The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-09-28
PENSION REPORT.

Annual Report of the Pension Commits
 sioner-Matters of Interest to Pension-
 CTS.
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 23--Pension Com
 missioner Lochren has submitted his
 annual report to the secretary of the
 interior. The number of pensioners on
 the rolls of the bureau is 966, ,O12, net
 increase of 80, 044 during the past year.
 During the year 24,715 claims for in-
 crease of pension and 31,99O for
 additional pension under the act
 of June 27, 1890, were allowed.
 In the same time 115,221 claims
 for pension and for increase were
 rejected The claims pending consid-
 eration July numbered I'll, 1,150. The
 amount of money paid for pensions
 during the year was S156, 74O,44 The
 balance at the close of the year was
 $2,4S7,S71. The appropriation for
 the next fiscal year, Commits
 sioner Lochren states, will be ample,
 and the estimates for the fiscal year
 1895 amount to S1G2, ,631, $50. Referring
 to cases under the act of June 27, 1890,
 Commissioner Lochren says:
 Recognizing the difficulty of tracing diSabih-
 ties to service origin after long lapse of time,
 deserving soldiers, who, in their advancing
 years, are mourning disabilities not of serviea
 origin uniting them from earning supper!
 by manual labor, are proper objects of national
 bounty. The act of June P, lo0I, was passed
 providing that all persons who had served in
 the military or naval service of the United
 States in the war ninety days or more and had
 been hOnorably discharged therefrom, and who
 are suffering from a mental or physical
 disability of permanent character, but
 not the result of their own vicious hab
 its, which incapacitates them from earning
 support by manual labor shall be pensoned
 at not more than SIP nor less than Sj per month propor rtioned to the degree of inability to earn support Under this act, aside from
 the requisite service and honorable discharge,
 there is but one condition that can give any
 right to pension, yix: "A mental or phy sical disability of a permanent character not the
 result of their own vicious habits, which in- capacitates them from the performance of labor in such a degree as to render them un. able to earn a support" But by Order lji,
 issued October l5. 1900, the commissioner, with the approval of the assistant secretary, directed that specific disabilities should be rated. in applications under this act, as they
 would have been rated under the schedules then in force, if of service origin, up to Sl2 per
 month The medical referee stated, In answer to inquiry, that under this order of June 2, lS9), claim of inability to perform manual la bor was no longer even considered in adjudicat-
 ing claim, but that disabilities were rated up to sl2 per month, as if the claim had been made under prior laws for like disabilities of service origin.
 IL is perfectly clear that under this Order l6i, in granting pensions under this act Of Juno T lS9J, the act itself was set aside and disregard ed, with the result of granting pensions not au- thoriZed by any law. This was shown in the IDar, ,frh n1l1 1aN iNn tN
 this order and to the practice under it There the claimant, applying under the act of June ?, 1890, was pensioned at $l2 per month for slight
 deafness not of service origin. This slight deaf ness could not interfere with his capacity to perform manuel labor And such pension has no warrant to sustain 1t in any law. IL Is absolutely void The state ment of the medical referee above mentioned made it appear probable that under | Order l6t many pensions were illegally granted | and, pursuant to your order Of May 27, 1893, board Of revision was formed of the ablest and most experienced men Of the bureau, to exam l inc the cases allo s ed under that act and cull | out such had no legal basis to rest upon, but with instructions to disturb no case which by the most liberal construction of the evidence of tne right to the pension could be sustained un der any law. Iu cases where it was believed that pensions could be sustained, ana other medical examination was thought necessary. | the payment of the pension was ordered to be l suspendet, pending investigation, according to | the practice of the bureau from the beginning, and at the proper time the.usual sixty days no- l tice was given to the pensioner, within which | he could ask for medical examination or sup ply further evidence of his right to his pension. | This practice Of the bureau, always followed,
 is the correct practice. It is not the withdrawal | or taking away of a pension but the tenn | porary withholding Of it's payment, where 1t | appears to be unlaT .ul, pending proper in | Quiry.
 Upon your suggestion that even this tempo | rary withholding might work hardship where, | upon the face of the paper 1t appears that the peIsioner is entitled to at least some less
 rating, the practice will be moderately changed l to cases under this act so far that suspensions ] of payment pending the sixty days are only or | dered when on the face of the papers it appears | prima facie that the pensioner is not entitled | to any pension. IL is certain that there are
 many cases like the Bennett case where | persons not entitled to any pension will
 be removed from the rolls, but the work | has not yet proceeded far enough | to enable me to forecast the result. Undoubt | edly, under the system of adjudication which | followed the promulgation of Order l6i many | pensioners perfectly able to perform manual | labor, under the persuasion of claim agents | familiar with the effect of that order, applied | for and received pensions for specific dlsabili- ties not of service origin and not properly pen sionable under the act of June 27, lS9J. This | also accounts for the large proportion of late | claims under that act, comprising the after
 math in the work of claim agents, which are | now being properly rejected. l Wholesale frauds like those discovered at | Norfolk, Va, in New Mexico and Iowa have been disclosed by special examiners The work of this division has greatly increased, | and an additional appropriation for augment ing the force in the service is asked for Con siderable work in connection with the frauds has been done with the law division. All cases of fraud brought to light by special examin CTS
 receive the personal attention of those in
 charge of this division