The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-20
PRESIDENT AND PENSIONERS,

! Republicans have endeavored to
make a great deal of political capital
out of the action of President CIeve-
land and the Democratic party in Con-
gress as to the pension list 1t has
been charged repeatedly that the
party and the president were the enc
mics of the heroes who fought for the
! Union in the civil war. They have
not as yet been able to cite any facts
which will bear up their accusations.
/ No person legally entitled to a pen
sion has been deprived of the money
due from the government under the
pension laws. What has been done
since the Democratic administration
came into power has been to purge the
lists of those dishonorables who have
obtained pensions under false pre-
fences, and to clip the wings of those
birds of prey which under the name
of pension agents have fattened upon
spoils obtained by fraudulent claims
and representations.
The Herald has given already some
cases in point. Persons who were
gaining large salaries in different oc-
equations and who were drawing pen
sions as totally disabled" have been
exposed and their pensions cut down
to the legal limit. Others who en-
deavored to draw money from the
public treasury under the pretense
that they were suffering from injuries
received in the war, but whose all
ments were traceable to totally diff
ferent causes, entirely disconnected
with army services, have been de-
MED the money which they were
through their agents endeavoring to
fitch from the public funds.
One of these cases is that of ]. w.
Farris, who served in the army and
was mustered out in August, 1865. In
1881 he claimed that he was suffering
from chronic diarrhoea and that this
was due to exposure in the army. For
this he managed to obtain a pension
which he drew for several months but
was not satisfied with the amount He
therefore applied for an additional pen
sion on the ground that through the
debility which was the consequence
of the diarrhoea his eyes had become
seriously affected. An investigation
was ordered in his case and the med
ical officer reported that he could
not conscientiously say that his
weakened eyesight resulted from that
cause. The application was therefore
refused.
His agent persisted in his efforts I'M
til a special bill was passed for his
relief increasing his pension. When
the bill went to the president he re-
fused TO sign it, and an attempt to
pass it over the presidents veto failed.
In giving his reasons for refusing to
sign the bill the president said:
1.-The ingenuity developed in the con-
slant and persistent attacks upon the
public treasury by those claiming pen
sions, and the increase of those al
ready granted, is exhibited in bold re-
lief by this attempt to include sore
eyes among the results of diarrhoea.
l am entirely satisfied with the opinion
of the medical referee, who, after ex-
amining this case in October, 1885, re-
ported that the disease of the eyes
cannot be admitted to be a result of
chronic diarrhoea. On all grounds it
seems to me that this claimant should
has been already allowed him."
We cite this as a sample of the presi-
dents alleged hostility to army men.
1t will be found upon investigation
that the complaints against Cleveland's
course in relation to pensions are as
groundless in other cases as in this.
Neither the president nor the Demo-
cratic party is opposed to granting to
the survivors of the war for the pre-
servation of the Union, nor to their
widows and orphans, all that they are
entitled to under the law. But they
are opposed to fraudulent claims, to
thieving pension agents and to the
robbery Of the United States under any
pretense whatever.