The National tribune., 1894-01-18
AN OPEN LETTER
To the Commissioner of
Pensions.

This is a statement which appeared il
the press of the country several month
ago, apparently authorized by you, to tn
effect that you had discovered 100000 ease
arising under the old laws which had beer
perfected under the administration of you
predecessor, but had been "side-tracked
by him in order to give preference to claims
under the act of June %, 1890. You ex
pressed condemnation of this course ant
announced that you proposed to give thit
class of cases what You styled their "propel
precedence Further, you said that you
had caused 1000 of these to be examined
and found that they were ready for ad-
judication, and that fully 20 per cent. Of
: them would be allowed.
We cannot tell you The joy this announce
ment brought to tens of thousands of anx-
ious hearts. The general belief was-and
we are sure that it was fully warranted by
your words-that fully 100000 long-delayed
claims would at once be allowed, as fast as
| the Pension Bureau could go through the
formality of the last necessary formal step.
At last claims which had been hanging in
the Pension Bureau for weary years, which
had tarried the garnering, taIried the win
moving, tarried the grinding, tarried the
boiling, tarried the leavening upon
which proof had been piled upon proof,
and evidence Joined to evidence, while
hopeless faces to the wall and died
at last these were to be allowed, and hope
spraDg up again like parched grass after a
moisteniDg shower.
What has become of all those completed
and "side-tracked" cases, Dir. Commissioner?
With what anxiety we have scanned the
priodical reports from your Bureau, expect
ing every week to see a gushing forth like
the water from the rock when Moses smole
it for the benefit of the drouthy Israeltes
But, alas, you seem in no haste to be the
Moses who will water the parched desert of
misery with the gushing fountain that your
hand can unseal. Week after week we have
had the same tantaIizing irickle of few
hundred grudgingly alle Ned cases, where we
have reason to expect thousands-eyen tens of
thousands. Is this right? Is this just? Is it
in accordance with your ideas of the way the
Pension Bureau should be administered and
the laws of the land executed? What reason
have you for Withholding pensions from
those 100000 deserving men and women,
who you virtually admit are entitled to
them. and who have been wrOngfi fully
denied them? Last week you allowed
but AZ original inyalids, "a army widows,
and 2 navy invalids, making rs in ali. How
many of these were Of those which you said
had been perfected under your predeces-
scr. and were all ready for allowance we
have no means of knowing. Assuming
that they were all Of that class, this would
mean but 4,056 allowed in q year, and it
would take nearly 35 years to dispose of the
whole 10000. If We accept death rate
of "a per 1 900 per annum, fully nine-tentbs
of the claimants will be dead before the end
of the 10000 is reached. If the train is TO
be run at this funeral pace it might almost
as well be side-tracked.
This week the Supreme Court of the District
of Columbia told you very plainly that it was
your duty TO carry out the laws which Con-
gress enacted. Almost in so many words it
reminded you that legislative functions were
no part of your duties, and that you were
not expected to act as third House to
amend, nuliify, or change laws which had
been passed by both branches of Congress
and received the approval of the President
OF the United States Your duty is confined
10 learning what laws are upon the statute
books, what the intent of Congress was in
passing those laws, and then applying your
sell, and the great force given you for the
purpose, 10 the task Of faithfully and intelli-
gently executing those laws. It is abso-
lutely no concern of yours that you may
think the laws are unduly liberal. Nor is it
at all your business to cut and pare and
mutilate those laws in order TO make their
operation fit some party policy or financial
theory. All this is an invasion of the preroga-
tives of Congress. You are simply the
servant of the will of Congress, not director
of that will.
If you have found that there are lac, 900
cases under the old laws which have been
completed under your predecessor, and are
ready for allowance, it is your plain duty to
allow them at once You are absolutely
without justification in holding them back
until death shall have reduced the number
SO that payment will come within some
arbitrary sum which has been fixed as the
maximum of pension payments for the year.
What business have you to assume the
burden of step SO overwhelming in dis
tress to your comrades, aud of dishonor to
the countryf Congress has not ordered you