Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-09-27
FACTS ABOUT PENSIONS.
Commissioner LoChren Submits His Annual
ReDOpt to Congress.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Sept 21.-Pen-
sioner Commissioner Lochren submit
ted his annual report to-day. The num-
Der Of pensioners on the roll of the
bureau is 966,O12, with net increase of
80, ga during the past year. During the
year 24,715 claims for increase
of pension and 81, 800 for original
pension under the act of June
! q, 1890, were allowed. In the same
| time, 415,175 claims for pensions and
for increase we're rejected. Claims
waiting consideration, invalid, 107 ,450.
! The amount of money paid for pen
sions was $l96, 647 ,574. The balance at
the close of the year was 81, 437 81.
Appropriations for the next fiscal year,
| Commissioner LOchren states will be
ample, and the estimates for the fiscal
year 1895 amount to $162, 631 800. Re-
1erring to the estimates for the fiscal
| year of1S95 Commissioner LOChren saws:
! If these were based wholly Oh the eXpe-
| Tlence OF former years and the capacity of
| the force of the bureau to handle cases
through the formal stages of examination
to allowance, the result would be much
larger estimate. But 1895 is thirty years
after the close of the civil war. The pension
roll, in view of its SIZE compared with the
number of men enrolled in the war, will, IN
my opinion, by that time have reached it's
limits and begin to decrease. The falling
of III the presentation of new claims appears
from the TACT shown by the last report of my
! predecessor that there were on October II,
1892, 7SS, O64 claims pending in the bureau,
while on July Z, 1893-not quite nine
months later-the number of claims pend
ing had been reduced to I'll, $50. 1t is APP
parent therefore, that the filing OF new
claims and claims for increase has ceased to
exceed the number of cases disposed of by
the work of the bureau and that a rapid
dlmlnution in the number of claims may be
expected.
Recognizing difficulty of tracing dis
abilities to service origin after long lapse
OF time and it Is the fact that deserving
soldiers who in their advancing years were
mourning disabilities not Of service origin
not lifting them from earning support by
manual abOr were proper subjects for the
national bounty. The act of June 81 1890,
was passed providing that all persons who
had served III the military or navel service
of the United States in that war
ninety days, or more and had
and who were suffering from q mental or
physical disability Oft permanent character,
not the result of their own vicious habits,
which incapacitates them from earning asup-
port by manual labor, shall be pensioned
at not more than SD nor less than Sc per
ability to earn support Under this act,
aside from the requisite service and honor
able discharge, there is but one condition
that can give any right to pension, viz: "A
mental or physical disability of permanent
character not the result of their own vicious
habits which incapacitateS them from the
performance of labor in such q degree as to
render them unable to earn support"
But by order 1914, issued October il, 1890
the commissioner with the approval of the
cd hot flo lie
abilities should be rated in applications UNI
der this act as they would have been rated
under the schedules then in force if Of serv-
ice origin up to SO per month. The med
ical referee stated III answer to inquiry, that
under this order the capacity of claimant
under the act of June u, 1890, to perform
manual labor was no longer even cOnsid-
cred in adiudicating his claim but that his
disabilities were rated up to 81 per month
as if his claim had been made under prior
laws for like disabilities of service origin.
1t is perfectly clear that under this order
164, in granting pensions under this act of
June y, 1890, the act itself was set aside
and disregarded, with the result of granting
pensions not authorized by any law This |
was shown in the Bennett case, which
called our attention to this order and to the
practice under 1t. There the claimant,
applying under this act Of June 81,
1890, received not to exceed 81 per
month for slight origin not of SER
VICE OIlSlll lIlS III uSolllSSS COtilu llOG
interfere with his capacity to perform man
ual labor. And such pension has 40 war
rant to sustain it in any law. 1t is abso-
lutely void. The statement to the medical
referee above mentioned made it appear
probable that under order 164 many pen
sons were illegally granted, and pursuant
to your order of May q, 1898, a board
of revision was formed Of the
ablest and most experienced men of
the bureau to examine the cases allowed
Z hat oto Il oh hol
legal basis to rest upon, but with instruc-
tons to disturb no case whereby the most
liberal construction of the evidence of the
right to be pension could be sustained under
any law. In cases where it was believed
that pensions could be sustained, and other
medical examination was thought necessa-
~, the payment of the pension was or
dered to be suspended pending investi-
cation, according to the practice
Of the bureau from the beginning,
and at the proper time the usual slxty-day
notice was given to the pensioner within
which he could ask for medical eXamina- .
ton or supply further evidence Of his right
to his pension. This practice of the bureau,
always followed is the correct practice. 1t
is not the withdrawal Or taking away Of a
pension but the temporary withholding
of its payment where it appears to be un-
lawful, pending proper inquiry.
Upon your suggestion that even this sys-
tenn of temporary withholding might work
hardship Wnef6 upon the lace OF papers II
appears that the penSlOner is entitled to at
least some less rating, the practice has been
moderately changed in cases under this act
SO far that suspensions of payment pending
the sixty days are only ordered when on the
face of the papers it appears prima facie
that the pensiOner is not entitled to
any pension. It is certain that there are
many cases like the Bennett case where per-
sons 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. Undoubtedly under
the system of adjudication which followed
the PRONUNCIATION Of order 164 many
persons perfectly able to perform
manual labor under the persua-
sion of claims agents familiar with
the effect of that order, applied for
and received pensions for specific disability
not of service origin and not properly pen
sionable under the act OF June 81, 1890.
This also accounts for the large proportion
Of LOTT al 4 hat cir