The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-09-29
ORDER NO. Is.
Commissioner Ware Replies to the Coz.
stitatioa Club.
New York Sunl

New York Sum-
To the Editor Of the Sun-Sir: All
Democrats are Constitutional lawyers and
occupy the relation to the Republican
party that mosquitoes do to fisherman.
l have recently seen Report No. l."
made by the Parker Constitution Club Of
New York, in which they find that Pen
sion Order No. IS, known as the Age order,
is an invasion Of the Constitution, and they
hold the President responsible therefor.
Order No. q was an order making the
proof of certain ages, by old soldiers, evil
dental facts of certain degrees Of dis
ability; not conclusive-only evidential.
Seventy years, being the Biblical age of
threescore and ten, was fixed as the prob
able age of total disability, which SO in
| capacitated them from the performance Of
manual labor as TO render them unable to
earn q support" The foregoing are the
words OF the statute.
| The United States Statutes make the
Commissioner of Pensions the executive
| officer to carry out and enforce the pen
sion laws. rhe laws are brief and need
much Interpretation, and the position Of
Commissioner Is in many respects ana
logous to that of q Judge, in that he must
interpret the law and weigh the evidence
/ pT0SSuIeu, anu declare t0eretrOm W0eI0ef
the claimant is entitled to q pension or not.
Over 10000 claims are BY him rejected
| annually.
| Among other things which the Commits
sioner is called upon to decide Is the mean
| ing of the sentence above quoted. For in
stance: What is manual laborw Notice
policeman strolling lsisurely along-is
Waterman in a hotel, or the cashier ia q
bank, or many another whom we might
cite, engaged in manual laborf
The Commissioner must decide what II
manual labor" The statute does not ap-
ply to brain labor, nor does 1t define
physical and not mental decay.
| Again, what is "a support!" Must an
4 old soldier live on rice or on cornmeal9
Is the support contemplated by Congress
| the cheapest that will keep life in him at
one meal day? Must he live in a cellar
or in a bunk, like San Francisco China
| man; must he wear rags, must he wrap
himself up in a piece of carpet and hiber-
nate through the Winter?
The present attitude of thought In the
Pension Bureau is that the word support"
means clothes good enough to 60 to church
in and respectable abode and such medi-
cal attendance as may be necessary, and
three good square meals a day, and plenty
of plug-cut, and several other things, and
/ then some more.
Order No. IS finds that an old soldier
who is 62 years of age is probably able
to earn only one-half of this kind of sup
port and is entitled to So per month as a
pension, and at So he is two-thirds disabled
and entitled to So.
4 This rule is within the strict line Of
statutory authority, human experience,
and executive precedent. No Democratic
President or Commissioner will ever abro-
gate Order No. IS. because it is for all
L. A. r.
missioner would have that power, and Gen.
Black, who had been Pension Commits
| sioner. knowing of this power thought il
| wise to suggest that Congress put the
question beyond the reach of his party by
making an act done in pursuance of Con-
gressional authority the motive of speci-
| fic act.
There being nothing wrong in principle
with Order No. 49, let us now examine
| the particular charge of unconstitionality
which the Parker Constitution Club sets
| FORTH
The club finds President Roosevelt re-
sponsibe for the order and finds that it
contravenes Section of Article /, which
reads as follows: "No money shall be
| drawn from the Treasury but in conse-
quence of appropriations made by law"
History and the public records concern
ing Order No. IS show that when it was
| made Congress was in session: that the
not to go into force until April Is. 1904;
that it was Immediately reported to Con-
| gress. with a request that one and a half
million dollars be appropriated to carry
| the order into effect The sum estimated
was embodied in the pending Deficiency
| bill and came up for quick discussion. As
Order No. IS had been made under and
by virtue of authority granted by Con-
| gress. there was then one of three courses
| to be taken by Congress. First. it could
deny that the authority was granted, deny
that the order was legal and refuse to
pass the appropriation: secondly. it could
| repeal the law and abrogate the order;
thirdly, il could recognize the order as
legal and valid and vote an appropriation
to carry it out.
Congress. after hearing what everybody
had to say, took the third course and
voted the one and half millions to carry
| it out.
Congress having approved the order and
| voted the money. the pensions began to
issue under the order and to be paid
How did the Commissioner get the
money to pay those pensions? How did
he get it out Of the Treasury? Did Mr..
Roosevelt go TO Mr.. Shaw and treat him
as Cesar did Metellus and take the money
away from him? No. Did the Commits
sioner open the Treasury with a crowbar
| and abstract the money? No. Well how
\ was it? Let US ask Mr.. Shaw. He will
cay that not a dollar has gone out of the
Treasury without an approximation bill
passed by each branch of Congress and
signed by the presiding officer of each
| BODY.
When Order No. IS was issued Demo
| cratic newspapers offered four remedies:
! The impeachment of the Commissioner:
| the dismissal of the Commissioner: man.
damus to compel the Commissioner to do
! his duty as they understood it: and. fourth
! an Injunction to restrain action on Order
No. IS
The passage of the appropriation bill
| recognizing the legality of the order and
| voting the money to carry it out ended
| thn consideration of the remedies proposed.
This brings us around to the PROPOSE
tian stated bv the Parker Constitution
| Club in Report No, L." 1t reads: "we
find that President Roosevelt deliberately
| disreearded Article I. Section 8. of the
| Constitution. providing: "No money shall
be drawn from the Treasury but in conse-
quence of appropriations made by law"
| submit the nroposition to any black
smith in the United States. with perfect
| confidence that he will see where that