The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-12-15
CONGRESSIONAL INDICTMENT OF THE
PENSION BUREAU.

|
tees of the Pension Bureau. Theoret-
ically, the only pension claims that
should come before Congress should be
very few in which the conditions are
so exceptional and unusual that they
cannot be covered by the general laws
which Congress has from time to time
passed. There has been every effort
made in the past to so carefully frame
these laws that, If executed according
to their letter and spirit, they will give
an adequate pension to every man and
woman justly entitled to the same.
Few, if any, other laws on the statute
books have received more attention
from the ablest minds, in order to make
them meet their purpose. But the con-
slant refusal of the Pension Bureau to
do its plain duty burdens Congress with
appeals from its injustice, and makes
the Committees on Pensions Of the SEN
ate and of Invalid Pensions Of the
House the hardest-work of the Com
mittees of either House. and once a
week the Congressional Record is filled
with instances of where Congress has
been successfully invoked to correct the
abuses rerpetrated by its agent and
minister upon the. veterans and their
dependent ones.
Take, for example, the record of the
Senate proceedings for Dec. 8, to be
found on page rs of the Congressional
Record:
The Secretary read the report, submitted
by Mr. Callinger June % 1898, as follows:
The Committee on Pensions, to whom was
referred the bill II. r. 1000 grsnting an
increase of pension to Ellen Stack, have
examined the same and report:
The report of the Committee on Invalid
Pensions OF the House of Representatives
hereto appended. is adopted. and the passage
OF the bill is recommended.
HOUSE REPORT.
This bill as amended proposes to increase
from s. to SO per month the pension of Ellen
Stack, OF tie City of New York, the widoy
of James Stack Second Lieutenant, Co. T.
i62d \. Y. Soldier enlisted Sept. g. 1862
and was honorabiv discharged Dec. 10, 1854,
on account of islbility-gunshot wound
The records show that he was wounded in
action April %, 1864. lie was treated in
hospital for gunshot wound right thigh
| fracture, April - to May .; also treated in
hospital for remittent fever.
lie filed and established a claim under the
general law for gunshot wound right thigh
and resulting total disability of right leg
and was pensioned therefor at SIS I'm Dec.
70, 1864; $50 from June g. 1866; S24 from
June 4, 1872: $50 from March 3, 1883, and
! S3G from Aug. 4, 1886 He died June 80,
! 1S06.
Tie widow filed claims July %, 1885,
under tie general law and act of June 81.
1890. Claim under general law was rejected
May 20, 1897, on the ground that death
suited from disease Of lungs, not due to
shot wound right thigh and resul,s).
Claim under the &C. Of June II. 1885, was
admitted. and this claimant is now pensoned
Hereunder at 81 per month.
Claimant is 81 years of age aui has no in
come or means of support eZrp. her pension.
She was married to the soldier Dec. 20,
1863.
In an affidavit dated Aug 10, 1896, Cha
| L. NumIaack, M. D., tesiiGes that SolGier
first consulted him professionally Aug 81,
7 1872, and was then suffering from tuhercu-
loss OF the lungs, with complaining ulcer Of
tire stomach; that an attack OF Lcnatemesis
soon followed, ard prevented soldier from
following his usual vocation for some months
by reason OF the aDpGlia and weakness in
duced by said hemorihage; that the soldier
recovered. but was under treatment constantly
from hat time for gastri;is and tuberculosis
until the Summer Of 1896, when he passed
from under atlantis care.
James 4. Ferguson, NJ. d., in an affidavit
dated Jan. q, 1851, ,estites that he attended
soldier fer chronic gtatritis, gastric nj, er,
and fbro:d phihiss from May, 1884 10 June.
1896, and that the soldier died Of ibroid
phthisis, which, from the symptoms ana
history Of the diseasc, ailiaut is positive was
OF years duration and was causaa by exhaus-
ton and absorption Of pus Gom a compound
fracture OF the right hip joint, caused by
minie-bali during the war OF the rebellion.
i Your committee Is OF the opinion that the
soldiers death was the indirect result Of dis
abilities incurred in tie service, and that
the widow is entitled TO S15 per month under
the general law.
The bill is reported back with the recon-
mendatiOn that it pass.
Here the injustice done by the Pen
sion Bureau was so clear and manifest
that even Cockrell, of Missouri, who is
an inveterate foe of pension legislation,
was constrained to say:
| have read the report. and / think the
committee is right | think the disease that
caused his death was certainly traceable 10
the wound he received. But the point
wanted to get at was that if the Pension
Office had granted the application under the
general law, then, he being Lieutenant, the
rate would have been Sl5 month.
1t was explained to him that the bill
merely proposed to give the widow what
the law, if properly executed, gave her,
and he withdrew all objection. Senator
Gallinger said:
u