Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-06-06
QUEER PENSION RULINGS.

Good Times for Pension Sharks-How to
Get Rid Of tho 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 a pension as 81 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 it
will be interesting to know what has
become of the law under which PEN
sions of less than 81 a 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 of
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 viii come
in for 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 pensioners 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 tn will re-
ceive notice from claim agent of his
readiness to push his case speedily
through Commissioner Tanners Office
If the fee is the usual o1e, ar d each of
the pensioners now receiving less than
81 can be induced to apply for an in
crease. it will be a neat little prize of
$7O0,O 1t will show how indiffer-
ent Tanner is to a matter of money
when patriotism and the pension
agents are concerned. The pension
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.
It would be unusual, to say the least,
for the Pension Office to take up these
10000 cases without solicitat: on or in
PREVENTION, and the pension agents
would probably find it too irl ocular 20
be countenanced.
Mr.. Tanner is in favor Of several
other improvements" that he might
manage to adopt without the approval
of Congress. He would have the
record of the acceptance of a sollier
regarded as evidence that he was
sound when enlisted, the Government
to be obliged to prove the contrary.
He would continue a pension to a
widow or dependent relative, whether
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 rebel
prisons without requiring them to
prove that disability arose from i'm
prisonment He would extend several
classes of pensions from 25 to nearly
80 per cent, and would equalize all
bounties. Any thing that has the
suggestion to increase in it ought to
be as grateful to the pension attorneys
as an epidemic to undertakers--N
v T>ivooS