The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-01-26
TO PRUNE PENSIONS.
Radical Changes Proposed by a
House Committee.
TO ABOLISH PENSION AGENTS.

Claims to be Paid by Checks Direct from
the Treasury Persons Living Abroad
to be Cut on Unless DisabIed-Roueh
on Young widows.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26. The sub commit
tee of the appropriation committee of the
house has completed the consideration of
the pension bill Some radical legislation
is proposed in the bill looking to the re-
duction of the pension list. One provision
Is that no person living abroad shall re-
ceiNe pension unless actually disabled
Another is that no person capable Of
earning living. or whose income from
any source is equal to $500 per year shall
receive a pension under the dependent per-
son act. Still another provides that no
soldiers widow who WAS married 10 the
soldier after 1870 shall receive widows
pension. A commission is provided to sit
during the recess to examine the pension
roll with the view of eliminating improp-
erly allowed pensions.
The bin also does away with pension
agencies throughout the country, and pro-
vides for payment of pensions by cheeks
directly from the treasury department,
abolishes examinations of applicants by
surgeons, and provides for the appointment
of la1 special examiners to hereafter make
examinations
Mr.. o'Neili Explains.
Representative O'Neill, of Missouri,
speaking for the majority members and
their reasons for making the proposed
changes said; There is no disposition on
the part of the majority of this house to
take a pension away from any man who
became disabled while in the Union army.
THE proposition to take away pensions
from n0n-residents not citizens of the
United States seems emineutly proper be-
cause, unless they received wounds during
the war, while in actual service, they
ought not to be supported by the United
States out Of. the United States In the
last few months Of the war great many
men enlisted in the union army. accepted
big boun.ies from the states and never left
the states in which they enlisted
THE proposition that no one should re
ceive pension under the provisions of act
of June, 1890, unless disabled from manual
labor and with I'm income below $500, is in
line with the evident intention of the act
which was to take care of those soldiers
who had become disabled When it Is con
sidered that there arc so many people who
draw large salaries, which they enjoy
chiefly because they served in the Union
army, and that they have many privileges
the ordinary citizen Is not entitled TO, it
does seem that unless those people were
actually disabled in the service of the
country they ought not to be permitted to
draw a pension from the government.
''The proposition to tatss away the pc IL
sions from widows of solIIers unless they
were married previous 60 1870 also seems
just. The granting of pensions Is abso-
lutely grounded on the promises made at
the time the men went to the front, that
they would be taken care of If they be-
came sick or disabled, and that those they
left behind them would also be looked af-
ter. II is difficult to see how anybody can
say that u woman who marries a man fif-
teen, twenty or twenty-five years after the
war can come within the claim that the
government promised to look after her
There is no disputing the fact that the old
soldiers are being married to young girls,
and thus pcrpetuating the pension list and
creating a class of pensioners never con-
templated by the original trainers of the
pension laws
Mr. Grout of Vermont, one of the two
Republican members of the subcommit-
tee said:
THE Republican minority are against
these amendments, and will oppose them
in full committee and in the house The
proposition 10 do away with examining
boards and have the work now done by
them done by examiners will be praoticnl!y
impossible. In regard to the amendment
relating to soldiers widows the question
at once arises why don't they make that
proposition applicable to the Mexican pen
si0acrS9 1t is simply un attack upon the
pension system, as applicable to those
alone who helned save the Tnion 2