Arizona republican., 1898-08-05
Agents Have Already Begun to Drum Up
 Business.
On Account of the Peculiar Effect of the Mauser Bullet There Will Be Few Applications On Account of the
 Usual Forms of Disability.

Washington, Aug. 4-One of the re- l suits of the war with Spain which has not yet entered largely into discus sion will be a material extension of | the pension roll. The only people who seem to have realized this are the pension attorneys, who are always on the lookout for anything that promises to increase their incomes. No sooner was war declared than the pension attorneys began to work, and they soon had their lines out everywhere SO as to catch every dollar of profit which could possibly be made under the pension laws as they now stand. Information has come to the pension bureau that attorneys have agents al- ready in every regiment drumming up business, and applications have be- gun to come in which show that the l'work has been reduced to system. For our purposes said Commis- sioner Evans today, "the war with Spain begins on the date of formal declaration. Of course; we shall have many applications for pensions on ac- count of those who were killed or in jured in the destruction Of the Maine. but all these will 70 in under the old Classification. h time we shall have a sep01A6iv,si-n known as the Span ish war division, under which al, claims growing cut of the present stTuSS,s will come.
 'At present we have hal only sixty applications, and as a rule ihese are simple cases. But we shall look Tor a great many more
 HOn 9Pcnurf op bo Moipo j;coo+ox we have had forty applications for pensions. One of these is from sur '-ivor, the others are from widows ane dependent relatives of those who were killed Applications are coming in almost daily now and they will be numerous enough in the eBd but it is too early yet to give an intelligent es- 1 timate of the total amount of pensions which will have to be paid out on ac- count of the war. For that matter the estimates made at the time of the civil war had to be revised again and again, and if we should begin to guess now in regard to the war with Spain we should doubtless have a repetition of that experience.
 No additional legislation will be necessary to meet these new claims SG1ordl pension laws. as indicated in sections i 1892 and 4693 of the revised statutes, and in the laws supplementary to these sections. The pension attorneys are beginning to work up cases in a
 way which shows that there will be TO dearth of applications
 Pensions will b, paid to those who have incurred disability in the service
 of the United States, and to the wid- ows and dependent relatives Of those
 who were killed in action or died on
 account of disabilities incurred in the
 service. The law of 1890, under
 which pensions are given to those who are ircapacitated from the per- 'ormance of manual labor, whether on
 account Of military service or not. ap- plies only to those who were in the war of the rebellion
 It is probable that the pensions given on account of wounds received IF the field in, this war will be much
 less approximately than on account
 of wounds received during the civil war. Comparatively few, according
 to the reports, are totally disabled
 and in most cases the wounds seem to
 have healed. by first intentions where they ulu HOL prove nlOTtdl. WnllS l0e
 number of amputations on account ot
 wounds has been so small as to seem . insignificant
 The rate for total disability is s72
 a month: for the loss of both hands s100: for the loss of both feet or hot1l
 eyes, SIP; for the loss of a hand or a
 foot, $30; for total deafness. $50, and
 so on through the various grades oi
 disability according to a system which
 has grown up tn, ough many years ot
 legislation and establishment of pre-
 cedents.
 It is believed at the department that
 there will be comparatively few ap-
 plications on account of these various forms of disability. on account of the , Mauser bullet, which kills, but does , not often maim
 Total deafness is likely to figure largely in applications from the navy for the detonations of the great guns have wrought havoc with the hear;ne of those who were compelled to worl near them. More applications fol pensions will probably come as a re-
 suit of life in camp than from any 1 other source.
 In the campaign of Santiago 22t t were killed and 1,274 wounded, ant this will practically be the sum of tn, l casualties in actual battle during tn, 5 war, for the navy has had compara lively no losses. But in Shafter', . farmy, before Santiago there are al