Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-03-15
WALlIALLA, 8. Z. :
TIaUIsSDAY, IARCul ~, 1900.
NEW PENSION LAW.
The Law May Deprive Hundreds o! Veterans
OF Their Money.

Tho new pension law was devised b,
committee Of veterans and it WA.
thought to cmbody the ideas of the ol.
soldiers OH tho question. But some dis
satisfaction has been expressed about il
rs is shown by the following from the
Grecnvillc News:
Tho old soldiers and their friends ar.
displeascd with the changes the recent
Legislature has made in the pension law
Tho now law, they say, works crur'
hardship on tho old pensioners by rcuur
ing them to make new applications, be
cause in many eases their witnesses ar,
now dead. It is Thought that the new
law will result in the dropping from tho
list of hundreds of the most worthy
bcnciiciarics under the law.
Gen. s. $. Crittcndrn, who has been =
member Of the Grccnvillr township and
county boards continuously since tn,
State has been granting cx ConfcdcratcS
pensions, and 'Yho WAS Instrumental i'm
having tho resolutions past at the last
convention Of township chairmcn here
last summer commenting the changes III
the law, yesterday submitted to an in
tcryicw on the new law. The resolutions
of the Gre cnvilc convention were incor-
porated in the Governors message tu
tho Legislature, and he urged that body
to put them into the now law, but this
was not done. Gen. Crittcndcn said:
81 read the new pension law published
this morning and regard it rs impracti-
cable. 1t is very much Il copy Of the old
law, except in two respects. One is that
they have abolished the township boards
which regard us the most valuable fca-
tu-c of the old law, and the other is
that tho new law apparently requires all
present pensioners to file new applica-
tons. 1t will be almost an imp"ssihility
Tor all Old pensioners to get up new pa
pers and dc novo. 1t will require vast
deal of labor to gel up the necessary
witnesses and furnish the necessary ani-
davits. In fact, in hundreds of cases it
will be impossible for them to do il. 1t
is hardship and cruelty to all old
pensioners.
"Thc whole matter now will dcvolvc
upon county board of four members
and one physician, who will know ahso-
lutcly nothing of the great ma ioritv of
the applicants and their pccuniary con-
dtlonS. The great advantage Of the
township boards was that the members
knew the merits Of every applicant rs Il
claimant under the law because they
were ncighhorS to them.
"Thc difficulty has been to get any good
men 10 serve on the township boards, aS
they were paid nothing for Il runSidrra.
bic work.
"The recommendation Of convrn-
ton Of township charmcn held here last
summer was that the members of the
township boards be sworn to do their
duty under the law, which they are now
not doing and that they be paid - 4 day
each for not exceeding two DAYS services
year There is a great difference be.
tween being paid nothing and having to
ride many miles to do the work and being
paid 81 day, rs small as that amount is.
"AnOthcr feature Of the new law is
that one delegate is elected in each
township at meeting OF all old Sollirrs
IN January of each year, and all the
Applications 90 through him to the
county board. lie is apparently with
out authority and gets no pay. Who
wants his Job? These delegates, meet al
the court house and elect a county board
OF four who elect Il physician t" act with
them and upon whom the whole rrs,un
Sibility is thrown. Their pay is - Il dav
lor live days. The pay OF the physician
is the same. I'm my Judgment this new
board cannot Ito the work intrllgrnlly
in thirty days. The Legislature makes a
great mistake continually changing thr
law "