Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-01-29
THE BIGGEST BUREAU.
A GLANCE AT THE UNITED
STATES PENSION OFFICE.
Course. of a ension-The Claim
Traced From Its First Entrance
Into the Office Until Its Allowance
or Rejection.

that is written knows anything about
the pension office? According to the
estimates of the Secretary of the Trea-
sury for the service of the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1892, pensions and the
pension bureau will require an appropri-
alton of over $140, 900, 900, that is sum
of money that is almost incomprehensible
to ordinary people. 1t is over So for
every person in the United States. The
machinery that will make the disburse-
ments will require So, 900, 900 to keep it
running. The staff of the pension of
flee consists of nearly 5000 people.
There are the United States examining
surgeons, who are scattered all over the
United States and whose duties consist
in making physical examinations of APP
plicants for pension. There are the pen
sion agents, who pay out the money to
the pensioners. There are special ex
aminers, who travel about and investi-
gate cases of unusual complication or
in which fraud is suspected.
The pension office proper, the huge
building of red brick that Gen. Meigs
put up in judiciary Square, contains the
bulk of the men who give out pensions
or refuse to give them out, as the case
may be. 1t is larger than several of the
departments and is toa great extent de-
partment by itself. There are fifteen
divisions in it and each one of them does
an amount of business that is quite
astonishing, for there is no loafng there.
No matter how hard the clerks work it
is almost impossible for them to keep
abreast of the increasing tide of applica-
tions for pensions that come pouring in.
These applications are for every conceiv-
able ailment. Before the enactment of the
dependent pension law every claimant
who made what is known as an foriginal
invalid" claim-that is, q claim on his
own account for disability that he had
incurred in the war-had to prove n
number of very difficult things. He had
to make it clear that he was himself first.
Always the government requires proof OF
identity, and yet some clever scoundrels
have imposed on the pension office in
this matter. Another form of imposi-
tion is that practiced by the gentler sex.
According to the pension laws the pen
sion of widow ceases as soon as she
gets married. OF course this is hard
ship to a great extent, because at that
time, if she marries poor man, she
needs money more than ever before; but
Uncle Sam doesn't look at it in that
light and thinks that her new husband
ought to support his wife. The conse-
of the ladies, wishing a husband and
pension at the same time, get married
and never give the pension office
chance to congratulate them, but con-
tinue to lead dual existence, posing as
poor forlorn widows before the govern
ment and leading pleasant married lives
at home.
The dependent pension law has made
many claims easy to prove. After the
claimant has established his identity it
must be proved that he served ninety
days in the army or navy and was honor
ably discharged, and that he is suffering
from "mental or physical disability of a
permanent character, not the result of
his own vicious habits, which incapaci-
tates him from the performance of
manual labor in such degree as to rem
der him unable to earn support But
any claimant who prefers to claim under
the old law may do so, and in this Gaze
he has to prove that he served in the
war, that he got disabled while in service
and in line of duty, and that his dis
ability, If disease, has existed to u
pensionable degree each and every year
since the close of the war up to the pres
ent time.
The question of line of duty has pro
duced many singular cases and has puz-
zled the pension Office sorely. Was a
man who bought q pie from huckster
in certain southern city where his regi-
ol
by it in the line of duty, and having died
from the effects of the pie, is his widow
entitled to pension9 He had his regu-
lar rations; the government never
ordered him to cat pie; is it response
Bile for his death' On the other hand
is there, any probability that he would
have eaten the poisonous pie if he had
stayed at homel Isn't the government
responsible for having put him in n
situation where he would be exposed to
temptation of eating bad pies2 Theu
there is the question of bathing in
creeks or rivers during march. Some
times the soldiers were ordered to go in
and if anything happened then of course
it was the governments fault, but often
the soldiers used to like to take a swim
without authority for doing so, and when
anything befell them under such circum-
stances it was their own fault. Should
the government be liable under these
circumstances2 Following the usual
custom in such cases they are passed
upon individually and the decision of
the pension Office is dependent largely
upon the particular circumstances, but
the tendency in late years has been
toward liberal rather than strict decisions.
Some of the claims that the pension
Office has on its files are curious indeed.
. The writer-once heard of a claim for the
effects of the bite of snake The
claimant alleged that he went to sleep in
his tent one day; that he was awakened
by being stung; that he was sure it was
snake; that his health had been bad
since. There was man once who
claimed pension for leprosy. When the
examining surgeon examined him, he
found white spots upon his skin caused
by the loss of coloring matter in certain
places, a harmless affection known in
medicine as ''veal skin" The claimant
observing that he was spotted, as leop-
ards are, naturally supposed that he had
leprosy. 1t is pity that there should be
SO many applications on file for pension
from diseases that cannot be taken seri-
ously, because the claims interfere with
the speedy adjudication of worthy
claims.
Let us briefly watch the course of a
claim through the different divisions of
the pension office. John Smith, let lis
,,,,>,loeo ol.;,ns nension for rheumatism