pensions &c
cording to their own discretion, but would be re-
qured to conform in some sort to the limitations
and restrictions of the law tho responsibility for
whose enforcement rests with the Secretary of the
Interior and not with the head of the Pension
Bureau. Apparently, what the Grand Army men
want is to have the administration of the pension
business turned TO them, with full liberty to
distribute the public money without control That
was what Tanner undertook to do, but Secretary
Noble proposes to direct and control the admins
tration of the Bureau for which no was officially
responsible. II might be we'll to consider the posi-
bity OF filling this place with somebody that was
willing to accept the responsibility from the Gov
eminent and not from the Grand Army.-NeW York
Times
There is not scintilla of truth to support
this allegation. No man who has been hon
ored by the GAR with the Office of Com
mander-in-C Chief is capable of talking such
rubbish. No man who has ever had intelli-
gence enough to fill the lowest office in the
Order is ignorant of the fact that the Com
missioner of Pensions is, and should be,
strictly Subordinate to the Secretary of
the Interior. As well talk of the Secretary
of the Interior not being subordinate to the
President, or clerk in the Pension Bureau
not being subordinate to the Commissioner.
They are all under the same law, and every
GAR. man knows and believes in this
just as he knows that the Sergeants must
be subordinate to the Captain, the Captain
to the Colonel, the Colonel to the Brigadier-
General, and so on.
1t is sheer falsehood to say that "the
Grand Army men want to have the admin
istration Of the pension business turned over
to them, with full liberty to distribute the
public money without control"
What the Grand Army men want il the
strictest compliance with the law in every
respect, with every official conscientiously
"''hS ms iuh uutJ ubuei ~, anu Cfti yOHt
held rigidly responsible according to his
position and duties. They have never asked
and never will ask-they do not want--that
any official shall even seem to strain the law
in their behalf But they do demand that
the President, the Secretary Assistant Sec
rotary aud the Commissioner of Pensions
shall give them all that they are entitled to
under the laws, and shall administer those
laws equitably and impartially, which has
never been done in the history of the Pen
sion Bureau.
The best proof of this is that there are
| millions OF dollars due the veterans under
the present laws which should have been
paid five, 10, Is and even 90 years ago
but have been withheld by failure of off
Gals to do their plain duty. When the vet
Grams get all the laws intend they shall have
aud still want more they will not ask it o
the Executive officers, who have no power Il
give it, but go direct TO the proper source
the law-making power of the land, the Con
gress of the United States.
Il