The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-06-03
PENSION REFORM.
A Decision That Will Save $40. ooo,-
600 Annually.

|
The Washington correspondent of the Bal
timore Sun, under date of May IS, says !:
Secretary of the Interior Smith took de-
| cided step in the direction of pension reform
Yesterday by issuing his ruling limiting the
benefits of the dependent pension act to those
soldiers who are suffering from mental or ply
steal disabilities of Il permanent character,
not the result of their own vicious habits,
which incapacitate them from the performance
Of manual labor in such degree as to render
them unable to earn a support. This IS the
class of persons the law was intended to ben
eft and there is no warrant in the law for
any extension of it, but during the admins
tration of President Harrison, when the sole
object of the administration of the pension
| Office and the Interior Department seemed to
be to pay ont as much money as possible so
long as there was a dollar in the treasury,
Pension Commissioner Raum WAS net satis-
| fled with following the law, but wherever the
law did not go far enough to enable him to
pay pensions to certain classes OF applicants
he would make i ruling, which Assistant
Secretary Bussey would approve. by which
the law would be stretched to cover cases
never contemplated by its trainers in Con-
gress.
In consequence Of these rulings the govern
ment has paid out many millions of dollars
treasury has been brought almost to the
verge Of bankruptcy. The strictest economy
has had TO be practiced in all other direc
tons. Public buildings throughout the coun
try that have been authorized have been
compelled TO wait because there is no money
for their construction. The fertilization of
the seacoast has been brought almost TO
standstill. Appropriations for new naval
vessels have been cut down, and economy
has been practiced all along the line in order
that there might be money for the payment
of pensions not provided for by law and
authorized only by rulings of Commissioner
Raum and Assistant Secretary Bussey.
There will be an cutlery against Secretary
Smiths ruling on the part of the pension
attorneys and their allies in Congress, as well
as on the part of the men whose illegal pen
sions will be cut off or reduced under it. 1t
will be made TO appear that the Democratic
party is not grateful to the veterans of the
war and is adopting policy that will in the
end wipe out all pensions. The people of the
country and the deserving soldiers will under
stand this cry, however. Pension extrava
gance has gone on unchecked tor so long
that public sentiment will justify any steps
TO remove from the rolls the names of those
not fairly entitled to the bounty of the gov
eminent. mo one will support such pol
icy more heartily than the old soldiers them
selves Both in Congress and out of it for
some years past there have been more
outspoken opponents Of pension extrava
gance than men who wore the blue and
marched and fought in the armies Of the
North from Bull Run to Appomattox. Men
like Representative Tarsney, of Missouri,
with Southern bullets in their bodies. have
stood up and denounced the schemes of the
pension attorneys and the frauds that have
been perpetrated in the administration OF the
pension laws, and now that reform has set in
the Secretary OF the Interior will have no
more loyal supporters than many of The men
who wore the blue. They realize that the
course of the Republican party on pension
matters has tended to bring the veterans into
disrepute, and has caused them TO be looked
upon in many quarters as mere mendicants.
No one has advocated cutting down the pen
sions of those who were disabled by wounds
or sickness contracted in the service. These
classes of pensioners will be literally treated
under the present administration as they
have under any of its predecessors. The pro
visions of the dependent pension bill will be
enforced also, and all persons who can claim
pensions under its very liberal terms will be
placed on the rolls, but there will be no
stretching of the law to cover cases not pro-
vided for by Congress, and not intended by
This decision of Secretary Smith not only
lays down the rule for future action of the
pension office, but is to furnish precedent
for the revision of all the cases that have al
ready been disposed of under the dependent
pension law. In all more than 100000 pen
sions have been issued under this law, and
great many of them are similar to the case OF
Bennett. on which Secretary Smith has made
this ruling All these will be re examined
and readjusted in accordance with the princ
plies laid down by the Secretary. tits estimated
the annual saving to the government will be
about $50, 900, 600
Secretary Hoke Smith has been consider
ing tie principles involved in this decision
for several weeks, and so important did he
deem it that when it was called to his atten
ton from the pension board of appeals he
submitted the questions involved to Attorney
General Olney and to Judge Lochren, the
commissioner of pensions, both of whom con-
CURED in the correctness of the decision.