The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-09-05
A VETERANS VIEW.
Policy of Pension Commissioner Evans
Scored.
Government Official Accused of Interpreting
Them in Heartless Way.
(pittsburg Ieaderl


(Pittsburg Leader)
Editor Leader-In a former letter to
which the Leader kindly gave space |
undertook to give a part of the other side
of the story relative to the misleading
statements emanating from the Pension
Office in the guise of editorials" and
letters from correspondents furnished
by the coterie of Government clerks who
constitute the present Commissioner of
Pensions press bureau" l see by the
daily papers that he has been moved to
prepare a statement in advance Of his
annual report for use at the coming Ma
tional Encampment of the G. A. K. In
this statement he rehashes a lot of stuff,
the most of which will be found in every
Commissioners report issued during the
past 10 years, comparisons of figures,
amount of pensions paid since the foun-
datiOn of the Government, classifications
of pensions under different laws, high
water-mark" of pensions, etc, etc. In
the synopsis furnished there is a careful
avoidance upon his part to refer to his
construction of the laws made by Con-
gress, which he is supposed to execute.
His cruelly-heartless practice is especially
manifest in his arbitrary and illegal cut
ting down of the new law rates of pen
siOns. To the seeker after truth it will be
found under that law TACT Of June u,
1890, which gives So to S12 only, Mr..
Evans by his order No. 225 uses artificial
and fictitious scales or tables, Of his own
construction. so ruthleSSly illiberal in de-
gree of disability required by him mot by
the law that comparatively few men. not
permanently belfast, are given the 81
rate named in tie law.
Section 2 of the act of June 81, 1890,
plainly shows by its language and speci-
fed rates that under its operation a sim
ilarity in cOnsonance with the old law
degrees of minor disabilities was intend
ed. In other words, a soldier disabled by
rheumatism due to his military service
entltling him to a So rate, the same de
gree of disability under the provisions of
the new law if shown to be mot due to
his own vicious habits" would entitle the
applicant to the limit of So per month.
This was the construction of Commits
siOner Raum (who had much to do with
the drafting Of that law as evidenced by
his order No. 164, requiring the aggrega-
ton of all ratings made by the local medi-
cal boards. The language of the law as
to disability is general and generic, merely
referring to the veterans as class to be
pensioned. There is no specific degree or
degrees of disability named in the new
law, and only a trucking migrate can find
ground for holding that soldier must be
a physical wreck before he can receive
the ST. rate under that law. Inability
to perform manual labor is the only basis
for invalid rates under all pension laws
The new law was intended by Congress
to give the civil war veterans Git applies
to them only a kind of service pension
which they were demanding, in the shape
of blockout of existing rates for minor
disabilities which would pension every
man who had any disability, at from So
to $l2 per month, and 80 days or more
service and an honorable discharge. Disa-
bility due to age and all other causes, not
distinguishing between those of service
origin or nOn-service origin, were to be
aggregated. The number of veterans then
alive was estimated, and it was evidently
intended that every man of them could
within reasonable time be pensiOned.
1t will be noted that the degree of disa-
bility as described in Section of the
act of June u, 1890, is inability to earn
support by manual labor" not inability
to be a boOkkeeper, not inability to watch
at railroad crossing, but inability to
earn support by manual labor" A man
who IS insolyent may be able to pay 80
per cent. Of his Indebtedness, so a man
by reason of infirmity may be unable to
earn a support and still be able to earn
81 per cent. of a support. He is insol-
vent physically, and if the law means any,
thing he comes within its letter and spirit
the makers of that law Mr.. Evans de-
ciares that no man is entitled to the full
benefit of the law unless it be shown that
he is physical wreck, condition which
under the general law would entitle the
beneficiary to $50 per month.
III such 4 construction had been deemed
possible, is it not fair to believe the Con-
gress would have explicitly defined it's
meaning, and not embodied in the law
inability to earn a support by manual
labor, determined by the degree of disa-
bility shown by medical examination?
Every man who voted for that law knew
full well that it takes great amount of
ability to earn whole support by man
ual labor, and the strongest and bravest
men are IN continuous effort put to the
most strenuous exertion, to keep up
sustained support in full, by manual labor.
Eyans's construction belittles the intelii-
gence of Congress, for he declares by his
rules of practice that Congress meant
inability to earn the whole support by
manual labor" Could anything be more
utterly preposterous than his declaration.
thousands of times expressed as will be
shown by the action of the Pension Bu-
reau under his administration, that a dis
ability under one law entities the soldier
to Sl2 rate, and nothing under another
law, notwithstanding all pension laws CON
strued.
| am not discussing the policy of pen
Slonlng the civil war veterans, but so long
as the law remains unrepealed the unmis-
taxable intention of Congress should be
carried out, and men who assume the right
10 ignore or amend the enactments of
Congress TO meet the requirements of a
policy of heartiess saving, conceived in
hate and born out of motives of base in
cannot too soon receive the mer-
tied condemnation from an indignant peo-
pie, in whose great heart | believe yet
fingers sense of gratitude for the
survivors of that titanic struggle which
meant so much to this Nation and the
" GRID at large; now, alas, in the minds of,
let us hope, only a dead century.
| can with much pleasure tell Mr..
Evans that in the coming Encampment
at Cleveland, Ohio, of the survivors of the
greatest war of modern times, it will re-
quire more than an aggregation of mean
ingiess figures and the employment of
stale and threadbare platitudes, to stem
the torrent of long pent-up Indignation,
and the men who will cut the deepest
will not be buns and dead BEATS" pen
sion sharks or disgruntled applicants for
pension.-CHARLEs HANBACK,, 7O4 Ivy
ST., Pittsburg, Pa.
Uger of TbIst1ado,r,