The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-07
SYSTEM OF PENSION
COMMISSIONERS ANNUAL REPORT
POINTS OUT FAULTS.
SOME INTERESTING FEATURES
DECIDING CLAIMS A MATTER OF
EXTREME DELICACY.

Claims for Pensions of Soldiers in
the Spanish-American War Al
rendy ApOunt to Twenty Per
Cent of the Total Number of Men
Engaged I'm That shOrt-Lived Con-
fiict-shrewd Attorneys and will
ling Witnesses the Governments
Worst Enemies.
Washington, Nov. Elm his annual
report, the Commissioner of Pensions
discusses at length the faults of the
present system of pensioning and the
difficulties in the way of determining
the merits of claims for pensions and
increase.
Attention is directed to the friction
and unkind feling that attends the adj
ministration of the act of Aug. Z, 1882,
which provides that the open and no.
torious cohabitation OF a widow pen
sioner shall operate to terminate her
pension, but the absence of such law
would encourage and permit such ben-
sioners to live in adultery and dishonor
the memory of their soldier husbands
while still enjoying the bounty of the
government, and on the other hand the
widow who respects the law and hon
ors society by legally entering into the
marriage relations loses her pension.
The commissioner states that while
the law is a most delicate and difficult
one to administer, yet he cannot rec
ommend its repeal.
Attention is invited again to the ne
cessity of repeating the act of June
Z. 1888, which swept away all limita-
tions as to the filing of widows claims
under the general law, and brought
about conditions which are a standing
invitation to file fraudulent claims, the
arrearages being SO large and the
chances of detection so small.
1t is stated that widows claims are
usually filed within thirty days after
the death of the soldier, but since the
passage of the law of 1888. many claims
have been filed by alleged widows of
soldiers that died or worked during
the Civil War.
Referring to slave marriages, the
commissioner says that with a shrewd
and competent attorney. backed by
willing witnesses, the government has
no chance, and IL the special examiners
of the bureau endeavor to ascertain the
facts, the interested parties at once
cry aloud that "the spies" Of the bu-
reau are prosecuting the poor widows.
In January 1900, a rule was adopted
requiring guardians of pensioners to
render to the bureau annual accounts
OF their receipts and expenditures Of
| pension money.
| Guardians were found to be drawing
! pensions long after the death of their
| wards. Many cases were found where
insane pensioners had been placed in
asylums and other public institutions
as INDECENT persons. and the officials
! had no knowledge that these persons
were pensions, while the guardians had
drawn the pension during the whole
period. Other cases were revealed in
which the guardians were appropriate
! ing the pension to their own use, while
| The wards were being maintained at
! public expense
The report presents a. number of in-
teresting features connected with the
filing of claims fro pensions on account
| or the war with Spain and the insur-
rection in the Philippine Islands While
the Civil War lasted for four years
| and the casualties were ehormous and
| the Spanish American war lasted only
| about four months with comparatively
few casualties. it Is shown that three
/ years after the close Of the Spanish
| American war, claims for pension
amounting to about 20 per cent. of the
number of soldiers engaged in that war
had been filed, while in 1872, or seven
years after the close of the Civil War
only about per cent. of the soldiers
engaged in that war had filed claims.
The commissioner states that he is
not prepared to believe that those who
| engaged in the war with Spain, many
| of them sons of veterans of the
| Civil War, were less patriotic
| than their ancestors or more covetous,
| but in his opinion 1t is the faul of the
system of pensioning, with it's active
| army of attorneys and drummers, who
are practically licensed by the govern
ment. with the promise Of $25 for each
| claim allowed.