The National tribune., 1893-04-13
. .sYMposIUm" ON PENSIONS.


the pension question, in Symposium" to
which Hon. Il. C. P. Wilson, of Missouri,
Chairman of the Committee on Pensions of
the House of Representatives, Gen. S. S.
| Burdett, Past Commander-in-Chief of the
Grand Army of the Republic, and Col. w.
C. Church, editor Of the Army and Macy
Journal, contribute articles.
In selecting Mr. Wilson, the editor of the
| North american Reriew evidently acted
under the usual misrepresentation that the
| Chairman of the House Committee on PEN
sions has charge of pension matters growing
out of the late war Had the editor been
| better informed he would have known that
/ these are under the care Of the Committee
Oh Invalid Pensions, and would have in
viiei Representative Martin, of Indiana, in
stead of Mr. Wilson, to write the article.
Mr. Wilson starts out with the erroneous
premise that the condition of the Nations
! finances is such as to imperatively demand
material reduction Of expenditures or
largely increased revenue to avoid an actual
deficit in the Treasury" This is not at all
| true The present revenues are more than
ample for all the expenditures of the Gov
eminent, and there is not the slightest
necessity of either reducing the expenditures
II
Administration will allow both to remain
untouched, it will have comfortable sur
plus to show at the end of this fiscal year.
The Administration which has just gone
out very wisely used the idle money in the
Treasury to pay off an immense portion of
the National debt and reduce the interest
charge which properly accounts for the fact
that there is no longer vast sum lying idle
and worse than useless in the vaults of the
Government.
Mr. Wilson next proceeds to attack the
act of June 81, 1890 The principal fault
that he finds with it is that it did not couple
mental with physical incapacity to earn
support in the conditions necessary to entitle
the claimant to pension. He would have
the applicant "wholly incapacitated by men
tai or physical debility from earning live
lihood, in order to secure the maximum
rating of S12 month, and that tie lesser
ratings under the act (S6, So, and $40 per
monthly should of course be allowed for pro-
portionate disabilities"
If this view of the act could be made to
govern in its application, he feels that it
would result in great saving to the Gov
eminent, by striking from the pension-roll
very many names which have no right to
be there.
He would also have a return to biennial
medical examinations, by means of which
those not suffering from incurable diseases,
and whose condition had improved, could be
discovered, and either stricken from the roll
altogether OF have their ratings reduced.
Another grievance is that
Many pensions are now drawn and rated on the
finding and recommendations OF Examining
Boards made up of the family physicians and
personal and political friends of tho persons ex
amined The certificates of medical examination
are not held TO be confidential by the Pension
Bureau. but are easy of access TO the pensioners
and their representatives. and the Examining Sur
geons know this.
This is very far from being accurate. In
the great numbers of applicants that appear
before Examining Boards, it is possible for
only few 10 be the regular patients of the
physicians composing the Examining
Boards. Probably not one in 100 finds his
family physician on the Board which ex-
amines him. Even if it were true, it would
be right and proper. No one is 30 capable
of judging of mans disabilities as the
physician who has attended him for q
period of years, and ii is only just that the
claimant should have the benefit of his doc
tors knowledge of his case. The Examin-
ing Surgeons report is rigidly scrutinized
from a cold-blooded, scientific standpoint, by
board of medical experts in the Pension
Bureau, who have no Partially for the
claimant, but are rather inclined against
him, and this is ample safeguard against
any possible Partially on the part of the
Examiner.
Mr.. Wilson recommends that the Pension
Bureau be represented at examination by
competent physicians detailed from Wash
ington. There is no objection to this. 1t:
matters very little whether the Pension
Bureaus experts scrutinize the claimant
himself or the report that is made by the
Examining Surgeons. All that the veter-
ans want is justice and fair play, and they
are quite willing that the Government take
any precautions that seem necessary to pre-
vent imposition.
This expression by Mr.. Wilson will meet
| with general approval from the comrades:
All cases of reported fraud should be promptly
investigated by the Department through the me-
dunn of the force of Special Examiners in tho
be dropped from the roll until he has been allowed