The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-02-18
A HEAVY BILL.
The Invalid Pension Bill Carries With 10
the Greatest Amount of Money That Had
Ever Been Placed Before an American



The Invalid Pension Bill Carries with 10
the Greatest Amount of Money That Had
Ever Been Placed Before an American
Congress,
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.-After the
routine business had been disposed OF
the house proceeded in committee of
the whole, (Mr. Wilson, of West Vir.
ginia, in the chair), to the considera-
ton of the invalid pension appropria-
tion bill. Mr.. Mutchler, in charge of
the bill, stated that the appropriation
recommended was s166, 400, 900. 1t was
proposed to amend the measure so that
that appropriation would be reduced to
Si66, 600, 000 The bill carried about
81, 900, 900 in excess of the amount that
would be expended during the cur
rent fiscal year. This was the
heaviest appropriation bill that had
ever been before an American
congress. Only three years in the
history of the government were
the expenditures for single year
greater than would be the expenditures
during the next fiscal year The COM
mittee on appropriations had concluded
that there should be some retrench-
ment; that reform in the granting of
pensions must begin somewhere, and
that the time had come when that re-
form should be inaugurated. 1t was
not the desire of the committee to de-
prive any union soldier who was de-
serving of pension, of any pension
that he now received. There was moth
ing in the bill that would take penny
from any pension that had been grant
ed to a 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 bureau from the interior to
the war department Such transfer
would lessen the amount of money APP
propriated for pensions, and would not
deprive 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 till 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
appropriations. There were, he said,
thousands-and many thousands of
men whG were on the pension rolls to-
day who had made more money during
the three months of their enlistment
than they had ever earned before or
since, and yet who had never heard the
whistle of the bullet or the roar of ar
tillery. AS to the proposition that no
pension shall be paid to a nonresident
who is not a citizen of the United
States, except for actual disabilities, he
said that he did not desire to see any
pension refused to foreigner who had
been injured in fighting for the preser-
walton 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 on
an equality with the American citizen
To support such q man abroad was an
outrage.
Mr.. Grout admitted that the amount
of money required for the payment of
pensions was a large one. 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 pro-
posed by the bill. He did not think
that such transfer would take the
bureau out of the domain of politics.
But he did believe that an appropriate
could be framed in that
line which would be beneficial to the
pensioner