The National tribune., 1899-09-14

Your committee believes that with the
reassembling of that body the act may be
SO amended as to remove all doubt as to
the meaning and intent of the law, and that
the attention of Congress will be directed to
the subject in the annual message of our
comrade, the President. Relief from any
other source does not now seem probable
VISIT OF THE COMMITTEE.
BY the order of the Acting Commander
in-Chief the National Committee on PEN
sions, with the Acting Commander-in-
Chlef, held three days session in Wash
ington City, July 10 to II. The Com
mittee called upon the President of the
United States and was accorded an inter
view not limited as to time. The action of
the 31st National Encampment at Bnffalo
and of the 32d National Encampment at
Cincinnati was officially brought to his
attention, and he evinced soldierly in
terest in all that was presented for his
consideration. The practical results of
that Interview have been presented in this
report. Our comrade. the President bade
us say to the great comradeShip of which
he IS a member, that he shall ALWAYS. as
the Chief Executive of the Nation, esteem
1t sacred duty to execute the laws, in
letter and spirit. providing pensions for
the soldiers, sailors. and marines of the
Republic and their dependent ones. Bur
dened by great responsibilities and charged
with the conduct Of war with a foreign
nation and people, he could not give at
tention to details of the several Depart
mentS of the Government as in time of
place. The committee called on the Hor-
orable Secretary of the Interior. and also
on the Commissioner of Pensions, and pre-
sented complaints as to the administration
of the Pension Bureau. As an incident of
this meeting the word went to the country
that the Pension Bureau was under in
n "a hui
brought, in the succeeding weeks, thou
sands OF letters from every section of the
country, addressed to the Individual mem
berS OF the committee, each letter COM
plant as to existing conditions in the ad-
ministration of the Pension Bureau To
classify these complaints would require
much time and space, and to pass upon
their merits would involve a vast amount
OF research conducted by experts in pension
matters, and not possible by your Com
mlttee on Pensions. To sum it all I'D, the
burden of complaint is against the en-
forcement of Rule 225 and the widows
clause barring pensions at an income of
S96 year. Neither. as we believe is in
keeping with the spirit of the law. A
soldiers widow should not be permitted
to suffer in this land of plenty, and we
stoutly insist that Rule No. 225 should be
abrogated and Rule No. 164 re-established.
Unfriendly critics still challenge the
purity of the pension roll. The Grand
Army of the Republic, pledged to honor
and purity in public affairs" respectfully
demands specifications, not general state
ments. and points to its unmatched record
as soldiers and citizens totally obedient to
the statutes. No class of men has so well
learned the lessons of unquestioning obedi-
ence to law and unwavering loyalty to the
flag and Americanism as the men who
wear the little bronze button The off
cials of the Government adjudicate claims
for pensions, and if there be unworthy
names on the roll, the men who refuse to
invoke the legal machinery of the courts
to blot them out are neither sincere nor
patriotic in their fierce denunciation of