Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-01-08
THE PENSION OFFICE.
It's Work Described-Method of Pre-
senting Claims.

1t is estimated that the United States
| Pension Office will consume about $140,-
900, 900 in 1891. This includes the cost
of running the Office. 1t is interesting,
says writer in the New York Times, to
take glance at the machinery which
will disburse this enormous sum of
money, and which itself costs between
81, 600, 900 and $5,000,000 each year.
The United States Pension Office staff is
composed Of about 5000 employcs, eX
amining surgeons, who are scattered all
over the country, and who make physical
examinations of applicants for pension,
reporting their findings to the headquar'
ters in Washington; pension agents who
pay the pensions that are allowed; special
examiners, who travel around the country
making special Investigations in cases
where unusual complications have arisen,
or where fraud is suspected, and the huge
Pension Office proper, situated in Judic-
iary Square, Washington, just back of
the rooms Of the Civil Service Commits
sion, and convenient to the police court
as WE'LL
The work of the Pension Office is di-
vided among fifteen divisions. The
record division takes charge of the re-
cording and distributing of new claims
as they come in, the law division decides
legal questions that are referred to it,
and the medical division passes upon the
medical aspects of the case. The adjudi-
eating divisions are divided into several
bodies, each having charge of all claims
coming from certain group of States,
and one having charge of ''old war and
navy" claims. After claim has passed
| through these divisions it goes before a
board of review, and during Commits
sioner Blacks term it went before q
/ board of re-review likewise, but this has
/ been recently abolished. Finally the
/ pension certificate is issued.
| 1t can be seen from this that a claim
for pension has to go through long and
complicated course of treatment before
it reaches the stage of final adjudication.
The first thing that is done upon the ar
rival of declaration for pension is to
give it number, and then the claimant
is ordered to report before the pension
examining surgeon nearest to his home.
Next, the Adjutant General of the army
1 is called upon to furnish the military
record of the claimant. If this record
fails to show that the soldier was i'll, as
alleged during his service (and in
ninety nine cases out of a hundred it does
fail to show it), and if the claim is made
under the old laws, as it may be if the
claimant so elects, it must be proved
First, that the disability originated in
| the service and in line of duty second,
that it existed at the time of discharge,
and third, if it is on account of disease
that the claim is made (and two-thirds
of the claims filed arc on account of di-
sease) that it has existed to greater OF
less degree continuously from the time OF
the claimants discharge up to the pres
ent time. All these things are proved
by ex parte documentary evidence fur
nished by the claimant or his attorney
upon requisition of the Pension Office.
The dependent pension law approved
June 27, 1890, has necessarily produced
new system for the adjudication OF
claims filed under it. The proof re-
quired is, first, that the soldier or sailor
served ninety days in the army or navy
and was honorably discharged, and sec.
ond that he is suffering from mental oi
physical disability of permanent char
acter not the result of his own vlciou:
habits, which incapacitates him from tho
performance of manual labor in such {
degree as to render him unable to earn ;
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