The National tribune., 1902-01-23
norELEssLY TANGLED.

In attempting to defend the Commits
sioner's attitude toward the Examining
Surgeons, Mr.. Bell, of Colorado. became
hopelessly tangled. He said:
'The Commissioner states that this old
law was that they must give the mans
injury in eiglIteenths, and they would give
his Inability: and so il used to he 4 COM
mon thing for them to have man that
had liabilities or deficiencies running up
To - or 2G eighteenths They not only
had him totally disabled. but doubly to-
tally disabled. Under the law of 1880,
with Il maximum rate of So, the Boards
often gave much higher ratings than the
law allowed SO the Commissioner had to
change that. and now the Boards make
the rating in dollars under the act of lS!i0.
This testimony before lis is that they paid
10 attention To the rating of the local
physician: that what they are compelled
to do is to make the local physician pre-
scribe the disease in every ease, and let
the Medical Board here judge of the dis
ability. He says otherwise they cannot
have any consistency or equality among
the soldiers.
What Mr. Bell did not say-probahly
did not know-was that the word total
has always had technical meaning in
the Pension Bureau as that which would
unfit man for the proper performance
of first-class manual labor. This was
proper and just meaning. and the Boards
rightly understood it. Therefore 1t was
very easy for Il man to have double or
even treble total disability. Any dis
ability which would prevent his going into
the field alongside irst-class man and
doing Il full days work measured by his.
WAS Il total disability. Yet he might
he readily worse off than this. running
down to where he could do no work at
all, and this the Boards properly rec0g-
nized. But Mr.. Evans got up device
to prevent their doing this, or saying how
really badly off the man was. He did
not want such crushing showing in his
own Office of his injustice.
Mr.. Sulloway, of New Hampshire.
asked Mr.. Bell an embarrassing qTestiOn:
I'm other words. he assumes that
surgeon who perhaps has known tho man
for 80 or 80 years on the Board. has
seen him almost daily PERHAPS. treating
him during these years. that this surgeon,
after seeing him and examining him
specifically with the eye and with the
hand, is not so competent as some gen
tleman that they have in the office here
at Washington who has never laid eyes
on him. Is that itE''
Mr.. Bell labored hard to answer this
with this poor result:
mo: his theory is that the ordinary
Board does not have enough business and
responsibility, and does not get down into
the duties of the office sufficiently TO make
the examination and report as they are
instructed by the Department here. In
other words. the Commissioner says that
he found it absolutely impossible to take
those ratings; that if he should do so there
would be no uniformity in the pensions
that No two Boards agree in their find
ings. Therefore he asks to have organ
lied educated Boards. who will be gov
erned by the same rules and make consist
ent reports.
Il do not doubt that the conclusions
of a surgeon reached after an cXamina-
ton of the case ought to have great iu1u-
ence if he understands his duties. Brt
the Commissioner insists that the expert
ment has proved failure; that oIen have
been put through 10 or II examinations,
sometimes as many as four in one day,
and the Boards differed so widely in their
conclusions that he found it impossible TO
base any action on their reports"
Then Mr. Gardner, of Michigan. asked
this crushing question:
''Is il not true that many of the physi-
clans here in the Department who act
upon these cases are men without actual
experience as surgeons or physicians?'
And Mr.. Bell went to grass muttering:
Il copld not say: do not know: but l
have heard criticism