Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-10-11
THE PENSION BUREAU.
A Years Work Summarized by
Commissioner Raun.
There Are Now 537,9 Pensioners on the
Rolis-Nearly 07,O00 Claims Allowed
During tho Past Twelve Months
How tho Work Has Boon i
Accelerated.

WASHINGTON, Oct. THE annual re-
port OF the Commissioner Of Pensions OF
tho operations of his bureau for the fis-
cal year ended juno 80 past, and includ-
ing the first quarter of the current fiscal
year, was submitted to the Secretary OF
the Interior yesterday. 1t shows that
at the end of the fiscal year there were
5S7, 944 pensioners borne upon the rolls.
There were &C, 337 original claims al
lowed during the year. being II, 71e
more than were allowed in 1880.
The amount of the first payment OF
these claims aggregated $32, ATS, ,S41, be-
ing 11,036, 400 more than in the pre-
vious fiscal year and $40. 179, 225 more
than the first payments of the fiscal
year 1888. The average annual value OF
each pension at the close of the year
was Sl33.94.
The commissioner devotes consider
able space to explaining the present
system OF drawing cases from the files
for adjudication, and says that under the
system Of the completed files the claim.
ant has right, upon proper certifica.
tion that his claim is complete, to have
1t Immediately placed upon the COM
pleted files and taken up in its order for
adjudication. Claims placed upon the
completed files are taken up within a
week for action and if found complete
are Immediately allowed. If proofs are
lacking call is Immediately made upon
claimant to supply the deficiency, and
upon the receipt of the required evi.
dence the claim is again taken up for
consideration. The soldier who is on
titled to n pension and promptly fur
nishes the required evidence to estab-
lish his claim should have his case dis
posed of without delay. He should have
the right to notify the office that he is
ready for trial, and not be compelled to
await the action of a file clerk in draw
ing his claim, for however diligent the
file clerks may be it is impossible for
them, when there are million claims
pending, as is now the case, to havo
such knowledge of their condition as to
enable them daily to select the cases
which should have preceded in ad udi-
cation because of the priority of their
completion.
When Commissioner Raum took charge
VI VIZ 1851 pCbODtI but WOEh Vi
adjudicating claims and issuing certifi-
ca es had during the period from July /.
1889, fallen far behind the same period
for the previous fiscal year: while from
October 30, 1889, to June 80, 1890, there
was an increase in the adjud ication of
claims and the issuing of certificates
greatly in excess of the same period OF
the preceding fiscal year.
To illustrate the great amount OF
business transacted, compared with pre-
vious work of the bureau, the report
furnishes MISUNDERSTANDING that since
the disability act was passed, the bu-
reau received in July, August and Sep
tember past 1,276, 729 letters relating to
disability claims and sent out during
the same period 4S5, ,462 replies. The
commissioner thinks that probably 100,
900 of these claims can be allowed. He
speaks of the disability act as the first
in the history of tho world which grants
pensions for disabilities not proven in
the line of duty; and as law which
recognizes higher obligation on the
part of the people to disabled veterans
than was ever before formulated. Moth
ing, he says, shall be left undone by the
bureau to give effect to this latest ex-
preston of the gratitude of the people
to the soldiers who saved the republic