Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1893-08-09
The Pension Question.

have not complied with your
repeated request that / should cause
test to be made to show the num-
Der of fraudulent pensions by hav-
ing 1000 cases drawn from the adj
mitted files and examined. have
not done this for several reasons:
/. Fraudulent cases, if any exist,
cannot be discovered in that way.
A fraudulent pension must ordin-
arily have been obtained upon false
or forged testimony. On the face
of the papers such a case would
probably appear to be well estab-
lished and IncOntestible.
2. No one whose opinion is en-
titled to consideration has, as |
think, had the hardihood to claim
that the great mass Of adjudicated
pension cases is permeated with
fraud, open and plain on the papers,
so that examination of 1000 cases
would disclose an instance. And /,
certainly, have far too high an OPP
inion of my old comrades to be-
lieve that large numbers of them
are scoundrels, who have sought and
obtained pensions dishonestly.-
Even among the twelve apostles
there was one who was unworthy,
and among the brave and true
soldiers of the union army it cam
not be denied that there were few
bounty jumpers and men who were
Of no credit to us and Of little de-
serving; and who have been per-
haps, among the most eager for a
place on the pension roll at high
rating. The Investigations as to
the work of dishonest pension at
torneys at Norfolk, New Mexico
and Iowa show local frauds of large
extent. But it would be far from
fair to conclude from such cases
that pension attorneys are gener-
ally INSCRIPTIONS or dishonest. |
think, OH the contrary, they are
ordinarily honest, painstaking and
careful as other business men.
3. The examination of June q,
1890, cases is made, not because of
any fraud on the part Of claimants,
but because it was discovered that
this bureau had, by the adoption
of an erroneous rule for adjudi-
cation, allowed many pensions not
authorized by law. Under prior
laws pensions were only granted on
account of the disabilities of SER
vice origin. All pensions grant,
ed under former laws are presum-
ed to have been properly granted,
and they are not being examin-
ed except OH information showing
fraud in some particular case, as
has always been the practice. But
the act of June 81, 1890, granted
pensions to persons who had served
ninety days or more, if suffering
from mental or physical disability
of permanent character, not the
result of their own vicious habits,
incapacitating them from the per-
Torrance of manual labor in such
a degree as to render them unable
to earn a support-such pensions
not to exceed S12, nor less than SO
per month, proportional to the
disability to earn support by
manual labor. Under this act
the disability need not be of service
origin, but to be pensionable at all
the disability must incapacitate the
person from manual labor, so as to
render him unable to earn a sup
fport. Specific disabilities, as such,
were not pensionable at all under
that act, nor entitled to considera-
ton except as they might effect
the capacity to perform manual
labor. But by order 1874, issued
October Is, 1890, the commissioner,
with the approval of the assistant
secretary, directed that specific dis
abilities should be rated under this
act, the same as they would have
been rated under prior laws had the
disabilities been of service origin,
up to SIP per month. The effect
of this order was shown in the
Bennett case, which called atten-
ton to it. A board of revision was
therefore constituted of the ablest
and most experienced men Of the
bureau to re-examine these cases
and Gull out such as had no legal
basis to rest upon, and with in
structions, to interfere with no case
where, by the most liberal construc-
ton, right to the pension
would be made to appear and in
other cases where the pensions
could not be sustained under the
law, to give thirty days notice &C
cording to previous practice, with
in which the pensioner may fur
nish additional evidence and show
himself entitled. No one disputes
the correctness of the decision in
the Bennett case.
My comrades may feel sure
OF receiving everything to which
the law most literally constructed
entities them. Partisan leaders
may try to arouse feeling for par
tisan ends. But the execution of
law upon the construction given
to it by two heads Of the same de-
partment, of opposite politics,
which construction is admitted by
either body to be correct, has no
political character, and / did not
hesitate to commit the work to a
board of revision whose ability fit
ted them for it, though most of
them, with their chief, are Repub-