Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-13
In the National Guard, Nor Special Pensions
for Militiamen.
AN INSURANCE BILL LAID OUT COLD

cannot comply with the provisions of this
| bill is not an evidence of financial weakness,
| because one of the companies has assets duly
| invested, as the law directs, amounting to
81 42l 339 35 and the other to $1,79l, 745 O3 and
| a surplus beyond capital and all other lia-
bilities of $57l,S 29 This bill if it became a
law would apply to only two companies: The
standard laid down for all other companies
| is made so high that they would be driven
| from the State, leaving a monopoly of this
| particular branch of the insurance business
| to the companies seeking this legislation
OF the more than 400 insurance companies
doing business in Pennsylvania there is no
reason why certain conditions and require
ments should be imposed on two OF them
and not imposed on the others. Nor should
| one company be compelled to maintain a
surplus of 100000 on the accident risks,
while another company doing the same class
| of business is not required under the law to
maintain any surplus, but, on the other hand,
| is permitted to do business with the capital
impaired not to exceed 30 per cent. Ii the
| provisions of this bill were made applicable
| to all insurance companies it would close
| the doors of 33 of the Al joint stock COM
panies of fPennsylVania.
No Brevets for College Youth.
Another bill vetoed by the Governor was
that providing for the granting of commits
sions in the National Guard as brevet first
ieutenants to graduates of colleges and mill
| tary academies of the State. The Governor
says:
lam very decidedly of the opinion that the
proposition contained in the act OF Assembly
is one which would not be approved by the
members of the National Guard, and would
be destructive to the organization and dis
cipline of that body rather than promotion
of the same. 1t provides that the brevet
rank of first lieutenants in the National
Guard shall be conferred upon graduates of
any college, academy or military academy in
the State, who shall have received certain
military instruction and defined experience
therein. This is an enlarged discrimination
against members of the Guard itself in favor
of academy graduates.
Soldiers of the State, who have served long
and faithfully in its guard, are shut out from
rank and honor in their service thus lavish
ly conferred upon youth who have never
served day in the Guard itself. see no oc-
casion for an enlargement of the present lib
eral provisions for giving brevet rank to col
lege graduates.
Two Pension Bills Disapproved.
The Governor in one veto disapproved the
bills introduced by Representatives Rose
and Crothers, of Philadelphia, respectively,
providing for the relief of Louis Ancker,
hospital steward and sergeant of the Third
Regiment, and for the relief of David Will
son, late sergeant of Company c. Third Reg
iment. In vetoing these bills the Governor
says:
have approved during and since the past
session of the General Assembly a number
of bills for annuities to persons alleged to
have contracted permanent or chronic disa-
bility in the service of the Commonwealth
during the late war for the Union. Some Of
these grants have met Executive approval,
not without some misgivings as to the mer-
its of the applicants, but have been solicit
GUS that no deserving beneficiary of the
Commemorative bounty should be de-
prived of it. The two cases covered by bills
numbers 270, and 80 belong to an entirely
different They r0ntpmnlata
auguration of pension system for members
of the National Guard and propose to insti-
tute regular annuities for injuries not con-
tracted in actual military service, but at en-
campments or prior and subsequent thereto.
After referring to veto of a somewhat
similar bill by Governor Beaver, the Gov
ernor says:
and do so solely for the purpose of calling
attention to the fact that some general legis-
lation on the subject is needed, under which
the beneficiary of this bill and persons in
like situat tions may be provided for without
the necessity of special legislation of the
character of this bill. If such legislation
should be enacted there will be no reason
why the National GuardSmen, proposed to
be benefited by this bill, should not be cared
for hereafter. 1 regret the delay which will
inevitably follow this action, but it seems to
me that the general good to be accomplished
will greatly outweigh individual inconven-
ience., In these recommendations concur.
Safeguards Against Pension Frauds.
Despite these admonitions, two successive
Legislatures have failed to furnish any gen.
eral system for deserving cases arising in
the National Guard service. The whole
system of pension legislation by the United
States Government, generous, as 1t justly is,
abounds in checks and safeguards against
the loose distribution of even small sums of
public money without clear and authentic
evidence. Thereby is protected, not alone
the treasury of the public, but the stand
ing of the worthy veteran, who has an hon
orable claim upon the bounty of his country
men. 1t is not necessary to question the
surrounding the claims set
up in these bills to discover that to recog-
nize claims upon such proof as they offer
would be an unwise departure from the line
of approved policy pursued IN our pension
legislation and an invitation to general
fraud upon and abuse of the generosity of
the State.
derives its chief value as an honorable dis
tinction from the fact that the granting of
it must be preceded by an indisputable
proof of merit. All legislation which de-
distribution of pensions
upon doubtful evidence of merit should be |
1 feel justified, therefore, in
my approval from these bills,
grant much larger annuities than have been |
voted to the subjects of bills which covered |
actual service in the war for the Union |
nearly 80 years earlier.
The Other Dead Measures.
The other bills vetoed by the Governor |
are as follows: Authorizing the courts to |
direct the sale of real estate of dissolved !
corporations on the petition of one or more |
or their legal representatives.
whenever requested so to do. Disapproved |
because similar act is already on the |
statute books.
Authorizing the State Treasurer to refund |
to Peter Maurer, one of the executors of
John Maurer, late of Snyder county, the /
amount of collateral inheritance tax paid
over and above the real value of the estate /
liable for such tax. The Governor says all
devices to secure refund in such cases,
outside of the general law, are reprehensi-
BILE.
Authorizing the sale of the real estate of
decedents by persons named in the will of |
any testator other than an executor. This
bill, in the language of the veto message,
''is entirely superhuous and unn ecessary
legislation.
Supplementary to the act incorporating
the trustees of the Reformed PRESBYTERIAN |
Church in North America. 1t aim ed to de-
clare, by Legislative enactment, rights and /
powers under its charter which no Court |
could find therein.
Free Trade in Peddling.
To require peddlers, venders and hawkers
of fish, fruit and vegetables in cities of the
first and second classes, to take out a license
The Governor thinks public sentiment
would not sustain this legislation, and that
freedom of traffic and less restriction upon
ha riobtc IF ba ran,,1a fo fraa1x, b,,-r ~