The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-13

III ahu NObSOluOhbJ
- evoke any demonstration. When
the report Of the committee on pen
sio' vas read, however. cheers pune
tn -. ery paragraph. 1t was signed
by Conn Ses H. E. Taintor, A. M.
Warner a.. 3d. N. Walker, chairman,
and read as follows:
Your committee would respectfully re-
iterate the sentiments and renew the re-
concentrations touching the rights of the
union veteran and the duties OF the gov
srnment toward him, embodied in our re-
port submitted to the twentieth national
encampment.
After the adoption of that report by the
national encampment there was change
in the action Of the pension department
in its rules for suspension Of the payment
without hearing, and many of those whose
pension had teen suspended under that
unfair rule have been restored to the rolls.
Your committee, however, is Of the opinion
that there is still just cause for
complaint in technical rulings and
requirements of the pension department
which work unfavorable to the applicant
and result in unjust discrimination against
his interests, that doubts are unjustly de-
cided adversely to the claimant, which
uuder any reasonable liberal construct
ion should have been decided in his favor.
Order No. 800 from the department Of
the interior bureau Of pensions issued
June 10, 1898, is especially obnoxious as
establishing needless and hard require
ments in the preparation and forwarding
Of testimony in support Of claims.
We insist that evidence very often pro-
cured after years of effort and at great ex-
pense Of time and money on the part OF the
applicant should not be thrown out for
mere lack of form or want Of compliance
with any purely technical or arbitrary
rules, and we urge that this order be so
modified as to provide that oil evidence
presented be fairly examined.
Your committee feels constrained to cal
the attention of the national encampment
to the fact that large part Of the appro-
priation made by the fifty-second congress
for the payment OF pensions for the year
ending June 80, 1894, was unused and
turned back into the treasury. while hun
dreds OF thousands of unadjudicated
claims remained pending in the pension
bureau.
At the same time credit is claimed on
behalf of congress and the administration
upon the grounds that the aggregate ap-
lpropriations have been reduced, vet 1t ap-
bears the entire reduction made has been
Effected by cutting down the appropriation
Nor pensions, so tnat union veterans alone
feel the effects Of this spirit Of economy.
1t is significant fact that while period
OF seventeen years elapsed between the
ending of our war with Mexico and the
close of the war Of the Union, yet the
amount now expended for the pensioning
of the soldiers of the Mexican war is in
creasing, while the amount expended for
pensions to Union veterans is diminishing.
We feel compelled to say that there is
evidently IN the past Of both the admins
trative and legislative departments a
feeling of hostility to our worthy and suf-
ferinC comrades, the wards Of the nation
who bore the heat and burden of battle-a
feeling which certainly should not exist in
country saved by their devotion.
While the Grand Army Of the Republic
is pledged to purity in public affairs, and
will, therefore, sympathize and cooperate
with any and all proper efforts at econo-
my, to the end that all public burdens
may be reduced to the minimum, we view
with extreme regret that false economy
which shaves and pares to the quick Mt the
expense OF honor, justice and patriotism.
ave insist upon an honest, patriotic
construction and administration Of exist
ing pension laws and that every just
claim shall be speedily settled 80 that
whatever is found due shall be paid Will Q
re applicant is alive to receive II.
We are confident that the loyal senti-
ments Of the country will condemn
policy that attempts to recuperate the
public treasury atthe expense largely OF