The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-05-27
AN OPEN LETTER
AS to the Notification of a
Beneficent Law.
Hon. HENRY CLAY EVANS,

COMRADE: Since we last addressed you
we have been pleased to note that many of
the reforms promised by you on your entry
upon your duties at the Pension Bureau
have been executed You have promoted to
the subordinate positions about you men of
experience in the work of the Bureau and in
full sympathy with your purposes of justice
and dispatch. The majority of those you
have placed in the more responsible places
are men who were our comrades in the try
ing days of war gone by. You have wiped
out many of the reprehensible obstructive
measures Of your immediate predecessors
Order 229," the most notorious of those de-
vices of delay and hindrance, being among
the first to fall beneath your perstroke. In
the name of the millions of our fellow-citi-
zens who desire that all just claims shall be
fairly considered, we thank you.
We wish now to call your attention to
NULLIFIED LAW.
In the pension appropriation act approved
March 6, 1896, will be found the following:
THAT whenever claim for pension under
the act of June 81, 1890, has been, or shall
hereafter be, rejected, suspended or dismissed,
and new application shall have been, or
shall hereafter be, filed, and a pension has
been or shall hereafter be, allowed in such
claim, such pension shall date from the time
OF filing the first application, provided the
evidence in the case shall show pension
able disability TO have existed, or to exist at
the time OF filing such first application, any
thing in any law or ruling Of the Department
to the contrary Notwithstanding"
The plain intent of this enactment was to
secure the restoration of the former practice
rs to the commencement of invalid pensions,
under proper Interpretation of the act of
June 81, 1890, a practice under which fully
100000 claims were adjusted between 1890
aud 1888 BY a Departmental decision ren-
dered on Aug. 18, 1893, in the case of one
Carley, a grand scheme had been hit upon
for depriving act of 1890 pension claimants
of portion of their arrears. The process
was perfectly simple: claimant was ex-
amined and pronounced not to be pension
ably disabled-though the same disabilities
filed under the general law would have en-
titled him to good rating. 1t was so con-
to have his claim reconsidered was by the
filing of me,o declaration, upon which he
was again ordered for medical examination.
Perhaps this time the medicalreport received
was regarded as favorable; rating was
allowed and pension certificate issued, fixing
the commencement of the pension not from
the date of filing of the application, but from
the date of filing of this second declaration,
or reconsideration or reopening application!
How was this possible? The act of June
q, 1890, provides that invalid pensions
Hereunder "shall commence from the date
of the filing of tile application in the Pension
Office, after the passage OF this act, upon
proof that the disability then existed" This
last clause, upon proof that the disability
then existed" furnished the necessary staff
upon which to rest the refusal to recognize
the application in fixing the commencement
of the pension; for what was easier than to
refuse to consider as proof" any evidence
which the claimant might submit to show
that the disability then existed" This
practice has been carried to the extreme,
and we have in mind a case-one of hun
dreds of other like cases-of an old SOL
dier who was rejected at the age of 70
as not OCCASIONALLY disabled. aud finally
pensioned at the age of rs (for old age
"senile debility" y and defrauded of two
years arrears of pension under the operation
of this ubiquitous Carley decision. There
are, too, many cases in which the applicant
has died of the disability on which his claim
was based, after being rejected and before
being examined under his new declaration,
and his pension when granted to the widow
has been dated only from the filing of this
second declaration. This is an outrage on
justice and shame on this great Govern
ment.
The malevolent practices of the nullifiers
of the Department and Pension Bureau be-
coming matter of common knowledge, the
legislation already quoted from the pension
appropriation act of 1896 followed as an
effort to correct the misconstruction of the
act of 1890 and prevent further misuse and
abuse of official discretion. But Mr. Loeb
rem said the new law "didn't amount to
anything" and Mr.. Assistant Secretary
Reynolds, in decision rendered June II,
1896, in the case Of one Durkee, said that
the only cases in which it (meaning the
statute) modifes the former practice are
those in which the claim was rejected on
account of some defect in the original appli-
cation or declaration" and thus the law was
set at naught.
Let us examine this statute, apparentlys SO
plain in terms and clear in meaning, that
was 80 lightly disregarded. 1t says that in
valid pensions granted under the act of 1890
SHALL date from the time of filing the first
application, provided the evidence in the
case shall show a pensionable disability to
have existed" The first application, and
not some paper subsequently filed which Mr..
Reynolds and MIR. Lochren might choose to
adopt as the application" Yet those
whose duty it was to execute the law said it
didn't amount TO anything" and only
covered cases where there had been some
merely technical objection to the first"
application.
The cases in which this wrongful illegal
practice has ayailed to deprive act of 1890
claimants of arrears are numbered by thou
sands, constituting nearly half of the invalid
cases under the act favorably passed on since