The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-09-13
VETERANS PROTEST.
At Their Shameful Treatment by
the Administration.
PENSIONS ONLY THING ON WHICH
ECONOMY WAS EXERCISED.
Mexican War Veterans Cared for Literally
But Southern Brigadiers Seek Revenge
ON the Men Who Conquered Them-A
Strong Appeal Made for Justice at the
Nations Hands,

on the Men Who Conquered Them-A
Strong Appeal Made for Justice at the
Nations Hands
Pittsburg, Pa, September 12.-When
the report of the committee on pensions
was read in the GAR. meeting today,
cheers punctuated every paragraph. The
report says:
Your com mittee would reiterate the
sentim ent and renew the recommended
tion touching the rights of the Union
veteran and the duties of the govern
ment toward him, embodied in our re-
port su omitted to the 9th national en-
campm TENT. After the adoption of that
report there was a change in the action
of the Pension Department in its rules
for the suspension of payment without
a hearing. Many of those whose pensions
had been suspended under that unfair
rule have been restored to the rolls. Your
COMMITTEES is Of the opinion that there is
still just cause for complaint in the
technical rulings and requirements of
the pension department., which work
unfavorable to the applicant, and result
in unjust discrimination against his in
terests, taht doubts are unjustly decld-
ed adversely to the claimant, which, un-
der any reasonable, liberal construc tion,
should have been decided in his favor.
Order .229, from the Department Of
the Interior, Bureau of Pensions, issued
June 10, 1858. is especially obnoxious as
establishing needless and hard require-
ments in the preparation and forward
ing of testimony in support of claims.
We insist that evidence very often pro-
cured after years of effort and at great
expense of time and money on the part
of the applicant should not be thrown
out for the mere lack OF form or want of
compliance with any purely technical
or arbitrary rules. We urge this order
be so modified as to provide that all evl-
dence presented be fairly examined.
Your, committee feels constrained to call
the attentio of the National Encamp-
ment to the fact that a large part OF the
appropriation made by the SD Con-
gress for payment of pensions for the
year ending June 30, 1894, is unused and
turned back into the treasury, while
hundred thousand uujudicated sclaims
remained pending in the pension bu-
reau. A the same time great scredit is
claimed on behalf of Congress and the
administration upon the grounds that
the aggregate appropriation is being re-
duced, yet it appears the only reduction
made is effected by cutting down the
appropriations for pensions,so so the 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 the
war with Mexico and the close of the
waR Of the Union, the amount now ex-
peLded for the pensioning of soldiers of
the Mexican war is increasing, and the
amount expended for pensions to Union
veterans diminishing. We feel compelled
to say there is evidently on the part of
both administrative and legislative de-
partments feeling of hostility to our
worthy and suffering comrades, the
wards of the nation, who bore the heat
and burden of the battles, feeling
which certainly should not exist in a
country saved by their devotion. While
the Grand Army of the Republic is
pledged to @purity in pu bic affairs,
and will, therefore. sympathize aud CO.
at economy, to the end that all public
burdens may be reduced to minimum.
We view with extreme regret the false
economy which shaves and pares to
the quick at the expense of honor, jus
ice and patriotism.
We lslst upon an honest, patriotic con-
struction and administration of the
existing pension laws, and that every
just claim be speedily settled, SO that
whatever was found due shall be paid
while the applicant is alive to receive it.
WOMEN'S RELIEF CORPS.
Eight hundred delegates and visitors
participated in the opening sessions of
the lfth annual convention of the
Women's Relief Corps. In her opening
address National Pres ident Sarah 6.
Mink said: 1t is with deep regret we
have seen memorial day used as day
OF sport and recreation by the careless
and Indifferent. feel we can in no bet
ter way impress upon the youth of our
land the significance of this holiday than
to request the last regular session of all
pu blic schools prior to Memorial day be
devoted to exercises of a patriotic nature.
1t is the law in Massachusetts and which
ought to be adopted by the legislatures
of every state where memorial day is a
legal holiday" Mrs. Mink said the Amer
lean people are rousing as never before