The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-01-25
AN OPEN LETTER
To the Commissioner of
Pensions.

Hon. VIM LOchren.
CoMRADE: We return to the zoe, 600 cases
under the old laws, which it was said last
Summer had been discovered by you as
having been completed under your prede-
cessor's administration and made ready for
adjudication, but had been side-tracked
by him, in order to put the force in the
Bureau and the money at his disposal into
the allowance of claims under the act of
June 81, 1890. This statement, which was
given the Associated Press, aud published
in all the papers in the country, while it was
not directly signed by you, bore evidence of
having been given out by you. Certainly, it
was never disayowed or modified by you, or
any one pretending to speak for you. There
fore, we think that we do you no injustice
in assuming that it was your statement.
You confirm this by implication in your
annual report, where you say:
Precedence is no longer given to under
the act of June % $780, but claims for pension
der prior laws for disabilities of service origin
now adjudicRted in their order where the evidence
is complete. So far from holding back this class of
claims / think they should have precedence rs
being older and more meritorious.
Now we ask you to inform the comrades
if it be true that you found 100000 cases in
the Pension Bureau which had been COM
pleted under Gen. Raum's or previous ad
ministrations and which were ready for
adjudication? Is 1T true, as was stated at
the same time, that partial examination
led you to think that about 20 per cent. of
these would be allowed?
This is very important information, Mr..
Commissioner, and information that rot
only the comrades but the public at large
have the right to have laid before them. 1t
is question of high privilege" as they
say in Congress. No executive officer has
any excuse for Withholding such knowledge
from the people. Most imperatively it be-
longs to them.
If there are 100000 men and women who
have furnished all the proof required of
them of things which occurred more than
quarter of a century ago, what possible
Justification can there be for delay in an
nouncing judgment upon their cases? If70
per cent-or 100000 these have fulfilled
all the requirements of the law, and all the
exactions of the Pension Bureau, and shown
beyond reasonable doubt or cavil that they
are entitled to pensions, what palliation can
there be for the crime of withholding what
is their due?
Words fail TO express the seriousness ofthis. |
That 100000 American citizens who served
their country faithfully in a long and bloody
war, and received severe injuries while in
that service, should be kept out of their
rights for % long years or more by the harsh
requirements of the Pension Bureau in re-
gard to proof, is bad enough, in all conscience.
1t is a burning shame On the Government
that they saved at such frightful cost
to themselves. If this be so, what terms
can fifty characterize the refusal to give them |
their pensions after they have successfully |
passed the soul-wearing ordeal? We can
think Of nothing that even approaches the |
colossal cruelty and injustice of this. When |
we remember that the men so denied and !
robbed are all past their prime, all suffering |
intensely from the burden Of premature age. |
added TO that their wounds and disabilities. |
we can safely challenge all the recorded |
wrongs of the Spanish inquisition to paral- |
lei the wanton and unnecessary cruelties in |
fiicted upon these most deserving men and
women.
1t may be urged in extenuation of this
course, that the financial condition of the |
Treasury requires that pension payments be
kept within certain limits We answer in |
stantly that this is absurd. Who gave Won
or any other executive officer the right TO |
fix the limits of expenditure for any pur- |
Congress. Congress passes the laws, and
the money to carry out the
laws 1t is the sole judge of what shall be
expended for any given purpose; and for an
to assume to limit or restrict
the operation of those laws, to suit some
theory of his own or his party's, is an
assumption of legislative pow
ers. Congress has not yet said that any
sum, big or little, shall be the limit to
pension expenditures. Until it does say SO
it is an improbable misdemeanor for any
official to defeat the purpose of the laws by
putting arbitrary limitations upon the ope-
ration of those laws. Congress has said
most explicitly that certain men and women |
shall receive pensions, and it is your plain.
simple, and imperative duty to give every |
man aud woman who fulfills the conditions
laid down in those laws the pensions which |
are prescribed. 1t is no business of yours