The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-06-07
PENSIONS INJUSTicES.
The Cleveland Administrations Treatnsene
 of old Soldiers.

d
 Mound City, H., (eight miles from
 Cairo), Judge Charles D. Long, of the
 Michigan supreme court, in the course
 of an eloquent oration made the fol-
 lowing pointed reference to the treat
 ment received by the old soldiers at
 the hands of the present administra-
 tion:
 | Pensions have been granted to most of
 those who are disabled as well as to tho | widows and orphans of those they left behind. | The representatives of the people in the na-
 tional congress and the executives Of this gov- l ernmenG have since the close of the war framed laws most just and equitable for the payment of pensions to the nations protectors. We have
 had no fault to find with this legislation or
 with the construction given to it, until of late. The two great political parties have a. all times declared in their platforms that they were in favor of liberal pensions.
 "The members of the Grand Army of the Re- public and the old soldiers of the country have believed that these promises were made in good faith and not intended as delusion and a snare. At the commencement of the war our comrades were not all of one political faith, and since its close they have been separated to some extent on political lines We do not quarrel with each other in our grand army life over political affairs question each other as to the matter of religious beliefs. We were band of brothers then, and we continue to be.
 Tt is but natural that this body of men who for years were associated in the intimate re- lationship of soldiers in a common cause and shared alike those hardships and dangers and the glory which is their common heritage, should remember their comrades and love ana honor them, and regard 1t as an imperative duty to see that justice is meted out. and that their crippled comrades and those who came out of the service with health shattered and broken, should be placed under the special care and protection of the government and of society and that the widows and orphans sf deceased soldiers should be cared for and their necessities supplied. This is the especial work of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Women's Relief Corps, that grand auxiliary to our order,
 There is another principle too, in the order that to perpetuate the spirit of allegiance to the government; to cherish respect for and fidelity to its laws; to frown upon corruption and dishonesty in the administration of tional affairs, and to discourage whatever im- pairs the permanency of our free institutions or excites the spirit of insurrection, treason, and rebellion.
 with these objects in view we have from year to year urged upon congress the care of disabled comrades, and nobly, generously have our petitions been met; but now 1t has come to pass that our petitions are unavailing. Here in the presence of our dead we may inquire into the causes-why 1t Is that those who for the time being are placed in authority over us do not listen to our petitions and why rulings arc being made which bring desolation, want and Restitution into so many peaceful homes Here tofore pension rulings have been most just and equitable in most cases to old soldiers. Now such construction is being placed upon pension legislation that thousands are being stricken from the rolls, and many more thousands are being reduced to a mere pittance.
 By what authority is this doneS Are tho people of this nation demanding it? Do either of the two great political parties of the country demand 1t: Has any political party demanded 1t In its platfOrmi We answer, no. And yet the pension bureau, with its army of over two thousand clerks, has been kept busy for mora than year not in the examination of the i've hundred thousand claims now pending, and upon which the dust of years is accommodating, but in the examination of claims already al- lowed and under which payments are being made, to the end that some fact or some proof may be unearthed to give some slight show of reason for striking pensioners from the rolls or reducing them; and if no reason, in fact, can be found, then by an interpretation of the acts of congress, which had never before been heard of.
 During the first six months of the present administration the net gain in the pension roll was one hundred and thirty, while under the last year of the preceding administration there was net gain of more than two hundred thOusaEd. Why are not the old claims exam ined: There is an army of clerks supplied for that purpose, It is because Of deliberate, wicked and set purpose to reduce the pensioR roll by some means, fair or foul, and this, too, at a time when the country is suffering from such business depression that with more than two million wage-earners out of employment, 1t is almost impossible for those decrepit men to earn a livelihood.
 "The course of the present pension admlnis- tration toward pensioners has apparently been from the outset actuated by the most bitter hatred, and with Q desire to arouse the antag- onism of the people toward them False charges of fraud upon the pension roll have been per- sistently circulated Their services have been belittled and their disabilities made light of They have been held up to scorn and ridicule. Their claims for pensions and for increases have been neglected and their letters of inquiry for the reasons thereof remain unanswered. Their pensions have been cut of without reason or ex- cuse, or have been reduced to such an extent that but a pittance remains. They have been deprived of nearly S30,0O00OO which congress had already provided, and which, under the rulings of former commissioners of pensions, they would now be in enjoyment of had not the present commissioner arbitrarily overturned the former decision.
 "The present commissioner well knows that
 no such frauds exist as given out to the coun- try and he knows that the pensioners them selves are more desirous of making the pension roll a roll of honor than are those temporarily in power over these matters.
 He knows that by his arbitrary rulings he has stricken from the roll many thousands of deserving pensioners, who can never make their proofs again by reason of the death of their witnesses, and who will in consequence never be restored to the rolls under his rulings. He knows that by them many who were drawing pensions for disabilities have been reduced be- | low what the acts of congress provide, and that by his interpretation of those acts he has over | turned the decisions of former commis sioners whi, h have for years been acquiesced in. He knows that the boards of medical ex- aminers provided for by law throughout the country (thus giving pensioners the oppor- | tunity for examination without delay and with but little traveD are better prepared from | such personal examinations to determine the degree of disability, and yet he arbitrarily sets the decisions and opinions of such boards at defiance and requires the proofs of such ex- aminations to be submitted to board of his own appointment at Washington, and by which means the rating is almost invariably cut | dawn below that warranted by the proofs and that which had been made by the home boards.