St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-14
GUARDING THE PENSION LIST.
House Opposition to Giving the
Widows Any More Rights.

WIDOWS Any More Rights.
WASHINGTON, jan 13.-Today, be-
ing the second Monday of the month,
was under the rules set aside for the
consideration of business relating to
the District of Columbia. Although the
consideration of the house rules has
not been completed, it was decided to
give today to the District of Columbia
committee. Before Chairman Babcock
claimed the day Mr.. Morse (Rep.,
Mass) presented the following resolu-
ton for reference to the committee on
foreign affairs:
Whereas, the most mournful tragedy of
the nineteenth century has been and is now
being enacted under the apparent sanction of
the sultan of Turkey, by which hundreds of
slaughtered in cold blood, women being
driven into captivity worse than death and
inhabitants who have fed to the mountains
are dying of cold and starvation.
Whereas, The blood of these martyred
dead cry to heaven for justice;
Resolved, That the committee on foreign
affairs consider the expediency of reporting
forthwith some expression by this govern
ment in denunciation of these atrocities,
and, If they find nation we are powerless
to act, chat we invoke the cooperation of the
allied powers to wipe the Turkish govern
ment off the face of the earth and secure the
freedom and independence of Armenia
The resolution was referred and the
house then entered on the consideration
of district business. Two unimportant
bills were passed, after which Mr.. Bah
cock yielded the floor and the house
went into committee of the whole for
the consideration Of the pension appro-
priation bill. w. A. Stone (Rep., Pa,
in charge of the bill explained it's pro-
visions. 1t carried Sal, 81, 800, a reduc-
ton of $50, $50 from the estimates. The
an endments to existing law attached
to the bill provided that pensions grant
ed under the act of 1890 should date
from the first application, no matter
how many times they had been rejected
or dismissed for defects or informality
in the application, and repealed the
provision of the act of 1890 requiring a
widow to prove that she was dependent
for her support on her daily labor; in
stead by the terms of the amendment
she must prove that her net income
does not exceed $500 per year. In ans
wer to a question, Mr. Stone said he
did not know how many widows would
receive pensions under the amendment,
but it mattered not whether it would
result in giving pensions to one or one
hundred thousand widows, the govern
ment was not so poor that 1t could not
afford to pension the widows of the de-
tenders of the Union. (Applause)
Mr. Graft Rep., I'D gave notice of
an amendment he proposed to offer,
fnhl biting the reduction or suspen-
sion of a pension on allegation of
fraud, until such fraud had first been
proved in United States court. The
amendment was practically the same
as that originally drafted by the sub
committee on pensions, which was SUD-
sequently abandoned because 1T was
thought it trenched upon the territory
of the committee on invalid pensions,
which purposes bringing forward
general bill to cover this ground. Mr..
Graft contended that a pension was
not a gratuity, and congress should
quiet anxiety in the minds of 100000
old soldiers by making their pensions
vested rights.
Mr.. Bartlett Dem. n. " gave no
tice that he would raise a point of or
der against Mr. CRAFTS amendment,
and also the amendment in the bill
repeating the provision of the bill of
1890 relative to widows pensions with
reference to the Graft amendment, he
believed it would be unwise to strip
the pension commissioner Of executive
power and clog the machinery of Unit
ed States courts with matters that
properly should be left to the commits
sioner's discretion. Mr.. Bartlett an
nounced himself as supporter Of pen
sions for deserving soldiers VINO were
wounded or contracted disease in the
line of duty. But, without question
ing the justice of the dependent act
of $780, he declared his unalterable OPP
position to the further extension of
that act such as was proposed in the
pending bill In reply to a question
from Mr.. Johnson Rep., Ind he eX-
pressed the opinion that the sentiment
in New York, among the Democrats
and the better class Of Republicans,
was opposed to IAN extension of the
pension roll and the further footing
of the treasury" Mr.. Bartlett called
attention to the fact that the debate
On the dependent act in both houses
showed that it was specifically stated
that the test of the widows right to
obtain a pension under the act should
be her dependence on her labor for
support. He predicted that the adop-
ton of the amendment would add the
names of at least $4,000 widows to the
rolls.
Mr.. Bingham CRep., Pa challenged
Mr.. Bartlett's estimate of the number
of widows who would be benefited by
the amendment in the bill. The teS
timony of Commissioner Lochren, he
said, showed that but 5000 widows
claims had been abandoned.
Mr. Bartlett admitted the number of
beneficiaries was conjectural, but said
his estimate came from those best in
formed on pension statistics.
Mr.. Willis (Rep., DELI, in an eloquent
speech Of five minutes, declared that
it was right that every safeguard
should be thrown about the soldiers
pension.
At ABS the committee rose and the
! house adjourned.