Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-03-08

III tine second place, through the reduced
rate at which these pensions must have gone
on the rolls S?,2Ol, 100 more. Then there
is economy for tho treasury. also. in tho
!O,OOO greater number Of reflections by
Judge lochrcn on which the first payments
would have been something more than ~. e.
OOOOOO, if they had gono on the roll even
ut Commissioner Lochren's rate: and if at
l}aum's about 50, 400, 000-making total
Of SIS. OOO,OOO or $50, 600, 600, that has been
withheld from the veterans, their widows
and orphans III single six months.
This, in nutshell is tho astonishing re
suit. Now, let us for n moment look at
some of tho extraordinary means by which
this has been accomplished for it seems al
most incredible that such change can have
taken place in the pension bureau Men
see the unusual result. wholly out of the or
binary course, and ask themselves aud one
another how it can have come about
through what legerdeman it can have been
reached
spoke a moment since of certain original
methods of administration in the bureau
Let us take just glance at ssome of them:
and the first twist of the wrist in admins
tration TO which wish to call attention is
the order of the present commissioner, by
which the local examining boards ore no
longer allowed to rate applicants, but are
| confined 10 Il mere description of their con
dition
This is entirely new. Always heretofore
! in the history of the bureau the local boards
have not only given n minute and careful
description Of the condition of the claimants.
! bat. with the law before them. the schedule
of ratings ftSed by the bureau before them.
| 2Hd the man himself before thcm they have
| given their opinion ms to the degree of his
] y
| thDaght 10y the pension authorities that the
opinion Of the local boards. with their bet
ter opportunitie, for knowing the exact con
dition OF the applicants, being informed. as
| they are, by the eye, the greatest of all in
| st'uctorS. was entitled to great weight in fix
! my the rate OF pension to which he was en-
| titled Though not conclusive upon the bur
| eau, II has always been thought to be the
Very best light it had. And | say in the
very nature of things. it is the best guide
they have III determining here in the office
the degree Of that mans disability. who is
! hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles away.
and whom no one here in the bureau has ever
seen. But now the only surgeons who have
seen the applicant and made personal eX-
animation of him are forbidden to say any
thing about the degree of his disability.
Now, Mr.. Chairman. | say this is strange.
very strange. 1t is in derogation, not only
OF the whole history Of pension administers
ton. but of common SENSE as well: that is
if you want to do Justice by the soldier. But
if You want to iugglc him out of bis plain
rights under the law: and as this language
may not be quite parliamentary | Withdraw
it, and say: If you want to graduate hi,
pension by the degree of atmospheric pres
sure in the pension bureau. | can see. and so
can you, Mr.. Chairman that whatever rat |
ing might he made by the local boards would |
stand in the way of doing so
1T would, for illustration. look bad for the |
bureau to issue a pension for only Sc, when |
the rating of the local board was for S12: |
or to reject one altogether, which the local |
board had rated for S. or $40 per month |
But if there be no rating of the local boards |
in the way, the whole matter of disabi or |
~ disability. and if of disability, of degree |
Is with the board of medical examiners in |
tina pension Office who are Immediately un- |
der the hand of the administration and !
pensions are turned ont or refused alto |
gether according to the state of atmosphere |
i'll the pension oilice-no, the pension freezer. |
And what mean by the state of atmosphere |
can. perhaps. best be shown by some figures |
The atmosphere under the late republican
administration was such that in the month |
Of January last l1,l42 certificates were is
sued; in FEBRUARY. II, 1,3: in March. which,
though Commissioner Raum left the 9th,
was under Gen. Davidson, his first deputy.
1864 certificates were issued: and in April
still under Davidson. l4.O44 On the 9th of
May Judge Lochren came in, and with 20
working days left, so instant and complete
was the change in the atmosphere that the
issue of certificates went straight down to
S'2l helped as it was by six DAYS under
Davidson; and in June, wholly under Loeb
rcn. it went still further down to 6331, and
i'll July still further to 1880 And these
pensions, as we have already seen. were at
Il lower rate than usual.
Now, these figures show that no atmos
pheric change was ever more sudden, that
no blizzard ever swept the plains more
tercely than the cold wave that struck the
pension bureau on the advent of the DOW ers
that be And as it has settled down with
chill weight on that establishment, do you
not see that about the onl y hope of the soldier
is in the rating of the local boards? |
think | see i'll those ratings protection for
him, and, for one, | protest against taking
from those boards the power to rate disa-
blity, as degrading to them and hostile to
the pensoner. 1t is "A complete revolution
in the practice Of the office, a practice sup
ported alike by common sense and enlighten-
gu experience.
Its wisdom was not questioned under Mr. |
Cleveland's first administration. nor was it
ever, to my knowledge, brought under cri-
ticism till after the apathetic unfortunate
election of 1892, by which the democratic
party felt itself commissioned to undo ev-
erything done in the last 30 years or that
has happened at home or abroad with the !
approval of the republican party.
1t has accordingly sought to re-enthrone a {
savage and dissolutc queen over a brave .,
people struggling for liberty; it has taken
from the national government all control,
or supervision, even, of the election of its l
own officers; it has paralyzed industry by !,
attacking the laws that protect il; it has
thrown into disorder business and exchange
by the threatened overthrow Of our banking
system; and last, but 10y no means least y
really first in the democratic Programme j.
: its notification of the liberal pension I
avs put on the statute book by the repubi- y
IAN party, and which, while it hates, and I
...-..l eul.-