The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-01-23
CONGRESS.
Abstract of the More Important Pro-
ceedings of Both Houses.
TUESDAY, JAN. II.

of Massachusetts, Senator Allen, the Nebraska
Populist, attacked the bill on the grounds that
the private soldier was Disseminated against
in pension legislation. There was no rule, he
said. The other day $50 allowance was made
to the widow of Brigadier- General, and now
widow who is without family was to be al
lowed S75.
al want to go on record" said Mr.. Allen. "as
opposed to any distinction between the widow
of the private soldier and that of Brgadier-
Generals, Maior-Generas or any other Generals.
Mr.. Allen said it was the plain private soldier
who met the brunt of the war. To hear Sem
ators talk it would be thought that Brigadier-
Generals won the war. It was species of
"namby- pambysm and funkeyism."
Mr. Hawley suggested that the world recog-
nized questions OF rank, even if the Nebraska
| Senator did not. While eulogizing the services
of the plain soldier, Mr.. Hswley pointed out
that the mortality among the officers was
| creator than that among men in the ranks.
Mr.. Hosr asked if Mr.. Aliens logic would
lead him to approve placing the salary of Gen.
Miles, Commander of the Army, at $13 per
month, the rate paid . private soldier. at
would doubtless measure tho value of his
services in many cases." answered Mr.. Allen.
| Mr. Hoar asked if the Nebraska Senator did
not pocket $1,000 year" while some poor
| constituent made only 75 cents q day. "At
least / pocket no more than $780," replied
] Mr.. Allen, suggestively. Except your mile
| age" added Mr.. Hoar. Mr.. Allen said these
| Senators talked as though God made some dis
tinction between the soldier and the General.
| Mr.. Thurston urged that the followers Of
| Grant and Sherman and other heroes of the
war should have the amplest pensions. This
bill, instead of having its allowance reduced.
| should serve to advance the allowance of all
who served in the war.
o B. ,-aIn,
full justice in granting pensions. but he pointed
out that certain peculiar influences prevailed,
| resulting in Determinations in pensions to
widows of officers, which bore severely OH the
old soldiers.
Mr.. Lodge sharply resented Mr.. Vilas's sug-
gestion of peculiar influences" He declared
that Mrs. C0ggswel had never sought pen
sion, had her friends. She had sought
employment. He was amazed at these attacks
and covert suggestions.
sharp and at times amusing colloquy
occurred between Mr.. Hawley and Mr. Allen as
to where the officers were during the battles of
the war. Mr. Allen insisted that the officers
were in the rear, usually at elevated points.
AT times they were three miles in the rear
doing :" staff duty" Mr.. Hawley pointed out
that officers were not expected to be in front
ranks when a volley was to be fired. He chal-
lenged Mr.. Allen TO name al instance Of an
officer remaining three miles in the
staff duty"
A roll-cal was had on Mr.. Aliens motion to
reduce the allowance to $50 The amendment
was not agreed to, 90 to 80, the Democrats with
some exceptions supporting the motion and all
the Republicans voting against it. The bill
was then passed without division.
In the House, consideration of the Pension
appropriation bill occupied most Of the session.
Mr.. Northway (R., Obo) who was first recog-
nized, said he considered that the spirit in
which the pension laws were now being adj
ministered was manifestly uniriendly to the
soldier. In proof of this he cited the case of
soldier who had lost one arm aud one leg
who was deprived of his pension under the
total disability act of 1890 because he was
able to $50 month as guard at railroad
crossing In tue case OF a widow, under the |
act of 1890, the Pension Bureau ruled that if |
her income exceeded 500 year she was not
entitled to a pension. A soldiers widow |
should not be- obliged to stand shivering and |
starving at the door of the Pension Office in !
order to obtain pension, and therefore the |
Pensions Committee had seen fit to report the |
amendment to the present law, requiring that, |
as condition precedent to receiving pension, |
she should provo that her net income did not |
exceed $500.
Mr.. Hemenway Or, Ind.) favored the adop- |
ton of the Graf amendment, prohibiting the |
suspension of pensions until fraud had been |
proven in United States Court. He predicted /
that in November next the people would elect |
Republican President, who would appoint a |
loyal man from the North Secretary of the 7
Interior, to administer the pension laws with |
justice and fairness to the old soldier.
Gen. Walker r., Va replied tc Mr. Hemen-
way. Gen. Walker was the successor of Stone
wall Jackson in command of the Stonewal |
Brigade in the Confederate army; but he is
now Republican, and is the only Republican
Congressman elected in Virginia. Mr.. Hemen-
way, in his speech, had declared that when the
next Republican President was elected no
Southern man would be named to be Commits
sioner OF Pensions. Gen. Walker declared
there was a misspprehension of the feeling
and the sentiment of the Southern people and
the Southern soldiers toward pensions for the
men who fought for the Union. There was no
sentiment against the pension policy of the
Government in tho South, and he assured his
Republican friends of the North that the for
tunes and pensions of the Union soldiers would
be safe in the hands of the soldiers of the
South.
Representative w. C. Arnold, of PennsyI-
vana, denied the charge that Republicans
favored pensions in order to capture the old
soldier vote The soldiers of the country
knew where their friends were.
"This Nation has done much for the SOL
diers," he said; it should do more. 1t can
never do too much. A pension is not gratu-
ity a charity; it is q sacred debt which no
statute of limitation can bar. for there must be
no statute of limitation to the honor and pat
riotism of the American people,"
Mr.. Arnold attack led the Pension Bureau for
the delays and obstacles he said it put in the
way of worthy applicants for pensions and
their widows, and for taking the opinions of
Postmasters and other outsiders against the
sworn testimony of the soldier, his comrades,
and his physicians. He denied that there
were gross frauds and perjuries in the obtain
m al tria in |
courts not SO free from false testimony as
were pension cases. But, granting that there
might have been few where pensions
had been obtained wrongfully, of larger
amounts than the soldier was justly entitled
to, it was better that 80 should get more than
their due, rather than one poor, deserving SOL
der should be refused
Mr.. Cummings, in q series of regulations
scored the remarks made on Monday
by his colleague, Mr.. Bartlett in which the
latter characterized the extension of pension
legislation as looting of the Treasury.
Mr.. Cummings, with much vociferation and
emphatic gesticulation, repudiated the re-
marks of Mr.. Bartlett, on behalf of the people
of New York, Republicans well as Demo-
Gratis. on behalf of the Union soldiers, on be-
half of widows and orphans, and finally and
smphatically on behalf of Tammany Hall.
Mr.. Cummings remarks formed short but ,
bitter arraignment of the Pension Office. He ]
declared that it was time some radical action was
taken to call a halt on the Pension Office. The I
bid soldiers and the poor widows were standing /
IN hourly expectation that something cowardly