Huntsville gazette., 1890-10-11
THE PENSION BUREAU.

June 80 1890. and Including the First
Guarter of the Current Fiscal Year
success of the Reforms Inaugurated in
the Conduct of the Bureau.
WASHINGTON, Oct 7.-The annual re-
port OF the Commissioner of Pensions
lor the fiscal year ending June past, in
Guiding the first quarter of the current
nscal year, of the operations of this
bureau, was submitted to the Secretary
OF the Interior yesterday. Il shows
that at the end of the fiscal year there
were 357, 1855 pensioners upon the rolls.
There were IS 337~original claims
allowed during the year, being 14,716
more than were allowed in 1885, The
amount of the first payment of these
claims aggregated S32, 47S S41, being
Sl1, O36, 492 more than in the previous
fiscal year, and SO, 179, 225 more than
the first payments of the fiscal year
1883. The average annual value of
each pension at the close of the year
was S133.94
Commissioner Raum says that upon
assuming charge of the Pension Of
flee last October he discovered that a
number of important changes were nee
essary to secure satisfactory results;
which were brought to the attention of
the Secretary of the Interior. There
were no satisfactory specified duties
provided for the deputy commissioners
or the chief clerk of the bureau. Sew
eral thousand letters were daily re-
oeived from claimants and attorneys
making complaints, to which no reply
was made; the medical division was di-
vided into sections for consideration of
classified diseases; the power of re-
opening claims was exercised by heads
OF divisions and examiners with
out submitting them to the Commits
sioner; claims were drawn from the
files, from day to day, for adjudication
at the direction of. the file clerks,
claimants having no power to cause the
settlement of their claims when COM
plete; eighteen per cent. of the official
forces were assigned to DUTY in the
field for the special examination of
cases, when there were IA. 335 cases in
the special examination division; di-
vision had been created, called the
Board of Review, composed of about
forty persons, for the re-examination Of
cases passed upon by the Board Of Re-
view, and matters relating to the APP
pointment and promotion of the official
force of the Pension Office and of boards
of medical examiners were under the
direction of two divisions.
The Commissioner devotes considera-
BILE space to discussing and explaining
the present system of drawing cases
from the files for adjudication, and says
that under the system of the completed
files, the claimant has right, upon a
proper certifcation that his claim is
complete, to have it Immediately
placed upon the completed files" and
taken up in it's order for adjudication.
Claims placed upon the completed
files" are taken up within week for ac-
tion, and If found complete are imme-
diately allowed. If proofs are lacking,
call is Immediately made upon the
claimant to supply the deficiency, and
upon the receipt of the required evil
dence, the claim is again taken up for
consideration. The soldier who is en-
titled to pension and promptly fur
nishes the required evidence to establish
his claim should have his case disposed
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 file clerk in drawing his
claim; for however diligent the file
clerks may be, il is impossible for them,
when there are a million claims pend
ing, as is now the case, to have such
knowledge OF their condition as to en-
able them daily to select the cases
which should have precedence in adju-
dication because of their riority of
competition.
When Commissioner Raum took
charge of the bureau last October, he
says, the work of adjudicating claims
and issuing certificates, had, during the
period from July 1, 1889, fallen far be-
hind the same period for the previous
fiscal year; while from October 20, 1889,
to June so, 1890, there was an increase
in the adjudication of claims and the
issuing Of certificates, greatly in ex-
cess of the same period of the preced-
ing fiscal year.
To illustrate the great amount OF
business transacted, com pared with pre-
vious work of the bureau, the report
furnishes statement showing that
since the Disability act was passed, the
bureau received in July, August and
September past 1876, 729 letters relat-
ing to disability claims, and sent out
during the same period, 4S5, 462 replies.
The Commissioner thinks that probably
one hundred thousand OF these claims
can be allowed. He speaks of the Dis
ability act as the first in the history OF
the world, which grants pensions Tor
disabilities not proven in the line OF
duty; and as law which recognizes a
higher obligation on the part OF the
people to disabled veterans than. was
ever before formulated. Nothing, he
says, shall be left undone by the bureau
to give effect to this latest expression
of the gratitude of the people to the
soldiers who saved the republic.
The VIII of Millionaire Davis.