The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-04-29
AN OPEN LETTER.
To Hon. Henry Clay Evans,
Commissioner of Pensions.

SDMkADE. III entering upon tHe
duties of the high office to which you
have been called by the President, there
have doubtless come under your observa-
ton many matters of practice in the
Bureau of Pensions which you desire
and intend to correct. We wish to invite
your special consideration to the admin
istration of the law of June q, 1890,
which was enacted, very largely at least,
to benefit those claimants who were I'M
able to furnish the proof required to
establish their title under the general
pension law, but which for the past four
years has been construed and applied
with a spirit which We cannot but believe
to have been hostile to those who in the
hour of their country's greatest need
enrolled themselves in her defense.
Tens of thousands of worthy pension
ers have been stricken from the roll,
tens of thousands of others have been
reduced: tens of thousands of worthy
claimants have been rejected, or, if their
claims were at last granted, have been
obliged to accept less than they were
entitled to, as is believed, under the law,
and especially under an act of March 6,
1886, enacted to further secure to claim
ants what they were already entitled to
under former laws.
New and unusual, and in a sense
humiliating, requirements have been
added to those known in the official
practice previous to 1893. Obstruction
and delay has been, apparently, the OBJ
gject, though not the avowed purpose, of
many of the official orders and rulings,
notably an order numbered 229, which,
ostensibly, intended to secure more reli-
able testimony in pension cases, has had
the effect of depriving claimants of the
services and assistance of their attorneys
in great measure, besides giving in
reality no increased value to the testi-
mony, since it has been required to
stand the same tests as formerly.
After complying with all the official
requirements and after overcoming,
apparently, every objection raised as to
the character or form of the testimony
submitted to substantiate their claims,
claimants have seen months grow into
years and still no word is received as to
any official action taken on their claims.
Many Of these who are waiting are in
pressing need of whatever the Govern
ment finds them entitled to under the
pension laws. Many, many more are
nearing the end of the down grade of
Life, and if they and not posterity are to
be benefited by what is due them, early
action should be taken on what so
greatly concerns them. The laws have
continued the same, and yet the number
of claims allowed during the past four
years has been only about one-thisd as
large as during the previous four years.
The number of reflections has been out
OF ali proportion to the number of al
lowaaces, and claimants have more than
ever before been made to feel that they
could not expect to have considered
upon its merits the testimony they sub
mitted. Records aud medical testimony
are good evidence, but there is other
testimony than these equally entitled in
all fairness to. credence and considera-
ton. Too many worthy claims have
been rejected through the absence of
Same particular sort or some certain
s3~a.y Of testimony, and not bscauss Of