The Monmouth inquirer., 1897-02-25
VETOED BY CLEVELAND.
The President Disapproves the Pensions
of Remarked Widows.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23.-The president
returned to the house without approval
bills pensioning Mrs. Mary A. Viel and
Mrs. Mary A. Freeman. In the case OF
Mrs Viel the veto message says that the
widow Of Major w. ID. Sanger, having re-
married, she long ago by her own deliber-
ate act surrendered a right to draw PEN
Son as the widow of Major Sanger.
A further objection is that it is not
shown that the death of the first husband
Yves due to injuries received in his army
service. Neither he nor his widow while she
remained such presented any claim for
pension.
Mrs. Freeman was pensioned as the
widow of Andrew V. Pritchard who
served in the war with Mexico and died
from disease contracted in the service. She
continued to receive this pension until she
married John Freeman. 1t is now pro-
posed to restore her to the pension roll as
the widow of her first husband
~ am not willing" says the president,
"eyen by inaction to be charged with ac-
\ quiescenee in what appears to be such an
entire departure from the principle as we'll
as sentiment connected with reasonable
pension legislation
In yetoing the bill granting a pension
/ to Maria Somerlat the president sums up
i his general objections to the kind of pen
sion legislation which has been enacted by
the present congress. Mrs. Somerlat was
pensioned in 1867 as widow. In 1881 she
married again, when her pension was
stopped; but, being divorced from her sec
ond husband, it is proposed to pension her
again. The president says:
1.-The rule governing the operation of
ow's pension on her remarriage seems so
reasonable and just and its relaxation
must necessarily lead to such departure
from just principles and to such vexatious
pension administration that / am con-
vinced it ought to be strictly maintained.
II hope 1 may be permitted to call the
attention of the senate to- the increasing
latitude clearly disoernible in special PEN
sion legislation. 1t has seemed to me so
useless to attempt to stem the tide of this
legislation by executive interference that
[ have contented myself with nenacquies-
cence in numerous cases where / could not
approve
"There have been already presented to
me for executive action during the present
session of the congress 206 special pension
bills, of which l have actually examined
115. The entire number of such bills that
have become laws during the four sessions
of the congress since March A. 1898, is 391.
Some of these presented at the present
session are not based upon the least pre-
text that the death or disability involved
is related to army service, while in numer-
Gus cases it is extremely difficult to salts
factorily discover such relationship.
'sThere is one feature of this legislation
which / am sure deserves attention. l re-
fer to the great number of special bills
passed for the purpose of increasing the
pensions of those already on the rolls OF
115 special pension bills which l have ex-
amined since the beginning of the present
session of the congress- So granted or re-
stored pensions and 81 increased those al
ready existing, while the appropriation of
money necessary to meet these increases
alone exceeds considerably the amount re-
quired to pay the original pensions grant
ed or restored. by the remaining 5S bills.
II cannot discover that these increases
are regulated by any rule or principle, and
when we remember that there are nearly
1000, 900 pensioners on our rolls and con-
slider the importantly for such increase
that must follow the precedents already
made the relation of the subject to justi-
fable increase of our national revenues
cannot escape attention -