The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-13
Commends Action Of
National Encamp-
ment G. A. r.
MET PENSION ISSUE Alright.
Veterans Should Seek AS
sistance Of Congress,
If Needed.

A representative of The Spy in an in
terview yesterday with ]. Brainerd
Hall, solicitor for United States pen
sions and a member of the Grand Army,
asked for a statement of his views of
the resolutions adopted by the late
national encampment and the attack
upon Commissioner of Pensions Evans.
Col. Hall said:
Il have avoided appearing in print in
this controversy for the reason that a
person who is a pension attorney is
| looked upon as prejudiced; this is all
wrong. ] was a Union soldier; I have
heard and felt the zip of the minnie
/ ball, and been buried out of sight by
! the bursting of the shrieking she'll My
| large clientage, together with my ex-
Iperience years ago in the United States
sanitary commission claim agency, re-
enforced by cases called to my atten-
| ton while adiutant general of the
Massachusetts department of the Union
! Veterans Union, and later in charge
| of the pension and enquiry bureau of the
national command, have given me an
| opportunity to learn facts; and l do
| feel that some of those facts should be
stated as they relate to my comrades
and the widows and orphans of my fall
en- comrades. The crusade against pen
/ sions and Col. Evans is in a large meas
ure due to a lack of knowledge of facts.
There are faults in the pension system.
! Col. Evans has his faults; we all have
| them.
81 have carefully studied the resolu-
tions adopted at the national encamp-
ment; have made an exhaustive review
of them in connection with the act of
June q, $780, departmental decisions,
pension bureau rulings-allowance and
reflections. I find the bureau of pen
! sions to be the most exacting tribunal
in the world. If the same line of proof
were adopted on the criminal side of
our courts of justice, convictions would
be few and far between. The pension
bureau has but one competitor in the
peculiar construction of law and evil
dence-the recent court martial of
Dreyfus at Rennes.
ITO intelligently consider this ques-
ton of pensions one should fully under
stand the law; one should constantl~
remember that the general law pension
lis a contract made with the soldier at
enlistment. Pensions under that law
are granted under the provisions of the
act of July IA, 1852 One should also
remember that the class of pensions
assailed by the national encampment
are granted under the new law, the
provisions of the act of June 81, 1890.
That while they are called pensions,
they are not. They are a congressional
bounty or gratuity. One should also
remember that a general law pension
| is granted for disability the service
origin of which has been fully proven
beyond an imaginary doubt, while a.
new law pension is for disability, the
service origin of which has not and can
not be proved, for q disability in many
instances incurred more than a score
OF years after the surrender at Apo
mattox.
Il am pleased that the Grand Army
of the Republic met this issue as it
did; but as l recently said, L fear this
issue comes too late for good results.
/ do not blame Col. Evans as much as
some. | have no cause to complain
when he acts as an executive officer of
the government under rules and regu-
lations approved by the secretary of
the interior. The attack of the Grand
Army should have been made upon the
president and the secretary of the in
terror, not upon their servant, the COM
missioner of pensions. The resolutions
adopted in part do this.
Rule No 1874 is not the rule which
The veterans want, The act of June
81, 1890, what is the standard, what is
the degree of disability to secure the
maximum rating? 1t is an inability to
earn a support by manual labor, and
the rate is $12 Yet if that same claim
ant can show that he is unable to ger
form any manual labor, and the cause
of that inability was incurred in SER
vice and line of duty, and that fact is
proven, then by the general law he is
entitled to $50. On that basis no vet
eTan objects to a rating for such dis
ability, not proven as due to service,
at $12 per month; this can not be ac-
complished by order 225 or 1854; what is
wanted is a new order in which shall
be introduced a little of the common
sense which the ordinary business man
uses into his business; it is the alb
sence of common sense that causes all
this trouble.
In our state and United States courts
all transactions between party and par
ty are decided upon the weight and the
preponderance of the evidence: in the
same courts all criminal complaints
and indictments the verdict is guilty
when the defendant is proven guilty be-
yond reasonable doubt; in these Same
courts a person on trial is assumed to
be innocent until he is proven guilty.
In any claim of a soldier or a soldier
widow, the applicant is practically in
the position of a condemned person,
striving to prove he is inocent beyond
an imaginary doubt.
While do not think any act of the
Grand Army can or should be able to
restore rule 1874, do believe that a man
who, if his combined disability, if of
Service origin, would entitle him 10 a
rating of SIS, should be rated as Sc per
month, and where his combined disa
pilities if of service origin would be
rated $50 per month, should have S12.
l cannot for moment believe that q
man whose combined disability, not OF
service origin, aggregated but S12.
should be allowed $12 per month under
the act of June 81, 1890, the same as if
of service origin.
Il do approve of the second resolu-
ton, as it relates to widows and their
income; under one administration a wi
dow was entitled to a pension if her in
come did not exceed $3.50 per year: now
it must not be in excess of $96. Conse-
quently widows with an income of $1,g
or $500 are drawing pensions, while
their neighbors who did not apply mn
til later are rejected because they have
an income in excess of 500 per wear
My view of this matter of pensioning
widows is that the government steps in
and says, we WILL as far as possible
take the place of your husband whose
death has in most cases been FASTENED
by his service. Is it doing so? There
are but few day laborers who have with
the help of the wife at time of death.
an income of $3.50 per year; if the gov
ernpent really means to take the place
of the husband it should give her the
means of living as well after as before
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