The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-10
GETS IT ALL
The State Secures the Lions
Share of the Officers.
CONCLUDED THEIR WORK
Pension Report Calls Upon Comrade
Mckinley to See That Justice Is
Rendered to the q. Ar.
Veterans.


S2nd annual encampment of the @. A.
r. was concluded to-day. The expect
ed discussions on the resolutions from
| the pension committee did not occur.
The rule in almost every instance was
to adopt reports as presented and in
this way the pension report went
through without objection, although it
was modified later to take away any
impression that might have arisen that
| President Mckinley was under censure
While the encampment was concluded
in the afternoon so that the national
/ board of administration could meet with
new Commander-in-Chief Sexton for
| routine initial work, the national con-
ventions of three organizations of ladies
| continued all day and until late to-
| night. They had much more fighting
| over the offices than the ex-soldiers.
| Their afternoon and evening sessions
Were devoted to the contest over the di-
vision of the honors and in those con-
| tests Illinois carried off most every
| thing. The department Of Illinois Sc
cured the commander-in-chief last
| evening. also the president of the Wo-
| mans Relief Corps. To-day that state
secured the presidents of the Ladies of
! the q. A. r.. as well as the presidents
of the Daughters of Veterans and Is of
the members of the national council
and also the secretaries and councillors
of the Womans Relief Corps.
The report Of the committee on pen
sions declares that a generous and pa
triotic construction of the law should
govern the administration of the depart
/ ment and says:
Resolved, That in view of the re-
peated complaints of the unfair con-
! ga aff..tf Of h.a In. sa,,I
forcement of rules which are in viola
ton of the law ana inmical to the in
terest of applicants, this encampment
is impelled to call upon Comrade Will
lam Mckinley, president of the United
States to exercise his authority and see
that the law is executed in a spirit of
fairness, justice and liberality.
Resolved. That all rules which tend
to hinder and embarrass the allowance
of honest pension claims should be re-
pealed and we ask the president that
he use his authority to cause those
whose duty it is to execute the laws TO
so perform their duty as to do justice
to the soldiers and administer the law
so as not to obstruct the prosecution of
pensions by technical requirements not
within the province of the laws and
which are only calculated TO hinder and
obstruct in the effort to obtain lawful
pensions.
Your committee will call attention to
the fact that two years ago the coun-
try was stirred TO its depths by COM
plants of the injustice of the then ad-
ministration of the pension bureau.
These complaints were so specific and
distinct that they furnished the basis
of political efforts. They were the sub
iect of emphatic utterances by the ma
tional encampment Beyond doubt the
political campaign OF 1896 was largely
laH sal hNrt h. 81 tg,,s-
the harsh conditions then obtaining in
the pension bureau. We submit that
this expected amelioration has not TAX
en- place, that in no substantial instance
has one of those harsh rules been abro-
gated but every one Of them remains in
full force and effect as under the pre-
vfous administration. The best illus
tration of this is the odious rule 225,
which was substituted for the just rule
164, to the infinite injury OF tens of
thousands Of much deserving men and
women. 1t seems unnecessary to en-
large upon the fact that the veterans
had the right to expect very different
treatment from the present commits
sioner Of pensions than they did from
his predecessor. Another fact that 1t
seems unnecessary to enlarge upon is
that the time is highly important to the
veterans. The passing years have n
direful acceleration for them Every
day brings them nearer the grave in in /
creas1ng ratio. Their needs cry out |
most vociferously with every changing |
of the moon, yet the number of week |
ly allowances steadily diminishes while /
the pension commissioner officially |
states that he has 625, 900 claims pend |
ing in his bureau, of which, he says |
$4,000 have so far received nothing at /
all. Elsewhere he states that about /
100000 survivors received no pensions, |
recommended and carried through re-
duction of 100 i'm his force OF clerks, on /
the ground that he had more force than /
he needed-thN in face Of the fact that /
hardly a day passes but that some
where in this broad land the pension !
certificate arrives only in time TO be /
laid on the coffin of the applicant
Resolved, That the rule OF the PEN
sion office by which a widow is de-
barred from pension IL she has an in
come Of 500 per year is unjust. and we /
ask the president that the order be alb
rogated and the minimum income de- /
barring from pensions be fixed at not /
less than $500 per annum In this con-
nection we desire TO inform the presi- /
dent that very early in his administra-
tion II was announced by a high off,
cial in the pension Office that the
widows limit would be raised to $500.
but e. never materialized.
Resolved That we ask for the es-
tablishinB Of order l64, which was en-
forced under the Harrison regime. This
order In simple terms took cngnizauce
In rating a mans pension Of all disabli-
ties ne suffered under II was abro-
gated By the last administration, and
IL was held that to be entitled 70 the
lowest rate Of So per month a comrade
must have 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 iniquitous rule is
maintained to this hour and we submit
IL Is not such treatment as we had a
right To- expect from Comrade William
Mckinley.
Resolved. That In constituting the
phrase. inability to perform manual
labor IL be construed To mean inability
to uarf7Tm unprofeSsIOual uuskfllad Ia /