Omaha daily bee., 1890-03-19
The PENSION ESTIMATES.
In 1894 the Expenditures VIII
Reach s112,ooo,ooo.
Mr.. MoRRow's CALCULATION
The Maximum Number of Pensions
viii Reach Three Quarters of
Miilion-Saycrs At
tacks the system,
HnuAc.


WAsHSGToS, March ls the house
today tie protest from the president CT the
Colored Industrial Fair association OF Ar
kansas against the proposition to tax cotton
seed oil was presented and referred.
Mr.. Congcr of Iowa presented resolu-
tion OF the Iowa general assembly in favor
OF the bill requiring producers OF compound
lard to label their articles Referred
a. resolution was adopted calling on the
secretary of war and the secretary of the
interior for information as to whether q
saving of public expenditure could be made
by transferring the bureau of pensions from
the interior department to the wa. depart
ment
A resolution was adopted calling upon the
secretary of the interior Tor data in relation
to the payment of pensions and for an estl-
mate as to the amount of money which Will
berequ red for the payment of arrearage in
the case the Limitation of the arrears act Is
repealed.
A bill was passed authorizing affidavits
and dcpositions under the public land laws
to be made before commissioners OF United
States courts or before the clerk of the court
of record in which the land is situated
Mr.. Payson of Illinois called up the bill to
action on which the morning hour expired
and the house went into committee of the
whole on the pension appropriation bill.
Mr.. Morrow, in charge Of the bill, which
appropriates sos, 427, ,48l, explained its pro-
visions In detail, and in reference to the
general subject of pensions said it might
safely be assumed that the number of pen
soners would reach its maximum about July
h. .k,,.x
Sl12 0U0, 900. On that date, under the exist
ing law, the number of pensioners on the
rolls would be 100000. <; sJe-t
MIR. Sayers discussed the pension system
as affected by both rhe acts Of congress and
the administration of the service? He cited
statistics to show that from july ], 1860, to
January l, 1890, the expenditures of the gov
ernmeut for pensions Ewere 81, lO5, 1896, OH;
that the expenditures for pensions for the
past fiscal year were $50, 1871, ,06s; that the ex-
penditures for pensions from March 4, 1889,
to June, 1861, throughout n period of seventy
two and a halfyears, were $50, 13S,327 and
the excess of pension disbursements for the
fiscal year ending June 30 1889, over the
pensions from 1889 to 1861, "a period of
seventy.two and half years was S. 1893, Gal.
He severely criticised the administration of
the pension office ard cited many instances
where he claimed the decisions were incor-
rect and improper. He wished to call at
tention to the manner In which the pension
system was being administered. He thought
there should be thorough Investigation of
tho system in order that complete justice
should be done to the men who had fought
for their country, aud that bounty jumpers
might be stricken from tho rolls.
Mr.. Peters said that for the first time in the
history of the country the house had before
it careful and concise estimate of what the
expenditures of the pension bureau would
be during the next fiscal year. He defended
the administration of the pension bureau.
While he did not defend all the acts of Com
missioner Tanner he could only say that tb at
officer had followed in the wake Of his pre-
decessor, General Black. as t @
Pending further, debate the . committee
rose and the house adjourned.