Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1889-01-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.
lfrom Our Regular corrcspondcnt.l
WASHINGTON, Jan. II, 1889

WASHINGTON, Jan. II, 1889.
80 this great building and this army %
clerks ars the adjuncis of your pension svs
TEN. Your last war clased Ibelieve. nearI,
quarter OF "a century ago Thus spok.
To- me- ~ surpii ised German ARMY surgeon
u delegate To the International medical con
vention last wear What would my Ten.
tonic friend say had hc heard Representa-.
tive D~kcry tell the house last week that
the attorneys fees in increase eases alone
~ $40 per ease. amounted to nearly y 100
900 last year. our pension system is til.
most gigantic ia the world. Fifteen hun
dred clerks work year ia aud year out in
the pension bureau ndju,Iiratins rl,inS.
and the number "i eases only inrr-a s.s.
East, west, north aud south travel two
hundred and iifty special examiners inves-
tisafing the more rninpiiratc,l ..f these
claims. la III. offices of tn. ,Jiut,nt r.p-
"ral and surseon general twelve hundred
clerks I'LL in the year searching oiiirial re.
or'is III service. III the serond auditors
office over ~ hundred clerks nre cmplnye,I
in pension matters. At III. ag.ncies an
either hundred make payments.
Nearly three Thousand people are thus
exclusively rmpioyr'i 10y the government III
an expense. say of i.oo". 900 per year IN
salaries alone. Enornnu, buildings are de-
voted I" the business hundreds "i ions uf
paper are consumed aud thousands of gal
Ions of ink shed in lac cause. In the pcn.
sion "ilire proper work accumulate, faster
I Than u can br disposed of. aud congress re-
hs's The necessary number oi clerks to ad-
Jndicaic the claims within u reasonable
time. And yet the last war ,lnsr,I ncarlva
quarter uf II century ago.
The nniniiiatcl reader must REMEMBER,
however, that our pension system has been
of slow growth, Tor although u general pen
sion law was cnac,e,i in 1872. i, was not
until after the civil war that anything like
u practice was e>tablishc,i aud even then
the practice had To undergo a Thousand
changes of detail. To-day the laws and
practice "f the bureau. the ,ccision oi the
secretary and the rulings of the commits
sionrr make quite u Respectable volume
There are II hundred grave decisions ON
lime ri duty. as many more as To rights
"f attorneys, AN avalanche ol decision. on
minor points. aud "A wilderness of ruling.
under these decisions. And lastly. ther, i. !
an amazing list of rates allowed from the |
81 per month allowed for the loss of "A nor /
ti"n "f y little finger to the S12 per month |
given for the loss .f both cyr,. both legs cor /
both arms. There are fixed rates foreverv- I
thing but diseases. The rates for Diseases I
are fixed by guessing
And her. enters the first objectionable I
feature ri the system. Al over the conn
try are resident examining surgeons who
devote "a part of one day of each week tu
the physical examination nf claimants.
There are about Thousand of these peo-
pie, and this branch .f the service costs
about Ssoo,o~. In disease eases their de-
d-ion generally fixes the rate allowed. Of
course the doctors are not all unprcjudicrd.
and some incompetent A very large mi.
nority may he foun.l either at one extreme
or the other the extreme Of generosity or
the extreme of distrust toward claimants
Very often n particularly graspng board of
will rate every claimant high ia
order To swell the amount oi their own
lees. as the claimants soon learn ia any
district where the 'easicst" board li,s and
ask to be sent there.
Politics sometimes bears a hand IN fin
ING the rate allowed. once saw going out
oi an examining surgeons office a hearty.
blum county commissioner aud local poll
Iieian, followed slowly by - ragged. pain
nlly crippled, prematurely Old man. was