The record-union., 1896-01-15

bill tomorrow.
The Senate, at 4:25 p m, proceeded to
executive business, and shortly after
ward adjourned until tomorrow
IN THE HOUSE,
WASHINGTON, Jan I4-Chaplain
| Couden made the suffering and. perse-
cuted Armenians the burden of his
prayer at the opening of the proceedings
in the House to-day.
The House proceeded at once, in Com
mittee of the Whole, Perkins (Rep) Of
Illinois in the chair, to further con-
/ slider the general pension bill North
i way (Rep.) of Ohio was the first speaker
answering the criticisms made by Bart
/ lett (Dem.) of New York yesterday
| NOrthway said there was in the admin
! istration of the Pension Bureau mar
row, contracted, unfriendly and unjust
! spirit, compelling the pensioner to ap-
proach the bureau in a cringing sup
plicating attitude. The spirit Of the
! bureau compelled the soldier to assume
d burden which ought not to be put on
him, and which misrepresents the senti-
ments of the country to it's old defend
ers.
! In support of this general statement
/ Northway instanced rulings. especially
upon the phrase total disability" by
! the Pension Bureau which he said
should bring a tingle of shame to the
| cheek of every man in the nation per-
mitting such a policy to be pursued
! (Applause)
Hemenway CRep.) of Indiana spoke in
favor of the amendment proposed to be
offered by Graft Rep) of Illinois. which
fcrbids the dropping or decrease Of any
pension, except on proof of fraud on the
part Of the pension in a competent
court.
Gibson (Rep) of Tennessee said the
pension office was great court, the
greatest the world had ever known, yet
| there was not a syllable of law pre-
scribing the course of procedure be-
fore it. The result was that it was an
/ arbitrary court-a court that was ty-
rannical and unjust
Kirkpatrick (Rep) of Kansas spoke
of what he called the extraordinary
/ regulations adopted by the pension Of
! fee.
Poole Rep) of New York made a
! partial defense of the bureau, and then
! Cummings Dem) of New York made
| the closing speech of the day, which
was the sensation of the session. He
said:
1 shall heartily support the amend
ment offered by the gentleman from II
! linois. (Applause) I shall raise no OBJ
| lection to it, nor call a point of order
on it. It is time that something radical
shall be done with the Pension Office
! There is not a soldiers widow, there is
not a veteran soldier to-day drawing
a pension who is not standing daily and
| hourly under the apprehension that
something cowardly may strike him
/ from the pension rolls. After years of
patient waiting, after Examining Board
upon Examining Board has sat and
passed upon his case, suddenly, without
warning, it is withdrawn from him. No
| charge is made against him, and as the
resolution of the gentleman from II
/ linois strikes at the root of the trouble,
l will take that if I cannot get any
! thing else, to ascertain why it is that
| the Union veterans are stabbed from
/ the back from the very quarter in
which they should receive encomiums,
! encouragement and justice. (Pro-
| longed applause.)
Now, make no charges against the
! Pension Department, but 1 do say this:
that repeatedly instances have come to
/
iners have steadily declared that the
soldier was entitled to a pension, and
yet it has been rejected in the office
here in Washington >
Stewart (Rep) of New Jersey-Is it
not true that for the last two and a half
years the Pension Bureau has been
emphatically hostile to the pension
claims of old soldiers?
7iy,cr
has been emphatically unjust, in my
i opinion. (Applause.) The speech
heard from my colleague (Bartlett) on
this floor is not calculated to remove the
apprehension from the minds of the SOL
diers and their widows. Cold sophistry
may be good, but you had better apply
it to the Pacific railroads than to the
pensioners. Cloud applause.) 1 repu-
diate that speech on behalf of the con-
stituents whom I represent. Republic
ans as well as Democrats; I repudiate
the speech on behalf of the veterans of
the Grand Army Posts and the widows
who are drawing pensions in the city
! of New York; I repudiate the speech
en- behalf of the Democracy of New
| York City, on behalf of the Tammany
Hall Democracy of New York. daughter
and applause.) Sir, have not forgot
ten, and you will not forget, whichever
side of the House you stand on, that
Tammany Hall organized, equipped
and sent to the front one of the finest
regiments that ever appeared in the
Army Of the Potomac Their bravery
and their gallantry at Balls Bluff and
Gettysburg challenged the admiration
of the world.
''I repudiate, on behalf of the Tam
many Society, who equipped and sent
that regiment to the front, the speech
that was uttered on this floor yester-
day by a man claiming to represent
the Democracy. (Applause) Tammany
has always been loyal to the veterans
Of the war. I challenge any man to
point out one flaw"
w. A. Stone (Rep.) of Pennsylvania
Can you not go a little further and
repudiate the speech of the gentleman
who said that every neighborhood was
honeycombed with pension frauds
throughout the country?
Cummings-If 1 were Commissioner
of Pensions I might be able to do so,
knowingly. (Applause) Now, Mr.
Chairman, I speak on behalf Of every
veteran, on behalf of every widow. on
behalf of every orphan who draws a
pension in the United States. They are
ali included in this work at the Pension
Office up here One fraud ought not to
punish such people. I believe that for
every fraudulent pensioner who has
been stricken from the list or suspended
at least a thousand who were receiving