The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-19
NOBLE And TANNER.
The Secretary Scores the Late
Commissioner
ON THE RE-RATING BUSINESS.
The Assumptions of the Pension Bureau
We're that it was Superior TO the
Interior Department

subject of re-rsting Of pensions is made
public tonight. 1t is dated July Is; the
secretary acknowledges the receipt of Tan
ner's letter of July II, marked unofficial"
but which he could not receive in anything
: hut an official capacity, raising as it did
s question of authority between the commits
sioner and the secretary, and asserting
that of commissioner to be superior as to
the matter discussed.
Your position in your own language"
says the secretary, sis that the secretary of
the interior has the power to reverse deci-
sion of the commissioner of pensions, if ap
pealed from by a claimant against whom
the commissioner has decided. On the
other hand, if for any reason 1t be held
that claimant has been granted too much
pc lsion, the commissioner himself is the
only one who has the power to call halt
and reduce the pension.
THE commissioner is laboring under a
great misrepresentation The secretary is
compelled to correct any abuse s in thebureau
of pensions, or any other bureau in his de-
partment.n
The secretary, in support of his position,
quotes copiously from the revised statutes,
and adds that it will not do to say that the
secretary may not interfere and stop by his
own power the execution of any orders OBJ
y
tary is responsible for the conduct of the
commissioner and he is bound to see that
the law is enforced; that the public treas
ury is not unlawfully invaded, and that one
citizen who is entitled to a right, whether
of pension or land, or anything else, is not
unduly preferred either in time OF hearing
or allowance of money.
The secretary takes up the re-rating
\cases which, he says seem 10 be largely
more of an increase of pensions than IS
= allowed for long periods prior to the date
, of the examining surgeons certificate es-
I tsolishing the same under pending claim
4 for increase "lu fact he says, the com
missioner himself acknowledged them to
be cases of increase of pensions" The
secretary continues 1.-The cases referred
TO were ten in number In each one of
these the claimant was an employee in the
pension bureau receiving salary sufficient
Tor his comfortable subsistence and was at
his work daily. They were associated to-
gether and most of them had been in their
places under a former administration But
they did not then prefer their claims; they
made them soon after the advent of
the present administration. There was no
reason under the existing rules that their
cases should be made special or rushed
through in advance of all others. On the
contrary, there was then, and had been for
some years, a printed rule in full force,
that no cases should be made special except
III case of restitution, or when the appH-
can't was at the point of death. Yet these
cases were all hurried through by your
order. while hundreds of thousands of
other pensions were awaiting throughout
the land allowance for the first time of the
bounty the government promised them.
These other pension claimants were (many
of them supported by no such salaries) as
particular as the men were receiving these
and the association together of these men
whereby this preference seemed to have
been secured and subsequent allowances
obtained, is in itself a fact that their pur-
pose was to impose upon the commissioner.
"a further fact in each case is that the
Increase was allowed prior to the surgeons
certificate impending claims, and that sums
were allowed whose aggregate was over
sixteen thousand dollars. As neither you
nor l can afford to act upon personal con-
alterations in a matter of this magnitude,
/we are each bound by the law in all things
1t is our duty to take the law as we find it
and to fully exercise the power given to
either of US and to abstain from the abuse
Of il to any degree whatever"
The seCl etary refers to the duties of the
board of review and says: 1T is an estab
lished and well known rule that the depart
nent will refuse to disturb an adjudication
Of claims by former administration, ex-
cept upon more conclusive evidence than
had been submitted when the question was
as to the propriety of giving re-rating,
one OF the judgments merely depending
upon the weight of evidence. The depart
.nent Will not allow the opinion of today to
overturn the opinion of yesterday; and
Furthermore, old cases will not be re-
,opened, reconsidered, nor readiusted ex-
4ept upon the presentation of new and
Bacterial evidence tending to show the eX
istence of palpable error or mistake. The
department does not entertain the least OBJ
lection to an increase commencing under a
pending claim, as the law directs and upon
evidence to support it."
The secretary then reviews at considers
bic length the cases of three of the pension
Office employees whose pensions were re
rated, and concludes that the re-rating was
illegal and unwarranted. He adds: Il will
not go into the other cases: they are before
YOU have said enough, think, to show
that the secretary may well call i halt I'M
til these cases can be more carefully ex-
amined.
Il notice you say in your letter that you
have such regard for your official and per-
sonal reputation that you will not permit
these cases to remain as they are, but Will
order each of the claimants for medical eX
YS1sation before men whose word upon
medical points viii be unchallanged when
stated. The question is not what may
yet and lercafter be found out
about these men. The question is
what should have been done upon their re
cora a5 " SlOUu " tlSn IuuHmCHI WAS Ttu-
dered. l may be that this government IS
strong and great, and has at its command
surplus that no other nation ever had, but
IL sums Of money to the amount above men
toned NAV be granted without any further
consideration of fact or law than seems to
have been given in these cases, 1t will de
depend solely upon single officers dis
position whether the resources of the gov
eminent shall be sufficient for its main
tainance or not. There are more than
enough Of these applications already in the
field, and increasing daily, to exhaust the
surplus of which so m Gu has been said in
connection with this matter, and l am in
formed the applications for re ratings are
greatly on the increase, and now reach an
amount of from seven TO eight thousand a
week"
The secretary further says he intends to
have all these cases reexamined and has
ordered an investigation of the pension
Office. Pending a report OF the investigat
ing board he will issue no further order,
bujs expresses his belief in his authority to
control abuses in his department by any
means he deems legal and expedient.
Canadian Jack the Ripper.
OTTAWA, Ont, Oct. 1S.-The body of a
w4san, horribly mangled and slashed, has
been found here. 1t is believed TO be
''ripper'' case.