The National tribune., 1900-02-01
THE PROPOSED COURT.

/ l-'OAdi L OliSlOl N'SLl' Si,h'NS fAS
posed, and the idea met with instant favor
by the Commanderin-Chief and members OF
the Committee, the creation of a Court Of
Pension Appeals which shall have cog
nizance Of all questions arising under the
administration Of the pension laws by the
Pension Bureau. The plan and scope OF
such at tribunal was discussed at length in
the Committee, and it was decided that a
bill be a once drawn up, and introduced in
Congress. Col. George Fl. Patrick and
several other lawyer-comrades are now
engaged in framing the bill, which in
few days will be ready for submission
to the Commander-in-Chiefa and Committee,
and after consultation with experts it will
be presented to Congress, and its imme-
diate passage asked for.
| Undoubtedly, such Court, if given the
Jurisdiction and powers contemplated forit,
will tend to solve the pension question, and
give claimants the relief they have so long
sought from the present intolerable mis-
management by the Commissioner Of Pen
sions. All that the veterans and their
friends have asked for is the execution
of the laws at present on the statute books,
in strict accordance with the spirit in which
they were enacted. This Commissioners
Lochren and Evans. have continually
failed or refused to do. Everywhere
else, in such a condition of affairs, the ag-
grieved parties always have a remedy
by appeal to the courts of the land to secure
them their rights. 1t is true that in this
instance the pension claimants have a
right of appeal to the District, Circuit
and Supreme Courts, but the remedy is en-
tirely too costly and tedious in its delays
for poor old veteran or his widow, whose
days are few in the land, TO resort TO.
| The Board of Pension Appeals was
originally constituted to meet this need
and exercise wholesome supervision over
the arbitrary acts of the Commissioner.
But it is mere creature of the Secretary
of the Interior, and must do his bidding.
The present Secretary of the Interior
Mr. Hitchcock-admitted before the Senate
Committee on Pensions that he knew
absolutely nothing of the working of the
Pension Bureau, but relied upon the Com
missioner Of Pensions. Like the Com
missioner, he is not lawyer. The Board
of Pension Appeals consists of able law
yers, and with Assistant Secretary Davis,
who is a lawyer, has been in frequent
collision with the Commissioner, whu
has been sustained by the Secretary. Thus
the Board has been reduced to the grade
of clerks in the Pension Bureau, with no
other func ion than to register the acts
Of the Commissioner. 1t has become alb
surd to appeal from the decision Of one
set Of clerks in the Pension Bureau to an
other set.
To bring real relief to claimants we deem
the following features vitality essential 10
the proposed Court:
| l.. 1.Itmust be created at once, by the present
session Of Congress, that It's relief may
begin at the earliest practical moment,
while the claimants are yet living. To
postpone it's installation until next year
will be to deny justice to tens of thousands
who will die in the meanwhile
2. 1t must be court of the independence.
dignity, and powers of Circuit Court of
the United States, with its members able
lawyers, holding life-tenure of their places,
and thus Independent of the President.
| 3. Its decisions, rulings, and interpre-
tations must be binding upon the Com
missioner Of Pensions, and it must have
full power to compel his immediate COM
pliance Herewith.
q. 1t must be at once accessible to every
claimant, without other trouble or expense
than the meie filing of his or her state
ment before it, when the Court shall re-
quire the Commissioner to lay before it all
the papers in the case. There should be no
necessity for the appearance of an attorney
| in the case.
5. 1t must be, above all things, Court of
summary procedure. The calm leisure of
ordinary courts will not do where claimants
are dying of at the rate of $1,000 year
There must be businesslike dispatch of
matters brought before it. There must be
an infusion of counting room celcrity into
its transactions. There is no reason
why this should not be so. After the
Court once interprets any particular feature
Of the law, all that remains to be done is 20
determine whether any case appealed to it
comes under that ruling, and this can be
done at glance, and the Courts mandate
issued for the Commissioner to adjrIdicate
it in accordance with that ruling
9. There ought to be provision in the
statute creating the Court that after an
application has been before the Commits
sioner for a reasonable length of time the
Court shall acquire original jurisdiction
in it. 1t can therefore take 1t out of his
hands, and proceed to adjudicate it. This
will prevent his intolerable delays, and his
holding back meritorious claims until there
is place made for them on the pension rolls
by the death of greater number of
pensioners.
While in the present condition Of affairs
we strongly favor such court, and believe
that it will accomplish an immense amount
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