The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-14
HE HAS LITTLE SUPPORT
Richardson of Alabama Only
 Democrat FavOring It.
Bell of Colorado Dsnounees the aPsu- sion sharts'-asosvsnor and Hepburn Assail Report of
 . committss of c. 4. R.

l Washington. Jan. R-The Acuse ef
 Representatives spent the day in reS,-
 eral ,discussion of the pension appropria-
 ton bill, the first of the annual budgets. I The bill took a wide range. Mfr Gronvo-
 nor COhio) and MT. Hepburn Qowa) de-
 nounced q report presented. to the last
 G. A. R. encampment criticising the course of themselves and other membera
 of Congress on the veteran ''prefersncsr
 bill. which was defeated at the last ses- sion. They explained that their opnoef- ton to the bill was due to the incorpora- ton in the bill of . clause which had not been endorsed by the C.. A. R.. placina the veterans of the Spanish war in tho | preferential class.
 Mir. Rixey Cva-) caused somothing Of : stir on the Democratic side by advancine q proposition to open the doors of na- uonal soldiers home to ex-Confederztes and to furnish Federal aid to State Con- federate homes.
 Mir. Richardson CAla) was the only Democrat who joined MT. Rixey in sup port of it.
 This was District of Columbia day in the House, and immediately after tho reading of the journal Mir Babcock tWis.). chairman of the District of co- lumbia Committee. claimed the day, and the House proceeded to the considers
  At the conclusion of the District of Columbia business. the House took up the pension appropriation bill. Mfr. Bar ney CWis.), in charge of the bill ex- plained that 1t carried $139, ,s46, 4s0. against s145.24b.2so appropriated for the current year.
 The, estimates of the payment of pan- sions decreased from s144, ,000.o00 to SlsS.- 500.0o0. He was asked by MT. Richard son tTenn.) why the amount of pensions | decreased five and a half million, while
 the number of pensioners was said to De 1 larger.
 MT. Barney explained that this was ac-
 counted for by the fact that the arrear- a$es were decreasfng and the number of l large pensions Chose from $50 to s75 a fnonttl was also decreasing. Tn reply to
 another question. he stated that the Com
 missioner os Pensions believed that the high-tide of pension payments had been 1 reached and the amount requested prob ably would remain stationary for some years.
 MT. Bell (Colo.) denounced the practice | of the pension sharks.'' He declared | that they were importuning soldiers of the Spanish war and those who had l served in the Philippines to apply for | pensions He said that in some cases | soldiers who were thoroughly examined | at the time of their discharge and found l to be perfectly sound. yielded to these | importunitfes and applied for pensions l within a month after their discharge.
 He made strong plea for justice to the l soldiers. not only of the Civil War. but | of the Spanish war, eontending that to | secure justice for deserving veterans pen- sions to the unworthy should be opposed. As against the soldier in the Civil War | who had not applied for a pension unfil recent years. he thought the present conn missioner was not too strict. but in tho l matter of ferretting out frauds he thought Commissioner Evans had been unexcelled by any of his predecessors. MT. Grosvenor (ohio) assailed a report of the committee of the G. A. R. made to the Grand Army encampment at Cleveland last summer. The report placed at the door of certain members ok the House and the Senate (among them himselD the failure to pass what was known as the Preference" pension bill MT. Grosvenor characterized the report as unjust, unfair and untruthful,"
 Mir. Grosvenor said that during his long service in the House he had always supported cordially every general and special bill for the benefit of his com- rades in arms. The objection to the bill, he said, was that it contained a provision which would have given preference over the old soldier of the Civil War to a quarter of "a million men who enlisted in the Spanish-American war. He did not think the provision just and explain ed why he could not support 1t in the shape in which 1t appeared before the House.
 MT. Talbert (S. C.) delivered general speech. to show the growing extravagsnce and fraud of the present pension system. He thought the practice of passing special pension bills should be abandoned
 Il. A the report made to the G. A. R. encamp- ment in criticism of members of Con- gress who voted against the veteran preference bill.'' He said the bill as endorsed by the G. A. R.. and as original ly introduced did not contain the pro vision giving preference to veterans of the Spanish war. Some of the veterans of the Spanish war, he said, were as much entitled to be in the preferential class as the veterans of the Civil War. but the vast majority of the 27o.000 Span ish volunteers had not heard a hostile gun fired and he was unwilling that they should be placed in preferential class from which the civil service would be recruited for the next twenty-five years
 MT. Cromwell (ohio) who was on the committee which reported the veterans preference" bill explained that the bill as introduced did not contain the pro- vision relative to the Spanish war veterans. He expressed the hope that the bill would be reintroduced and passed.
 Mir. Rixey Va.) submitted an argu- ment in favor of bill introduced by him today to admit Confederate veterans to national soldiers homes and to extend the same national aid to State Confed- crate homes in the South as was extended to State Union homes. Mir. Rixey said that a somewhat similar bill introduced by him in the last Congress had pro- voked considerable hostility and criticism in the South and in the North. but he believed the time had come when the doors of Union homes could be opened to Confederate veterans.
 The restrictions against COufederates