The National tribune., 1893-02-16
THE FIRST GUN.


pension system may now be considered as
| fired, by the introduction in the House of
| Representatives last week of the amend
ments to the Pension Appropriations bill.
In these the pension-haters have been
careful not to show their full hand. They
are beginning moderately, and shrewdly
masking the batteries they intend to open.
Their first proposition is to " take the pen
sion system out of politics" by transferring
the Pension Bureau from the Interior De-
partment to that of War. They conceal all
that they hope to accomplish by this. They
do not really wish to take the Pension
Bureau out of politics, for no one would or
will use that institution more energetically
for political purposes than they; they simply
wish to make pension-getting much more
difficult Their expectation is that the in
evitable arrangements and delays which
must follow such transfer, with the neces-
sary reorganization of the Pension Bureau,
and the adjustment of the War Depart
ment's slow-moving machinery to the i'm
mense volume of new and strange duties,
will so interfere with pension allowances
that the number of these will be reduced,
for a year or two at least, until fully 100000
claimants shall have died, and their pensions
be saved to the Government.
There is no thought, no pretense that the
efficiency of the Pension Bureau will be pro-
NOTED by the transfer. If they had such
| an idea they would be bitterly hostile to the
change What angers them is that, after
years of agitation and effort by the veterans
and their friends, the Pension Bureau should
have been gotten into its present high con-
dition of business effectiveness-it is doing
so rapidly and well the business it was
created to do, and at last is disposing of the
claims before it with something like reason
able speed. If the dispatch of business in
the Bureau can be maintained at its present
rate for about two years it will have at last
cleared its docket and given pension to
every man and woman entitled to one.
This is precisely what the pension-haters
dread having done 1t is something that
they want TO prevent in some way or an
other They have cunningly planned to
accomplish it by rrotracted period of dis
organization and reorgsnization-duri
which little work can be dOne-invclved
in the transfer of the Pension Bureau to
another Department, with methods and
ideas radically different from those of the
one under which it has been working.
Iftbere were no other objection to the trans
fer, this one OF the loss of valuable time by
the inevitable reorganization should be fatal.
Time is of the utmost Importance to the
swiftly-aaing veterans. If they are to re-
ceive any benefit from their pensions these
sands of them dying every month they can
not afford TO wait an indefinite period while
the Pension Bureau passes from utter pa
ralysis through the slow process of entire
reconstruction, under new men, in differ
ent Department, with radically different
functions.
This transfer is the main aud most obno1-
others, while very Objectionable, are of less
importance.
Representative Mckinney, of New Hamp-
shire, Democrat and q veteran. showed
very clearly the faultinese of the proposition
to abolish Pension Agents, and pay pensions
direc iy from the Treasury. This would
not reduce the expenses of making the pay
nlents, but rather increase them, for the
| payments could not be made from Washing
ton as cheaply as is now done by the Pen
SION Agencies, while the pensioners could
not receive their money nearly as promptly
SIS under the present system.
The proposition in regard to the change OF
Boards OF Examining Surgeons we will dis
cuss fully at another time, merely remark
ing now that it is absurd to suppose that the
Government is going to get competent Sur
geons TO discharge the duties of Medical
Examiners, give up their practice and travel
about the country. for salary of 81 500 q
year. 1t may get fresh graduates from
medical colleges to do this, and learn their
profession at the expense of the Government
and the veterans, bat il will be unable to
obtain men. of the experience required for 9
proper discharge Of their duties to accept
such places at the salary.
The proposition TO cut off the pensions O
all who may have an annual income of $500 q
year or over, is simply detestable. Not tina,
it cuts off The pensions of men who may bt
able TO live without pensions, but that it j,
wrong in principle and would be abomi
nable in practice. 1t introduces the obnox.
ious pauper principle into pensions. A
pension is a debt owed by the Government
u Il