Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-09-28
PENSION REPORT.
Annual Report of the Pension Commits
sioner-Matters OF Interest to Pension

Annual Report of the Pension Commits
sioner-Matters OF Interest to Pension
ers.
WASHINGTON, Sept 2S.-Pension Com
missioner Lochren has submitted his
annual report to the secretary of the
interior. The number of pensioners on
the rolls of the bureau is $50, OH, net
increase of 50, 944 during the past year.
During the year 24,71 claims for in
crease of pension and $1,000 for
additional pension under the act
of June 27, 1890, were allowed
In the same time 1921 claims
for pension and for increase were
rejected. The claims pending consid-
Grafton July Z numbered III, $50. The
amount of money paid for pensions
during the year was s156, 74O. 447. The
balance at the close of the year was
81. 4S7. .37L The appropriation for
the next fiscal year, Commits
sioner Lochren states, will be ample,
and the estimates for the fiscal year
1895 amount to 1852, 631, $50. Referring
to cases under the act of June %, 1890,
Commissioner Lochren says:
Recognizing the difficulty of tracing dfsabilf-
ties to service origin after long lapse of time,
deserving soldiers, who, in their advancing
years, are incurring diSa bifties not of service
F
by manual labor, proper objects of national
bounty. The act of June 81, 1s9i, was passed,
providing that all persons who had served in
the military naval service of the United
States in the war ninety days or more and had
been honorably discharged therefrom, and who
are suffering from a mental or physical
! disability OF permanent character, but
not the result of their own vicious hab-
its, which incapacitates them from earning a
support By manual labor. shall be pensioued
at not more than Sl2 nor less than IS per
month proportioned to the degree of inability
to earn support Under this act, aside from
the requisite service and honorable discharge,
there is but condition that can give any
right to pension, viz: 'tA mental or physical
disability of a permanent character, not the
result of their own vicious habits, which in
capacitateS them from the performance of
labor in such degree to render them un-
able to earn q support" But by Order 164,
issued October Is, 1890, the commissioner
with the approval of the assistant secretary,
! directed that specific disabilities should be
rated in applicat atoms under this act, as they
would have been rated under the schedules
then in force if of service origin, UP to S12 per
month The medical referee stated in answer
to inquiry, that under this order of June "a
1890, claim of inability TO perform manual Ia
Dor was no longer even considered in adjudicat-
ing claim, but that disabilities were rated up
to Sl2 per month, as il the claim had been made
under prior lay for like disabilities of service
origin.
1t is perfectly clear that under this Order i64
| in granting pensions under this act of June q
1899, the act itself was set aside and disregard
ed. with the result of granting pensions not au-
| thoriZed by any law. This shown in the
| Bennett case which called your attention to
this order and to the practice under it There
the claimant, applying under the act of June %,
1890 was pensioned at ST. per month for slight
deafness not of service origin. This slight deaf
ness could not interfere with his capacity to
perform manuel labor. And such pension
has warrant to sustain it in any law.
1t is absolutely void The state
| ment OF the medical referee above
mentioned made il appear probable that under
Order 16i many pensions were illegally granted
and, pursuant TO your order of May y, 1898, d
board of revision formed of the ablest and
most experienced men Of the bureau, to exam
inc the cases allo - ed under that and Gull
out such as had no legal basis TO rest upon but
| with instructions to disturb which By
/ the most liberal construction of the evidence OF
/ the right to the pension could be sustained un
der any law. Iu cases where it was believed
that pensions could be sustained, ana other
medical examina ton was thought necessary,
! the payment of the pension was ordered to be
/ suspended, pending inves legation, according to
the practice of the bureau from the beginning,
and at the proper time the. usual sixty days no
| tice was given to the penSiOner, within which
! he could ask for a medical examination or sup
ply 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 pension, but the tenn
porary Withholding of its payment, where il
appears to be unlawful, pending proper in
! quiry.
Upon your suggestion that even this tempo
rary withholding might work hardship where,
upon the face of the pap r. it appears that the
penSoner is entitled to at least some less
rating, the practice Will be moderately changed
to under this act far that suspensions
of payment pending the sixty days are only or
dered when on the face of the papers it appears
pr1ma facie that The pensioner is not entitled
to any pension 1t is certain that there are
many cases like the Bennett case where
persons not entitled to any pension will
be removed from the rolls, but the worl
has not yet proceeded far enough
to enable me to forecast the result Undoubt
edly, under the system of adjudication which
followed the PRONUNCIATION OF Order l6I many
pensioners perfectly able to perform manua
labor, under the persuasion of claim agents
familiar with the effect of that order, applied
for and received pensions for specific dISabili
ties not of service origin and not properly pen
sionable under the act of June %, 1879. Thi:
claims under that act, comprising the after
math in the work of claim agents, which AT,
now being properly rejected
Wholesale frauds like those discovered D
Norfolk, Va, in New Mexico and Iowa hav'
been disclosed by special examiners Th'
work of this division has greatly increased
and an additional appropriation for augment
ing the force in the service IS asked for Con
siderable work in connection with the fraud
has been done with the law division All case
OF fraud brought to Il .ht by special examiner
receive the personal attention OF those il
charge of this division
NOMINATIONS.