Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-30
COM MISSIONER EVANS
His Policy in Administering the Laws Of
Congress
Legislation as to Pensions and the
Administrations Interpre-
tatfOn of 1t.


To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
On June q, 1890. measure became
law giving pensions to all soldiers who had
been honorably discharged after a service
II ninety days in the war OF the rebellion,
no matter when, where or under what cir
cumstances their disabilities were con-
tracted always provided that such disabil-
tiles were permanent in nature and not the
results of the applicants vicious habits.
The fact that increasing thousands of the
veterans were found in the pauper houses
of the country despite their seemingly we'll
based claims for pensions, the proof of
which time had made impossible, touched
the patriotic sympathy of the country, and
the new law" the act of June 81, 1890.
was the much needed and praiseworthy re-
suit
After the maturest consideration. through
Commissioner Raum. order No. 1854, dated
October To- $780, was promulgated. That
order Set forth the Administrations inter-
probation of the new statute. That order
practically said that all claims under the
new law should be adjudicated as II the
alleged disa bilities were of service origin.
Under the general law the system of Gu
mulative or ornamental or grateful pen
sions had grown up and every community
could point to pensioners drawing $E 10
SIT per month. made up of small. non-dis-
ablng. honorable scars, pensioners whose
ability to perform manual labor had not
been visibly impaired. Applying this lat
itudinarian construction to the act of June
%, 1890. construction which almost ig-
nored the question to whether a given
disability had any marked effect upon
claimants ability to earn a support by his
manual labor. Commissioner Raum admit
ted 80 per cent of the claims acted upon,
giving to the lucky claimants an average
pension of $40 per month. AS the maxi
fkA
law could only be granted in cases of total
inability to earn a support by manual
labor. Gen. Raums action was equivalent
to a declaration that in 1892 eight out of
every ten of the survivors of the civil war,
then averaging only ffty-three years of
age, were disabled for earning any portion
of a support by manual labor. General
observation did not sustain that view.
Rapid Jump OF Appropria lions.
Under this wide-open policy the annual
pension expenditure. which in 1852 was but
$50, eO0, GEO. rose to Sal, 100000 in 1892 and
Commissioner kaum asked Congress TO ap-
propriate $165, 100000 for the year 1893, at
the same time assuring it that that
would not be sufficient, but that six months
later. when Congress would again be in ses-
sion, he could definitely inform it how
large deficiency would have to be pro-
vided for Had this policy been continued
to the end our annual pension burden would
now be $4,000. 600 considerably more than
half our annual revenue. Such burden
We could only bear by the annual issuance
of about $50, 900 of bonds, throwing
upon posterity large share of the expense
of saving the Union.
January T. 1899, Assistant Secretary Bus
sey issued his celebrated restraining order.
that no merely cumulative pensions should
be allowed, and that no claim should be adj
mitted unless the claimant had proven such
an inability to perform manual labor as
would entitle him to at least Sc per month
under the general law, if his alleged dis
abilities had been of service origin. This
was the parting of the ways. Prior to that
Raum had admitted 100000 claims under
the new law, or so per cent of the claims
disposed Of Under the Bussey order he
admitted but IS per cent of the claims ad
Indicated under the new law. Had the
Bussey order Of January Z, 1893. now
cepted by all as correct, taken the place
of order 164 of October 10, 1890, Raum
would have placed upon the pension rolls
100000 fewer names than he did.
When Judge Lochren came into power ne
found that Bussey had hedged his way and
that return to the excessive liberality of
the past. even If desired, was impossible.
unless the Cleveland administration should
thrust aside the restraining order of Bus
sey and reassert the authority OF order 164.
And now, following in the path marked
out by Gen. Bussey and also by Gen. Rauln.
after the issuance of Busseys order, Com
missioner Evans gratifes the nation with
the information that for the first time since
1882 there has been decrease in the num-
Der of pensioners and in the amount paid
for pensions. The brow Of the pension hill
has at last been reached. That 1t should
not have been reached until thirty-four
years after Appomattox, though more than
a million of the soldiers of the Union have
passed away, has been a mystery to all.
The nation awards the commissioner the
We'll done. good and faithful servant" but
a formidable few demand his removal.
surfing the President that the appetite Of
the veterans being unappeased there is a
partisan necessity that they should be pre-
sented with his official head in charger
An Insult and a Slander.
This demand involves an insult and
SANDER in the implication that there is
soldier vote" which will be cast not in
Difference to honestly entertained political
views. but mainly with a reference to the
securing or increasing of pensions. If that
ha true 10 other argument is needed to
prove that the pension roll Is not a roll of
honor. For the good name of the country
we are glad to know that that is not true.
Though a million of survivors" and an
equal number of sons and sympathiZers
all voters. constitute a formidable army.
yet there never has been and never will be
soldier vote" The men who saved the
nation will continue to save 1t by showing
that, on election day. they are republicans,
democrats or populists, with convictions
too deep to be influenced by the bestowing
or Withholding of petty pensions. Even
the base among them. who may have their
voting price, will not betray their parties
for the paltry thirty pieces of silver. This
has ever been true. and now, thirty-five
years from the close of the war, it is in
creasingly true.
Eight out of ten of the survivors of the
civil war are now on the pension roll. Hav-
ing received all the law allows them, they
are satisfied, and will. as in the past select
| their political associations without any ref
/ erence to the pension question For their
more ta1dy brethren who find 1t increas-
IN fhafr -{<,,.
| claims they will feel sympathy but not
sufficiently strong to affect their political
actions. The bestowing of pensions ben
! etits no party. else Harrison, the great SOL
der friend. would not have been beaten by
Cleveland. so unanimously distrusted by
the soldiers. And. republican though I am
am proud to remember that the great
soldier states of Kansas and Nebraska led
the revolt in 1892 Had there been strict
~ speaking. soldier vote in that year
Harrison would have been triumphantly re-
elected.
The pension bureau touches more fndiyid-
uals than any other bureau in the govern