The National tribune., 1894-03-22
AWAY OFF ON HIS FACTS.


Acting on The advice of THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE, comrade Wallace Hill, of New
ark, n. J., wrote to his representative
Hon. Thos. Dunn En2lish-urgng him to
support legislation providing that all claims
pending in the Pension Bureau he made
special and settled by Dec 81, 1894. Mr..
English replied as follows:
My DEAR Mr. HILL: There are some slight
Obstacles in the say Of the passage of The bill you
desire. First, it has not been introduced; second
carry it out would require addition Of four or
FIVE times the present clerical force ia the Pension
Bureau; third 1t would uecesSiiHie the approprI-
ton Of some 500 600 600 5000 600 in addi-
ton to the present appropriaiiou-periaps more
which we have not at the present time in the
Treasury These obstacles though trifiug of tn EN-.
selves. look large to the Of the House in
both parties that fear the bill if it were intro
duced would fail OF success.
Yours. truly, THos DUNN ENGLISH
1t is very astonishing to have such state
ments made By man of Mr. EnglisI's pre-
while it would likely require an increase in
the Pension Bureaus force, this need not
as large as the present force. With no more
clerks than are at present employed, Gen.
There are 80 weeks remaining to this year.
If, say, three times as many clerks were put
,,.fn h. Dnr al -
ought to turn out $4,000 cases week, or
100000 by the end of the year. The Com
missioner of Pensions reports that there are
654, 169 cases now pending. Thus he would
have a margin of nearly $4,000 cases for
holidays, etc.
Bnt even if it took 10 times as many
clerks, that would not be the slightest OBJ
lection. On the contrary, it would be much
better to employ $1,000 clerks for one year
than to extend the employ ent of 1000
clerks over Is OF 90 years. There are thou
sands of skilful clerks now out of employ
ment who could be put to excellent use in
this way with benefit to the country and
themselves, as well as the long-waiting
veterans.
Mr.. English's estimate of the amount of
money that would be required to carry out
the plan is absurdly exaggerated A few
figures will show this SO clearly that even
he cannot fail to see it. The Commissioner
Of Pensions states that there are now pend
ing 654, 169 cases, Of which 10s,427 are "ad-
ditional to prior applications" and 203,629
are for increase" leaving but 343,113
original claims. If every one of these were
put on the rolls at an average of Sc a month.
it would cost but S24 ,7O4, 1856; if at an aver
age of So month, but S32 8,s4s; and if
at an average Of $40 month, but Sal, 49,
$50. Mind, zoe say, if Everyone Were PIT on
the roll. We do not want, nor does anyone
else, that single undeserving man shall 90
on the roll. There would probably be many
thousand reflections in the above number so
that the amounts we have given are the very
outside figure, and involve the granting of
e0ery application now an The Pension Bureau.
Next, we must count the applications for
increase and additional There are 312 1855
Of these, and an unknown number of thou
sands Of them are duplicates. Tens of
thousands have applications pending under
both the general laws and the act of June
81, 1890, or have received under one and
applied anew under the other. If everyone
of the applications for increase were an in
diVidual claim, not duplicated anywhere
else, and If everyone were granted, and as
high an average as s4 month increase
given to everyone, the whole amount would
be but Sl4.9s3,4ss. So that, at the very out
side, every claim now in the Bureau could
be settled and allowed inside of $55. 600 900
at the very utmost Tho probabilities are