The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-02-01

| ZUU,UUU cases GDuef the oIc idWS, conlpletSu
and sidetracked under the administration of
/ Commissioner Raum," we find that of the
claims under the old laws 1O3 army invalids"
were allowed, against IS the week before; 131
"army widows" against LOG the week before /;
four navy invalids," against one the week
| before, and four " navy widows" against three
the week before-a total increase in this
class of cases of AZ. Of the total original
cases allowed 105, or just 10 per cent, were
for service in the Mexican and old Indian
wars
If we are to assume that the "200,00
completed cases " were made up wholly of
those arising out of the war of the rebellion,
total of 242 allowances will strike the
average man as an exceedingly small hole to
be made in the mass by weeks work of the
1000 employees of the Bureau in the Office
and 5000 in the field. At this rate it would
take SIS weeks, or over IL years, to COM
plete the work of allowing the 100000 cases
which you said you thought should be
allowed. OF course, it would not really take
nearly so long as this, because nearly all of the
unfortunate claimants will be dead long
before the II years are up.
Death will soon be neck and neck with
you in the work of settling pension cases,
unless you can expedite business. An al
lowance of 242 cases week is only IL, 5s4
year, while the mortality among the old
soldiers is now calculated at 35 per 1000
per annum. This would make 1900 of the
10000 dead by the end of the first year.
In other words, nearly one man dies denied
his pension for every two who get theirs.
OF course, the average mortality increases at
rapid rate every year.
Now, Mr. Commissioner, we ask you TO
contemplate the awful seriousness of this
Where, in all history, can there be found a
parallel to the monstrous ingratitude and
inhumanity involved in it? What iustif-
cation-what palliation even-can be found
for such policyf
The facts we have stated ara beyond
denial. TO remember that the war closed
% years ago, and that these men rendered
their services and received their disabilities
then, is to fully admit all the facts in the
case. If they were in the first flush of
manhood then, they are now far down the
slope that leads to the grave. Those who
had then passed the first Spring of their
youth are now trembling on the brink of
eternity.
1t is infinitely bad to have this paltering
with justice, this obstructive dallying with
rights obtain in the treatment of the whole
mass Of I'll 900 cases pending in the Pension
Bureau last July, but inconceivabIy worse
to exercise it toward the particular lot of
140, cases in which all The proof necessary
to substantiate the claims has been furnished
long ago.
From % to 80 years ago these 100000 un-
fortunate men, moved by the highest and
nOblest motives which can actuate men, left
their homes and families, the chosen pur-
suits in which they expected to gain COM
Portable support through life, and amass
sufficient to maintain them when old age
overlook them, and devoted themselves TO
the rescue of their imperiled country. The
| Government promised them most faithfully
most solemnly, that if they were injured in
its service it would properly care for them
and their families. When, after four years
of appalling fighting and bloodshed the
tottering Nation was anchored firmly on the
rock OF greatness, power and prosperity, the
gratitude of the people toward those who
had done this great work knew no bounds,
and in their joy they were exuberant In
their promises of what should be done for
those who had saved everything for them.
What shameful sequel to all this is the
mere statement that 10000 of these men.
who were desperately hurt in the struggle,
have been kept for nearly the lifetime of a
generation out of the meager pensions they
had earned, and this, too, after they had
supplied every particle of proof required of
them, and long after even the Commissioner
of Pensions had admitted that they had
proved their rights. Was there ever such a
mockery of iustice-such a shameless exhi-
bition of National ingratitude This is
done, too in the very face of the well-known
fact that these old and broken men are
dying of by hundreds every week, and by
tens of thousands in year.
Now, Comrade Lochren, the American
people, far from desiring that the Nation
shall be thus shamed in the eyes of its
own veterans and the world, are earnestly