The Portland daily press., 1898-09-10

honest applicant for pension from sue
ceeding, by any subterfuge, rule or forced
construction of the laws which will work
injustice to the applicant, is to be con-
demned by all honorable men.
Resolved, That the repeated complaints
of the unfair Iconstruction of the pension
laws and of the enforcement of rules who
which are in violation of the law mimi
cal to the interest of applicants impel
this encampment to call upon Comrade
vi !liam Mckinley, President of the
United States to exercise his authority
and see that the law is executed in spir-
1t of justice and liberality.
Resolved, That all rules that hinder and
em barrasss the allowance of honest PEN
sion claims should be repealed and we ask
the President that he use his authority
to cause those whose duty it is to execute
the laws as not to obstruct the prose
cution of pensions by technical require
ments. The political campaign of 1896
was largely Influenced by the hope of
ameliorating the harsh conditions then
existing in the pension bureau. We SUBJ
NIT that this expected ameliorating has
not taken place.
Resolved, That the rule of the pension
office by which widow Is debarred from
pension If she has an income OF SlOo is
unjust. and we ask the President that the
order be abrogated and the minimum
debarring from pensions be hxed at not
less than $500 per AMI mum.
Resolved, That we ask for the re-estap-
fishing of order 164. which was enforced
under the Harrison regime. IL is now
held that to be entitled to the lowest rate
of Sc per month, comrade must baVe
some one disability, which is rated at that
amount. If he has three disabilities
rated at 81 each, he gets no pension at all.
This iniquitious rule is maintained up
to this hour and we submit is not such
treatment as we had right to expect
from Comrade Vim. Mckinley.
Resolved, That the phrase inability
to perform manual labor" is to be con-
strued to mean inability to perform un-
professional. unskilled labor, labor re-
quiring muscular effort alone. Your
committee further states that 1t Is wise
to receive even the official statement of
the commissioner OF pensions with several
large grains of allowance. He states in
one place that there are 75, 900 comrades
who never received pension. In anoth-
er place he fixes the figures at 200, 900. He
discreetly refrains from giving promi-
nence to the number Of his rejections.
Our comrades living and the widows of
our comrades dead, cry aloud for justice.
We voice their cEy and bring 1t to the ear
of that comrade in chief authority over
all the land, confident that he will do
justice.
Inc rcpOrb WdS duUptcu WltAout OlSCuS-
sion.
Some time after the adoption of the re-
port of the committee on pensions fear
seemed to have come into the minds of
some comrades that some blame had been
attributed to President Mckinley and
Judge Torrance of Minnesota moved to
expunge from the report the sentence
stthis iniquitous rule is maintained up to
this hour and we submit it is not such
treatment as we had right to expect
from Comrade Mckinley"
= CorIoral Tanner stated that in prepar-
ing the report it had been far from his
purpose to cast any imputation upon the
President md he asked unanimous con-
sent to add to the sentence which it was
sought to have expunged:
'fAnd we are confident that when he
is once relieved from the mighty matters
of national and worldwide Importance
which now command his attention, he
will see that Justice is done.'
The encampment unanimously gave
permission to make the addition to the
report and the motion to expunge was
withdrawn. -
The newly elected officers were installed.
At 2.30 p. M: the final adjournment
took place,