The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-04-04
LIND SECURES
SOLDIERS RIGHTS
HOMES MUST AMEND RULES TO
GET PENSIONS.
Amendment to Appropriation Bill Pro-
vides that Money Assigned to State
Homes Must Be Held in Trust for
Veterans and Their Heirs-Persist-
ent Opposition Overcome.

From The Journal Bureau, Colorado Building,
Washington.
/ Washington, April 4.-Representa-
tive Lind is much gratified at having
won a fight he has been making for
a number Of years to change the prac-
tice of docking the pensions, as he
calls it, of inmates of the Minnesota
Soldiers Home. A dispatch to T h e
j o urnal from this bureau on
Thursday stated that Governor Lind,
with the aid Of Messrs. Bell Of Cali
fornia and Crumpacker of Indiana,
had succeeded in securing the adop-
ton of an amendment to the sundry
civil appropriation bill, prohibiting
the payment Of any part Of the federal
| appropriation in aid of state homes to
any state until it has changed its laws
to conform to the federal statute gov
erning the payment Of pensions to in
mates Of national homes.
Lind Describes Abuse.
In his remarks upon the subject
when the amendment was under con-
sideration in the house, Governor Lind
told Of his discoveries while he was
| ex-offlcio a member of the board of
managers Of the Minnesota Soldiers
| home; Of how, under the rules and
regulations Of the home, the inmates
who were receiving pensions had to
assign them to the board Of managers.
who allowed them only g. pittance of
81 or Sc a month out of pensions Of
from $12 to $50 and even more a
month, and had applied the money thus
obtained to the support of soldiers
or soldiers widows, outside the home;
not for his own benefit or for any of
his connections, but for others who
had no legal claim to any part Of the
pension allowed by the government.
The fight for the adoption of the
Nnr,t h q O
that has been waged in the house this
, session. Arrayed against Lind and his
, two supporters were Chairmen Hem
enway of the appropriations commit
tee and Payne of the ways and means
committee, and other prominent re-
I publicanS like Dalzell or pennsylvania
and GrosvenOr.
Hemenway raised a point Of order
against the amendment, claiming that
I it was new legislation, but Lind beat
\ him on that. Then Hemenway ap.
pealed to the house to vote the prop.
osition down, but was beaten decisive
ly, democrats and republicans alike
Voting with Lind, altho Speaker Can.
4 non appeared on the floor and voted
| against the amendment.
Effect of Law.
Discussing the amendment and it:
! effect upon the management of thu
Minnesota nome, Governor Linz Sd1u
\ The legislation is proper and will cor
\ rect an abuse which has been allowed t
I exist for years, despite the protests Of al
4 right thinking people. The state will los
/ nothing by it., as it will receive 800
h year toward the support OF every inmate
\ where it Is now receiving only tina
1 amount for those who are not drawin
4 pensions. No more money will be PAL
to persons not entitled to it. and the sol
der will be allowed to assign any PORTO
Of his pension to his wife, children Q
~ other legal heirs, who are certainly en-
= titled to it in all justice and humanity.
- If there is no one who is as closely re
81 lated to the soldier as the persons ind1
I Gated, then his pension money will b
( taken care of by the treasurer Of tn
6 home and saved for him until his dis
) charge, or to be paid to his heirs in cas-
7 of death. There is nothing in the Law
I either. to prevent the custodian Of til
& pension paying the soldier the small SUI
: he now receives under the practice of tt
} state home for his personal use eac
month.
I The application Of this national law |
{ the state home Is just to the soldier ar
} fair in every way to the state, and, as,
I said before, it will prevent the conti1
I uance of q practice which has been oil
{ noxious to most Of the people Of Mimi
w. w. Jermane.