The Arizona champion. [volume] (Peach Springs, Mohave County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1883-1891, 1889-01-19
WASHINGTON LETTER,
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON. Jan. IL. 1899.

asningtOn, Jan. II, 1909.
''So this great building and this
army Of clerks are the adjuncts of
your pension system. Your last
war closed, / believe, nearly quar-
ter Of century ago." Thus spoke
to me surprised German Army
surgeon, n delegate to the inter
national medical convention last
year. What would my Teutonic
friend say had he heard Represen,
tative Dockery tell the House last
week that the attorneys fees in
increase cases alone, at $40 per
case, amounted to nearly 100000
last year. Our pension system is
the most gigantic in the world.
Fifteen hundred clerks work year in
and year out in the pension bureau
adjudioating claims, and the number
of cases only increases. East, west,
north, south, travel two hundrel and
fifty special examiners investigating
the more complicated of those
claims. In the offices of the Ad-
jutant- General and Surgeon Gen
eral twelve hundred clerks fill in
the years searching official records
of service. In the Second Audi
tors office over hundred clerks
are employed in pension matters.
At the agencies another hundred
make payments.
Nearly three thousand people are
thus exclusively employed by the
Government, at an expense say Of
$40, 900 per year, in salaries alone.
Enormous buildings are devoted to
the business, hundreds of tons of
paper are consumed and thousands
of gallons of ink shed in the cause.
In the Pension office proper work
accumulates faster than it can be
disposed of, and Congress refuses
the necessary number of clerks to
adjudicate the claims within a
reasonable time. And yet the last
war closed quarter of century
ago.
The uninitiated reader must re-
member, however, that our pension
system has been OF slow growth, for |
although general pension law was
enacted in 1892, it was not until
after the civil war that anything
like practice was established, and
even then the practice had 10 under
go thousand changes of detail.
To-day the laws and practice Of the
Bureau, the decision of the Secre-
tary and the rulings of the Com
missioners, make quite respecta-
table volume. There are hundred |
grave decisions on slime of duty" as
many more os to rights of attorneys |
an avalanche OF decision on minor
points, and a wilderness of rulings
under Theses decisions. And listly |
there is an amazing list of rates
allowed, from the 81 per month al
lowed for the loss OF portion of
little finger to the S72 per month
given for the loss of both eyes, both
legs or both arms. There are fixed /
rates for everything but diseases.
The rates for diseases are fixed by
guessin,.
And here enters the first object
ionable feature Of the system. All
over this country are resident ex-
aiming surgeons, who devote part
of one day of each week to the
physical examination of claimants.
There are about thousand of these
people, and this branch of the SER
vice costs about $500, 700. In
disease cases their decision gener-
ally fixes the rate allowed. Of
course the doctors are not all I'M
prejudiced, and those who are not
all capable. A very large minority
may be found either at one extreme
or the other, the extreme of gener-
osity or the extreme OF distrust
toward claimants. Very often
particularly grasping Board Of Sur
geons will rate every claimant high
in order to swell the amount of
their own fees, as the claimants
soon learn in any district where the
easiest" board lies and ask to be
sent there.
Politics sometimes bears hand
in fixing the rate allowed. | once
saw going out of an examining sur
geon's office hearty, bluff, county
commissioner and local politician,
followed slowly by ragged, pain
fully crippled, prematurely old man.
l was not much surprised to learn
q few months afterward that the
commissioner had been allowed Sl8
per mouth for some mysterious
facial neuralgia, and the cripple
had been increased to 81 per month
for his open and discharging wound
of hip. And my surprise was no
greater when the surgeon was nomi-
mated for the State Senate. ON a
close vote by the efforts Of the afore
said neuralgiac politician. The Of
fee Of a capable examining surgeon
is a good place to diagnose moral as
well as physical natures. There
comes the alleged nearly deaf man.
The doctor examines. He begins
by yelling at him, and the claimant
can hardly hear him. Gradually
he get him excited and finally is
n ~