The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-17
A RULING BY WARE
PENSIONS OF SOLDIERS TO BE
 z ADVANCED.
Similar to Action Taken During the Administration of President Cleveland Regarding Mexi-
 can War Veterans.


 Washington, D. C.. March is.-Comnais- sioner of Pensions Ware. with the ap- proval of Secretary Hitchcock. today pro- mulgated the most important pension ruling that has been issued in long time.
 It directs that, beginning April 1S. next. if there is no contrary evidence and all other legal requirements have been met. claimants for pensions under the general act of June 2. 1890. who are over @ years old. shall be considered as disabled one. half ability to perform manual labor. ant shah be entitled to s6 a month: over 6S years to S; over 6S years to $lo and over so years to s12, the usual allowance at higher rates continuing for disabilities other than age.
 The order itself Is preceded by a pre- amble which. after citing the law. says the pension bureau has established with reasonable certainty the average nature and extent of the infrmity of old age, and that 80 years after the Mexican War, Congress in 1887 placed on the pension roll all Mexican War soldiers who were over 62 years old.
 Commissioner Ware. just before leaving for trip South for his health, spoke as follows regarding the order which he said would save both the old soldiers and the government a great deal of money and time:
 There has long been in the bureau a rule fixing a rnaximum age limit at N2 for seventy-hve years. This was made during Mir Cieveland's administration by Commissioner Lochren, now Federal Judge in Minnesota.
 "The 65-year minimum limit has been a long while fin force ih the bureau. but I am not advised by whom it was estab- lished. nor is it particularly material since 1t met with general acquiesence.
 '"rhe act of Congress which was passed in the latter part of January, 1887. and approved by President Cleveland, put all the Mexican war veterans on the pension roll thirty-nlne years after the end of the Mexican war The Mexican war end ed officially by the treaty of Guadalupe Iidalgo. February 2. 1s4s, although hos tilities had ceased before that time. ac- cording to the capture of the city of Mexico.
 "rt would seem that if thirty-nine years after the expiration of service a Mexi- can war soldier was entitled to pension at 62 years and no other requisite for drawing a pension should exist except age, that to soldiers of the civil war, who fought vastly more and longer, at least as good a rule ought to apply.
 'There seems to be general concensus of opinion that at @ years the disabili- ties of old age have set in.
 "The order could not have been issus1 earlier, because 1t Is only now that the thirty-nine years fixed by the congres. sional limit has been reached. The civil war ended April 13. 1se5. and fin enlist ments in the loyal States those who en- listed after that time are held have no questionable service during the war of re- beIIion. Hence. the thirty-nine years would expire the 18th of next month. and 1t Is very proper that the order should he issued fixing the sixty-two years as the minimum age limit and the biblical three score and ten as the maximum.
 ''There is an advantage and saving to the government in the use of this o-6er, because every old soldier who hes reach- ed the age of 63 years is able to prove almost without possibility of doubt that he is one-haIf disabled from earning his support by manual labor. This being SO, it seems unwise to put a soldier to the expense of time and transportation to go to place where a medical board can e4- anime him to find that fact out. and on the other hand. 1t seems unnecessary for the government to keep boards estab- lished and then pay $6 for the ex3mlna- ton of a soldier when the result Of the examination can be so accurately foce- told.
 'T am of the opinion that thfS order will save the government a good deal of money. Of the 100000 examinations in the last year. if one-fourth of them were saved. 1t would make $S00,0O0 and perhaps an equal amount in time and transporta- ton to the old soldiers who have to be examined"