The National tribune., 1901-05-16
A TALK WITH MR.. EVANS.
The Commissioner Discusses Various
Matters of Interest TO Pensioners.
The Operation of the Remarked Widows
Bill-The Condition of the Work of the
0ffice-Gossip of the Bureau.

The Operation Of the Remarked widows
Bill-The Condition of the Work of the
ofhce-Gossip of the Bureau.
| A representative of The National Tri-
| bune called upon Commissioner Evans
| two days ago to ask him some questions
! relating to the general progress of the
work i'll the Department, as will appear
| below:
Are there q large number of claims
filed under the act restoring pensions to
remarked widows?' was asked.
The Commissioner replied: There are
| less than you would suppose. l had moth
| ing to do with the passage of the act, but
we got up the instructions under 1t very
| carefully. and / think / have construed it
| as literally as possible. The fact is, how
ever, that there are so many restrictions
| in it and so many conditions in its Ian
guage, that the number of applicants is
limited. In fact, we have only had, up
to this time, 7S3 applications filed. OF
course, others have come in, but when we
receive n case that is barred by some Of
the conditions of the law we return it at
once, so that they may not be anxious
| about it and uncertain as to the result for
any length of time. Neither of the recent
widows acts have produced the number of
cases that were expected. The act of last
year raising the limit of widows income
to $3.50 did not bring in nearly so many
as those in Congress thought it would. L
expected myself that it would be dlsap-
pointing in that respect, because we have
always administered the widows cases
very literally indeed"
How are you coming out this year
with your appropriation was asked.
Il cannot tell exactly" replied the
Commissioner. There may not be much
left: there may possibly be a deficit, al
though l think not; l think we will just
about use it up"
DO you keep close watch of the appro-
priation?' was asked.
The Commissioner replied: we go
right ahead with our work. adjudicating
claims according TO law, without any ref
erence whatever to the appropriation.
make an estimate a year in advance as
to what it will be, but of course cannot
tell how it will come out. | could not tell
how many cases there would be under the
Spanish War, for example, nor what the
operations in the Philippines might result
in. Of course, no one can tell, especially
when hostilitieS are actually in progress
at the time the estimate is made. An ap-
propriation is only Il letter of credit. If
the results of the years work require
more money than is appropriated, there
is a deficit; if less, the money is simply
never drawn from the Treasury. With
the exception of myself and two or three
other people, of the Finance Division,
do not think an employee in the office ever
thinks OF lne appropriation OF KNOWS an!
thing about it. In fact, it is not their
business to know. 1t is their business to
handle the evidence and prepare the cases;
whether the grand total of the pension
roll will be more or less never occurs TO
them and does not influence them. With
the exception of the year 1897 | have
never paid any attention to the appro-
priation bill That year / saw l was run
ming very close, and | did not want a de-
fict for particular reasons, so while l did
not stop the work, nor stop allowances,
the cases were simply held up in the Mail
Division for two or three weeks at the
end of the fiscal year until July /, when
our new appropriation was available.
Aside from this instance l never have
paid any attention to the question wheth-
er | would have too much money or too
little in the appropriation bill Neither
has the Secretary or the President ever
mentioned the subject to me-"
How will this years allowances COM
pare with last year's2" was asked.
Il think we Will run ahead | believe
we will 20 considerably over the 100000
mark. We have already issued over
50, 600 certificates for the first 10 months
Of the fiscal year, nearly 10000 of which
are originals. In most of the divisions,
as you will see by the reports of the
Chiefs, the work is practically up to
date"