The National tribune., 1897-08-26
ORDER 1914 AND ORDER ee5.

Immediately after the passage of the
act of June 81, 1890, the Interior De
partment made the following order as
to how it should be interpreted and APP
piled:
| ORDER 164.
| In regard to fixing rates Of pensions under
the act of June 81, 1896:
That all claimants under the act of June
81 1890, showing a,mental or physical disa-
bility or disabilities of a permanent character
not the result of their own vicious habits,
and which incapacitate them for the perform
| ance of manual labor, rendering them unable
| to earn support in such degree as would
| be rated under former laws at or above SO
and less than $12 shall be rated the same
as like disabilities of service origin; and that
all cases showing a pensionable disability
| which, If OF service origin, would be rated at
or above S12 per month, shall be rated at Sl2
| per month. GREEN B. RAUM,
Approved: Commissioner.
CYRUS BUssEY, Assistant Secretary.
There cannot be the slightest doubt
that this was exactly in accord with
the intent and purpose of Congress in
passing the law. During the searching
investigation Of Commissioner Raum by
an after and hostile Congress eager to
get at anything which would throw
blame upon him, there was not even a
suggestion that Order 164 was an in
correct or unwarrantable Interpretation
of the law, and for three successive years
he was voted money to carry out that
Interpretation. 1t was only when Mr..
Cleveland came into power with the
fixed determination to cut down the
pension expenditures that Order 1874
was abrogated and superseded by Order
225.
Order 1874, of Oct. Is, 1890, under
which some 100000 pension claims
made under section of the act of June
q, 1890, were favorably adjudicated,
is based upon the belief and upon the
logical fact that there is no difference
between the disablement which incapaci-
tates claimant for earning a support
By manual labor and the disablement
which incapacitates for the performance
Of manual labor to earn support
The whole system of the granting of
invalid pensions is based upon not the
wound or injury or disease itself, but the
disabiement therefrom, and the pension
is granted or rated according to the ac-
copied degree of disablement. By vari-
GUS acts of Congress and rulings of the
Department the ratings for the disable
ment for certain causes have been fixed
at certain sums or within certain
scale The penSionable disablement is
not and has not been, under the general
law, any incapacity other than that for
earning support by ordinary manual
labor, as is shown by the absence of any
discrimination or distinction in ratings
between those whose title to invalid pen
sion comes under the second or fifth
paragraphs and those whose title comes
under the other three paragraphs of Sec
ton 1893, r. S., which as a whole pre-
scribes the several classes of persons en-
titled to invalid pension for disablement
of proven service origin.
In the second paragraph Of section
1893, r. S., is found the expression dis
abled x X or otherwise incapaci-
tated X X X for procuring his sub
sistence by manual labor" and in the
fifth paragraph the expression disabled
4 r x to procure a subsistence by
manual labor" both substantially the
same as the incapacity for the per-
Torrance of manual labor x x
W TCuueI luGti uHdUic 10 earn sup
port prescribed by section 2 of the act
of June 81, 1890. Yet the Order 225
of the Commissioner, dated June 9.
1898, in accordance with the Bureau
decision, holds that there has been
brought into the pension system by
the I'd section of the act of 1890
a different sort or kind of disable
ment. and proceeds upon the theory
that disablement which, in de-
gree, incapacitotes for the performance
Of manual labor is something greater
than the disablement which, in a degree,
incopacitotes for the earning Of q support
by manual labor; SO that in the case of
inguinal hernia for instance, the dis
ablement for the performance Of manual
labor would enttle to rating of $40 or
more, while the same disabIement under
the act of 1890, would be regarded as
emitting to only Sc! The cause of the
disablement is the same, the degree of
disablement is thei same, the same decree