Omaha daily bee., 1893-09-08
LEAVING FOR THEIR HOMES
After Days Of Pleasure Many Of the Veterans
Desert Indianapolis.
ADDRESS or THE COMMANDMENT CHIEF
II is Endorsed by All the Old soldiers Press
ent at the MISUNDERSTANDING OF tho
Various G.. A. II. organizations
Yesterday.

trains were loaded. Many, however, remained
TO witness the grand pageant of tonight,
representing the military history of the
United States, tableaux and fire works. The
national bodies of the Grand Army Of tire
Republic resumed their session this morn
ing and continued them throughout the day.
The committee on the address of the com.
mander-in-chief presented report endorsing
IL in every particular and added: 1.-The
Grand Army OF the Republic has no objec-
ton to the search light Of investigation
being turned on the pension list-the ma
tion's roll Of honor-but it does demand that
1T DO the searchlight of love for and not
hatred toward the brave men who bore the
battle or their widows or orphans"
The committee to devise ways and means
to erect n monument to the rank and file of
the union army, to be located at Washing
ton, approved the organization known as the
National Reunion Monumental Association
of Washington City," 1t has secured the
dedication of a plat of ground for the monu-
ment, hereafter to be known as Grand Army
Place, which will be the site of future re-
unions in that city and on which il is pro-
posed to erect a testimonial to the rank and
file, to include soldiers on land as well as
sailors and marines. .g
Rev. A. b. Hendricks of West Liberty, o.,
NaS Unanimously eieCteu Cuaplulu ln-CnleI.
Committee on Pensions Reports.
The committee on pensions presented a
very lengthy report. Regarding the disabil-
ity act Of June, 1890, the report says: This
act was accepted by the surviving soldiers
and by the people as n settlement of the
question. Under the administration of that
law the ~poorhoDse gave up its veterans.
The men who had, borne the battle were
cared for and the sacred trust accepted and
left as a legacy to the nation was faithfully
administered
within a few months we hear with pro-
found sorrow and regret that all this must
be changed; that the construction of the
law has been changed and the regulations
and rules in reference to proof and ratings,
under which more than 300, 900 claims have
been allowed and paid, have been revoked,
and another construction ofithelaw has been
established and new regulations for proof
and ratings, less favorable to claimants,
have been adopted; that q board of revision
has been organized in the pension Office,
charged with he duty of revising all these
adjudicated claims in accordance with this
new construction and such changed regula-
lions as to proof and ratings. Under the
changes thousands of pensions have been
suspended without notice and thousands of
pensioners have been dropped from the rolls.
ITO emphasize the viciousness of the
situation and accusation, we learn that it is
said, as though by authority, that 1T Is ex-
pected that any of the pensioners so sum-
marily suspended or dropped will be able to
prove that they are still entitled to the pen
sions of which they have been deprived
thus saying in no uncertain voice that the
burden is not upon the party alleging fraud,
but that the government which they had
preserved shall first, and with infamy by
the charge, then sentence. and after the
stigma had been effective. then concede to
them, whose barriers and support of char
acter have been thus undermined, the pitt
full privilege of moving for a new trial upon
the ground Of newly discovered evidence
Denies the Secretary's Authority.
"We deny that the secretary of the interior
and commissioner of pensions have any such
power. We insist that the adjudica ton di-
VISIONS OF the pensions office, acting under the
direction and supervision of the commits
sioner of pensions and secretary of the in
terror, are tribunals established by authority
OF law for the settlement of pension claims,
and that their decisions are entitled to full
faith and credit and cannot be legally i'm
peached when a change of administration
occurs, except for fraud, upon charges pre-
ferred and evidence adduced in support
thereof. We insist that when changes are
made in the construction of the law, rules of
evidence and schedules of rating unfavorable
to claimants they must and should be linn
tied in their operation to the future work of
the Office and not the past. .u'4o
1--WE demand that there shall be no back
ward step in pension legislation or admin
istration; that no Densioner. shall be de-
prived of his property without due process
OF the law that the presumption shall be in
favor of honesty and fair dealing; that the
poor and lowly shall not be put to unneces-
sary, expensive or oppressive processes to
protect their meager inheritapces that the
sacred trust of those who have borne the
battle shall be sacredly observed and
sacredly administered, and we do now
solelmly and deliberately declare that every
presumption should be made in favor OF
recoids so made; that no presumption Of
fraud shall be INDUCED against them, and
that no change be made in the pensions so
accorded until after charges have been made
and evidence in support thereof has been
produced, of which charge each pensioner
has had full notice and q full and complete
opportunity to be heard in support of the
pension SO accorded him; be it further .
'Resolyed, That as the commissioner of
PENSIONS by his recent Withdrawals OF OBJ
noxious rulings, which have been so gener-
ally condemned, has virtually acknowledged
the incorrectness OF such rulings, we deem
1T his further duty to at once restore TO the
rolls the thousands OF pensioners now stand
ing illegally suspended"
The report was unanimously adopted.
This afternoon the encampmenti instructed
the conmander-in-chief to carry the -ques-
tion of the legality of the suspension of
pensionsup to the supreme court of the
United States. "af
National Council of Administration,
luz uhtiouui CouuCil VI NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. was
elected as follows: Arizona, III. 3. Light
hize; Oregon, S. r.. Reeves; Tennessee, N.
g. Norwood; Louisiana and Mississippi, II.
b. Baquie; Maryland, w, j. King; Wiscon-
sin, George l. Thomas; Missouri, S. M.
Sterrltti Washington and Alaska,
II, A. Bigelow; Georgia and South
Carolina, Harry Burns; Maine. j. b.
Maggie; West Virginia, u. X. King;
New Hampshire, S. M, Brown; Nebraska.
Charles L. 'Burmeister; Ohio, II. II. Cochran;
Michigan, George II. Hopkins New Mexico,
b.. A.. Knowles; New York, Nicholas w.
Day; Iowa, j. w. Lindt; Delaware. A. S.
Nudine; Arkansas. A. d.. Thomas; New Jer-
sey, George Il. Martin; Kentucky, A. j.
Thorpe; Potomac, Lyman b. Cutter; Con-
necticut, G.. ID. Bates Vermont, S. w. Park
hurst; South Dakota, w. L.. Farmer; Massa-
chusetts, William M. Olin; Kansas, Il. p.
Harris Texas, Alexander Brown Idaho, WA.
Dodge; Virginia and North Carolina. Dan
Thompson Colorado, j.. G. Fleming; Illinois,
ii S.. Dietrich; Alabama, A. N. Ballard ;
Pennsylvania, A. L. Burchfield; ILdiana, G..
j. Murphy; California. j. b. Fuller; Florida,
+. G. Purcell; Utah, Rev. ID. G.. Iler.
woman's Relief Corps
The following officers of the Woman's Re-
lief corps were elected and installed; Presi
dent, Mrs. a. j. Wethers, Minnesota senior
vice president, Mrs. Taylor of Ohio; junior
vice president, Mrs. N. +. Anderson Of Cali
fornia treasurer, Mrs. Gordon of Kansas /;
counselor, Mrs. q. V. Sheriff, Pennsyl-