The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-06-01
QUEER PENSION RULINGS.
Good Times for Pension Sharks-How T.
Get Rid of the Surplus.

Good Times for Pension Sharks-How to
Get Kid of the Surplus.
1t begins to look as If the halcyon
days OF the Nation had come for the
high-tariff men and the pension sharks.
A short cut to higher duties is to be
made through custom houses, instead
of by the usual but more roundabout
method of legislation. Pension Com
missioner Tanner, whose sensibilities
are affected by the discovery that so
small pension as 81 a month is paid,
declares that he proposes TO call in all
pensions lower than 81 a month and
issue them at not less than 81 a week.
When he does this generous thing 1t
will be interesting to know what has
become of the law under which pen
sions of less than 81 month were
granted. There has been only one
Democratic Commissioner of Pensions
since the war Of the rebellion. The
reflections of Commissioner Tanner
are, therefore, cast upon long line oil
Republican Commissioners who must
be assured to have been less generous
than Mr.. Tanner, or less acute to dis
cover the extent to which the Commits
sioner could exercise his generosity.
1t will also be interesting to observe
whether the pension agents will come
in for u share of Commissioner Tan
ner's generosity. There is the pen
sion agents commission, and they may
reasonably expect him to do some
thing to manifest his gratitude for the
high position into which they thrust
him.
If the Pension Office gives notice
that it is prepared to advance the rate
of all pensi oners receiving less than
81 a month, it is not at all unlikely
that about that time each of the pen
sioners of the class referred to will re
ceive notice from a claim agent of his
readiness to push his case speedily
through Commissioner Tanner S office.
If the fee is the usual one, and each oi
the pensioners now receiving less than
81 can be induced to apply for an in.
crease, it will be Il neat little prize o.
800, 600 1t will show how indiffer
ent Tanner is to IL matter of money
when patriotism and the pension
agents are concerned. The pension
agents have had their eyes on the sur
plus for several years. They would
be glad to take it, and the way
that Commissioner Tanner suggests
would be an acceptable one, no doubt
1t would be unusual, to say the least
| for the Pension Office to take up these
| 10000 cases without solicitation or in
tervention, and the pension agent:
would probably find it too irregular tc
be countenanced.
Mr.. Tanner is in favor of severa
other improvements" that he might
manage to adopt without the approva
of Congress. He would have the
record of the acceptance of soldier
regarded as evidence that he wa'
sound when enlisted, the Government
to be obliged to prove the contrary
He would continue a pension to {
widow or dependent relative, whether
the pensioner died of wounds or dis
ease resulting from service or not. He
would extend the arrears limit to Jan
uary l, 1889 or 1888. He would grant
pensions to all survivors of rebe
prisons without requiring them tc
prove that disability arose from i'm
prisonment. He would extend severa
classes of pensions from % to nearly
80 per cent, and would equalize al
bounties. Any thing that has th'
suggestion to increase in it ought tt
be as grateful to the pension attorney
as an epidemic to undertakers.-N
| Y. Times.