The National tribune., 1893-02-16

Medical Examiner or Medical Examiner shall
be assigned to any County, City, or Con.
gressional district of which he may at any time
have been resident: And propided further
| That the Boards of Examining Surgeons as now
constituted be, and they are hereby. reorgapized
| so as to consist of but one Examining Surgeon.
| TO be designated by the Secretary of War. acting
| in conjunction with one Medical Examiner or
| ono special Medical Examiner detailed for that
purpose as above provided. For salaries of the
| 120 special Medical Examiners above author
lied, $lS0,000. For per diem, when absent
| from home and travelling on duty outside the
District of Columbia. for special Medical Ex-
aminers or Medical Examiners detailed for
service as herein provided, in lieu of expenses
for subsistence, and for actual and necessary
| expenses for transportation and assistance,
! $175000; in all, 1856, ,000." ...-
| Also, in line s. page 5, strike out the words
zone million and insert 1886. .000."
| Also insert, after the word board, " in line 6,
page 5, mot receiving an annual salary.
| RERAT1NG PENSIONS.
Also insert the following:
IS. That the rating of all pensions for like
| disabilities shall be uniform, and that all pen
| sions heretofore granted or hereafter to bc
| granted in pursuance of the act of June 81,
$780, shall be rated upon the inability of the
pcnsioner to earn living by manual labor.
sc. That from and after July l, 1893, no
! pension shall be paid to any person drawing q
pension under the provisions of chapter 634 of
| the act of the year 1890, unless he shall show
| that he is disabled for manual labor, and un-
less he shall show to the satisfaction of the Pen
sion Office, by proper afidavts, that his annual
income is less than 5000 year.
~. That from and after July 1, 1893, no per-
| son shall be paid pension. under any general
| law, as the widow of a soldier of any war, un-
| less said widow was married to the soldier as
| the widow of whom she draws pension within
five years after the close of tho war in which
her husband served"
THE BILL EXPLAINED.
Mr.. Mutchler PA, d. in charge of the bill,
stated that the appropriation recommended
was S166, 100000. 1t was proposed to amend
the measure so that the amount would be
reduced to $166 900, 600. The bill carried about
S4,000,O 600 in excess of the amount that would
be expended during the current fiscal year.
This was the heaviest appropriation bill that
had ever been before an American Congress.
Only three years in the history Of the Govern
ment were the expenditures for single year
greater than would be the expenditure during
the next fiscal year. The Committee on APP
preparations had come to the conclusion that
there should be some retrenchment: that re-
form in the granting of pensions must begin
somewhere, and that the time had come when
that reform should be inaugurated. 1t was
not the desire of the committee to deprive
Union soldier who was deserving of a pension
of any pension that he now received. There
was nothing in the bill that would take
penny from any pension that had been granted
to IL deserving soldier. The committee had
recommended several amendments which it
thought would institute a reform The first
and he thought the most important-was that
providing for the transfer of the Pension Bu
reau from the Interior to the War Department.
1 O. 4
money appropriated for pensions and would
not deprive a single deserving soldier of the
pension which he now had or which he might
hereafter obtain. The Pension Bureau could
not be taken out of the arena Of politics until
it was put where political influence did not
count.
Mr.. Mutchler then proceeded to argue in
support of the changes in the pension laws
recommended by the Committee on Appropri-
ations. There were, he said, thousands and
many thousands Of men, who were on the
pension rolls to-day, who had made more
money during the three months of their en-
listment than they had ever earned before or
since, and had never heard the whistle of
bullet or the roar of artillery. As to the
proposition that no pension shall be paid to
resident who is not citizen of the
United States except for actual disabilities,
he said that lie did not desire to see any
pension refused to foreigner who had been
injured in fighting for the preservation of
the Union. But foreigner who had never
gone into battle, but who had gone home
with his pocket full of money. ought not to
be put equality with the American
citizen. To support such man abroad was
an outrage. --.-
COST OF CHANGING PRESET SYSTEM OF PAY
MENT.
Mr. MutchIer had letter read from the Sec
retary of the Treasury. transmitting estimate
regarding the plan of paying pensions directly
from the Treasury, in which Assistant Treasurer
Whelpley bases his estimate for doing the work
upon 100000 pensioners. The requirement
of quarterly payments calls for the preparation,
therefore, of 100000 vouchers and checks dur
ing the year, or 335, 900 per month, and pro.
vision must be made to write and dispatch that
number of checks within II days after the
pension becomes due, so as not to keep the pen.
sioners waiting or at the rate OF q, 900 per day.
The labor of keeping the roll books and exam
lining the returned and executed vouchers it is
proposed to assign to the Auditors, who are now
charged with such duties in connection with
the auditing OF Pension Agents accounts. Mr..
Whelpley thinks that the great advantages in
the economy of labor and expedition of the
work gained by the proposed arrangement.
which will be duplicated in the Treasurers Of
flee by system Of cards, will be obvious when
it is considered that according to the Commits
sioners report for 1892, out of 828 600 army PEN
sioners 90 per cent, or 785, 600, received quar-
terly checks of the following amounts 22, 900
for S72; $1,000 for $5l; $1,000 for $4S; 10000
for S42: $4,000 for $36; 10000 for $50; 174.-
900 for $24 $4,000 for Sls; and 5000 for $l2.
The number of clerks required for performing
this labor Mr.. Whelpley estimates at 2S9, to
cost $350,000 per annum.
Mr. Gr0ut (Vt., r. J admitted that the amount
of money required for the payment of pensions
was a large But it must be remembered
that the bulk of it was for invalid veterans or
for widows Of men who had laid down their
lives for their country. He was opposed to the
transfer Of the Pension Bureau, as proposed by
bill. He did not think such transfer would
take the Bureau out of the domain of politics.
But he did believe that appropriate amend
ment could be framed in that line which would
be beneficial to the pensioner. He also INDUCED
in general criticism of the other amendments
of the pension laws proposed by the Committee
on Appropriations.
TARsNEY FAvoRs THE AMENDMENTS.
Mr.. Tarsney MO, d.. in speaking in favor
of the proposed amendments said that the man
who hazarded his life for his country was
patriot, but that the man who hazarded his
life in war for any overnment in any
cause under contract for hire was a hireling
merely. and every obligation of the employer
ceases when the stipulated hire was paid. In
the name of hundreds of thousands of
patriots who in 1861 and 1862 not stopping to
inquire what wages or bounty would be paid,
impelled only by love of country and a sense of
patriotic duty went forth and bazarded their