The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-15
The House Discusses the Claims
of Old Veterans.
Republican Members Advise a
Liberal Administration.
GEN. WALKERS VIEWS.
Amos Cummings Scores the
Pension Department.
Mr.. Kirkpatrick of Kansas in a
Sarcastic Mood.

WASHINGTON, Jan. I5.-The House
spent yesterday in further debate
upon the pension appropriation bill
The speakers, with single exception,
were all Republicans, and all favored
liberal administration of the pen
sion laws and the adoption of the
changes to existing laws proposed by
the bill Among the speakers was
General John A. Walker, who served
with distin ction in the Confederate
army from Manassas to Appomattox.
He is the only Republican representa-
tive from Virginia His assurance ofsthe
good feeling that exists in the South
toward the Union soldiers, and the
lack of hostility toward the pension
system, was warmly received on both
sides of the House.
Mr.. Cummings, Democrat, of New
York created a sensation by a severe
arraignment of the pension Office for
hostility to the old soldiers and
strong Reputation of the speech made
yesterday by Mr.. Bartlett, who is also
one of the Tammany congressman
from New York.
Mr.. Kirkpatrick of Kansas, in an
extended speech, spoke sarcastically
of the presumption of fraud which he
SAID the pension bureau sets up in the
case of every pension application.
Every witness testifying in behalf
of an old soldier" he said, sis pre-
sumed to be unworthy of belief.
Also, boards of examining surgeons
are presumed to be incompetent or
unreliable. Again, in case the old
soldier should have his claim pending
for years and should finally die before
it is determined, and if his good wife
should make application for a pen
sion. then the presumptionis that the
soldier whose widow makes this ap-
p1ication had as the time of his mar
rage at least one wife, if not more,
living, from whom he had never been
divorced; and the widow is required to
prove that such was not the case.
Nay, more, the presumption of the bu-
reau is that the wife herself, prior to
her marriage with the soldier, had at
least one living husband, if not more,
from whom she had never been di-
vorced; and she is required to search
the country from one end to the other
for the purpose of rebutting the pre-
sumption INDUCED in by the depart
ment. 2E
Again, when an application is made
on behalf of the children of a deceased
soldier, the presumption INDUCED in
by the bureau is that these children
are illegitiInate, and the mother or
their guardian is called upon to es-
tablish the fact of their legitimacy by
showing not only that the mar
riage was in due form, but the
power of the party to contract
the marriage in the first instance,
Il may be permitted TO say, Mr..
Chairman, that there is one class of
individuals against whom these pre-
sumptions may not rest There is one
class of men who have the presumption
running in entirety in their favor, and
in whom the bureau seems to have the
utmost confidence; these are the Dem
Ocratic Postmasters in the vicinity
where the applicant for pension re-
Sides
1t seems probable now that the gen
eral debate on the pension bill will
continue for several days