The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-05-07
OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

Correspondents should write each question on
separate sheet Of paper, give full name and adj
dress and mark it Correspondents Column No
attention will he paid to communications not &C.
compRned with name aud address Of writer. II is
requested that stamp be inclosed for reply by
letter. Postal cards will be replied to by mail
only. Replies by mail will ordinarily be made
within week. and II III this column within three
| weeks.l
Mrs. s. b., Salt Lake City, Utah.-Please in
| form me whether it is any use for me to apply
for my husbands back pay, he having been
| discharged for disability? Ansrer. We do not
understand why you should think that there is
any back pay due him. We should say that it
is probable that he received all due when he
was mustered ont. If you mean pension, then
you are advised that even if he would have
been entitled had he applied il he did not
apply you cannot have the benefit of a right
which he might have had but failed to assert
If he filed a claim which he did not complete,
then you can take it up. ard if you establish
it you may receive that to which he would have
been entitled otherwise not.
W. H., Sioux Falls s. D-A soldier drawing
pension died before he could execute his quar-
terly check, though after receiving it; can his
widow sign his name to it and get the money?
dHSiCer Certainly not, rs such an Endorsement
would be illegal; but she can send the check
to tho Auditor for the Interior Department.
United States Treasury, this city, accompanied
that there is no executor or administrator, and
then tho proper officials of the Treasury De-
partment will prepare the check for her in.
dorsement and return it to her, and she
then indorse and get the money on it. The
check is prepared for her Endorsements by hav-
ing an express authorization written on the
back of the check and signed by the officials of
the Treasury.
T. C. ID. S., Bradford, Pa. and several others
do not understand the ruling referred by the
decision here alluded to: -" The ruling holds
that where q widow and minor children under
l6 years Of age survive q soldier the children
may, after attaining the ago of 16, and where
the death of the mother occurs thereafter
without payment to her of any part of the pen
sion, apply in their own right and receive the
same pension the father would have been
entitled to had he been totally disabled. This
pension is to commence from the date of his
death and to continue until they respectively
arrived at the age of is years. This holding
entities those whose rights to apply did not
accrue until after they had passed their 10th
year to DO pensioned rs though their rights had
accrued while under the age of 16 as held by
the Department year ago. and hence not
subject to any litigation" Has it any bearing
on case like this soldier died in 1850 by
fall from derrick; the widow re- married be-
fore Juno 81, 1890, and the children were all
over the age of 16 at that time. Are they now
entitled uuuer tblS ruling! luey arc
not the ruling in question has no bearing
upon the case of any child or children where
the death of the soldier was not direct result
OF a cause originating in line of duty in the
service it simply goes back to the practice
that prevailed steadily up to December, 1891,
aud readopts an Interpretation accepted for
many years prior thereto, and under which
thousands Of claims were settled. In Decem-
Der, 1891 in the case of the minors of Patrick
Fitzpatrick, Assistant Secretary Bussey by some
strange process of reasoning (Which we believe
to have been wholly unwarranted by the law
of the case) arrived at the conclusion that al
though the soldiers death was conceded di-
rect result of his service, the survival of the
widow until the minors attained the age of 16
years, she not remarrying before that time,
and dying without pay ment to her of any part
OF the PENSION, barred the title of the children.
Up to the date of the promul cation of this de-
cision 10 had boen held that ii the widow died
without being pensioned. and if the children
under I6 years OF age ut date of soldiers death
could provo that his death was n direct result
of cause originating in line of duty in the
service that they might be peDsioned from date
Of his death until date of attaining tho age of
l6 years, even if they did not apply until after
they reached that age. All that the present
Assistant Secretary has done is to go back to
this practice, and although this matter ap-
pealed Immediately after the advent Of the
present Administration and might have been
disposed Of in few weeks it was suffered to
drag along three years. during which time
many of tho persons who might have been
favorably affected by it have died.
B. f.. Macon, Mo-. Is there penalty for
| false swearing in a pension claim; and if there
| is, what is it? 2. When claimant fails after
| eight or nine years of false swearing to make
| out his claim, why does not the Department
| throw tho case aside? AnS,rer. /. Yes "a fine
of not exceeding 5000. or impr isonment for three
years, or both. 2. We do not know; it has the
| credit of throwing out all claims that arc not
possessed of sterling merit