The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-09-19


be hunted down. As your Commander, /
called upon the comrades to assist In the
work. The result, as far as I can learn is
that very few frauds were discovered and,
when found, were not cases where soldiers
had defrauded the government, but where
some dishonest agent had worked a poor,
ignorant widow, and put the money thus
obtained into his pocket. Whenever a
doubt exists the veterans should have the
benefit of III but such has not been the
policy of the pension office. Most of the
medical examining boards have been
changed army surgeons, who understood
the conditions under which the veterans
incurred the disability claimed, have been
relieved, and in many instances these places
filled by men not in sympathy with our vet
Grams, and whose recommendation for the
office was political service rendered the
party in power. Comrades have been
dered before these boards, and although
suffering from disability Of long standing,
and having once proved their claims by
reliable witnesses, are deprived in whole or
in part OF what they are justly entitled to
receive. The rejection of claims has been
the rule. Let no veteran be discouraged.
The loyal people of this land never be-
lieved in the Union soldiers and sailors
more than they do to-day, and the polit-
clan who thinks he will win favor by I'M
derrating them or depriving them Of what
they are entitled to receive will, in the near
future, find his mistake and feel very, very
lonesome."s
The acknowledgement report shove d
membership in 1893 of 397 ,223, d.
vided among 45 departments and T.
626 posts; in 1894, a membership of
3690S3, divided among AZ departments
and 7, 1913 posts.
That portion of the inspector
generals report which relates to New
Hampshire and Vermont is as follows:
:" OF the Department of New Hampshire,
found 1t to be in a good, healthy condi-
ton. There remain in good standing in
this department 1872 members, loss Of 81
during the last year. From the best in
| formation that we can get, there are in
| Portsmouth 140 veterans and in the state
| fully 800 who are not members of the Grand
Army of the Republic. 1 have no doubt
that If the comrades of this department
would take an interest in those men, that
most of them would become members. OF
the Department of Vermont it is gratifying
to report that there has been an addition Of
| two new posts in this department during
the first six months of the term of the pres
ent officers, and also that The enthusiasm of
| the Grand Army of the Republic does not
wane with increasing age of the comrades
| OF that department; but as one by one the
old boys are mustered out by death, the
ranks close up and the column moves stead
| lily forward L am aware that the rules and
| IeBuldulOuS w HOJ require al inspection OF
| Soldiers Homes; but from the fact that in
mates must of necessity be soldiers, who
| then Is there among US more deserving of
notice and of the fostering care Of the Grand
A rmy OF the Republic than the very homes
of these our comrades? l therefore append
| to this my official report what has come I'M
der my personal observation at the Ver-
mont Soldiers Home at Bennington. The
Home was incorporated in 1884. Owing to
lack of funds the Home was not established
and opened for inmates until May, 1887
since which time it has cared for $50 SOL
diers. Many of these rooms have been fur
nished by G. A. r. posts and Woman's Re-
lief Corps. A neat and wellarranged hos
pital was erected two years ago. but the
number OF chronic diseases has so increased
that the trustees have added a wing the
present season. A beautiful chapel, cost
Ing with furnishings $1,000 has been
erected by voluntary contributions of G.. A
r. posts, Woman's Relief Corps and indi-
viduals, without any state or government
aid the only building so erected, so far as
we know, in the United States. All the ap
| pointments of the home seem well adapted
for the purpose for which it was designed
a home.
When the report of the committee on
pensions was read, cheers pupctuated
every paragraph. The report says:
Your committee would reiterate the
sentiment and renew the recommendations
touching the rights of the Union veteran
and the duties OF the government toward
him, embodied in our report submitted to
the Twenty-seventh National Encampment
After the adoption of that report, there
was change in the action of the pension
| department in its rules for suspension of
payment without hearing, and many of
those whose pensions had been suspended
under that unfair rule have been restored
to the rolls. Your committee is, however
n ha ninin hat 10 ltil mat
for complaint in technical rulings and re-
quirements of the pension department,
which work uDfavorably to the applicant,
and result in unjust discrimination against
his interests; that doubts are unjustly de-
cided adversely to the claimant, which I'M
der any reasonable liberal construction
should have been decided in his favor.
Order No. 900 from the department of
the interior bureau of pensions, issued June
49, 1898, is especially obnoxious as estab-
fishing needless and hard requirements in
the preparation and forwarding of testi-
mony 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 want 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 all evidence
presented be fairly examined
our committee IeelS constrained TO
call the attention of the National Encamp-
ment to the fact that large part of the ap-
preparation made by the ffty-second con-
gross, 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.
a." At the same time great credit is claimed
on behalf of congress and the administra-
ton, upon the grounds that the aggregate
appropriations had been reduced, yet it APP
pears the only reduction made has been
effected by cutting down the appropriation
for pensions so that Union veterans alone
feel the effects of this spirit of economy.
/" 1t is a significant fact that while a
period of seventeen years elapsed between
the ending Of our war with Mexico, and the
close of the war for the Union, yet the
amount now expended for the pensioning Of
the soldiers Of the Mexican war is increas-
ing, while the amount expended for PEN
sions to Union veterans is diminishing.
1--WE feel compelled to say that there is
evidently on the part of both the admins
trative and legislative departments a feel
ing of hostility to our worthy and suffering
comrades, the wards Of the nation, who
bore the heat and burden of the battle, a