Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-10-19


be- mems minds differed. Many. ros-
; sibly msjority Of the survivors If the
r war, believed that the tine had fully
] come when the name If every honor-
ably dIscha ged survivor should be
placed upon the pension roll Others,
denying the right that they should re-
} ceiye sught from their country through
= the ptnsion roll, stoutly resisted the de-
mand
l. was under such circumstances and
dealing with these conflicting opinions.
that Congress enacted the Disability
pension law of June 1890. This act
was accepted by the surviving soldiers
and by the people in general as settle
ment of the question Under the adj
ministration Of that law. the poor house
gave up its yeteran-he who had borne
} he battle was cared for; ard thus the
sacred trust accepted and left as leg.
acy to the nation was faithfully admin
stered
Within few months we hear with
profound sorrow and regret that all this
must oe changed; that the construction
Of the law has been changed, and the
regulations and rules in regard to proof
and ratings, under which more than
three hundred thousand claims have
been allowed and paid, have been re-
voked, and another construction of the
law has been established, and new regu-
lations for proof and ratings, less favor
able to claimants, have been adopted;
that board of revision has been or
gained in the Pension Office, charged
with the duty of revising all these alb
Indicated claims in accordance with this
new construction, and such changed re-
gulations as to proof and ratings; that
under these changes, thousands of pen
slol have been suspended without mo-
tic9 and thousands of pensioners have
been dropped from the rolls. Il is
claimed that an adjudication Of pen
sion settles nothing that the Secretary
of the Interior end Commissioner If
Pensions are invested by law wife alb
solute power over the pension roll, and
that it is within their legal authority to
reopen and revise pensions allowed by
their predecessors under regulations a
dopted by them, whenever they see fit
70 change the rules of evidence and the
scale of ratings under which the ALLOW
ance was made and this in q country OF
law, where from the very infancy the
government the United States, by its
organic law, is in terms denied the right
to deprive any person of property with
out due process of law, mott ce and an
opportunity 10 be heard, and whe.e in
every other relation and condition in
life fraud is never presumed but must be
clearly proved, and every person shall
have the right 70 face his accuser. To
emphasize the viciousness of the situa-
ton and accusation, we learn that il is
said, as though by authority. that lit is
expected that many of the pensioners so
summarily suspended or dropped will
be able to prove that they are still en-
titled TO the pension Of which they have
been deprived thus saying in no un-
certain voice that the burden is notupon
the party alleging the fraud, but that
the government which they had pre-
served shall first brand with infamy by
the charge. then sentence, and after the
stigma has been effected, then concede
70 them, whose barriers and support of
character have been thus undermined,
the pihfnl privilege of moving for a
new trial upon the ground of newly dis
covered evidence: and this not upon
strangers, aliens or foes, but upon our
own flesh and blood, our comrades, the
saviours of the nation those who, in
the language of Lincoln. the Immortal,
have "borne the battle.
We deny that the Secretary of the In
terror and Commissioner of Pensions
have any such power We insist that
the adiudicating divisions of the Pen
sion Office, acting under the direction
and supervision of the Commissioner of
Pensions and Secretary Of the Interior
are tribunals established by authority of
law for thesettlement of D ension claims,
anG that their decisions are entitled to