The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-06-19
I, AN IMPORTANT MOVE.

The Importance OF such an order can
| scarcely be overestilnated 1T has made
| Mir. Roosevelt "solid" with all the re-
4 appointed clerks, which may or.may uut
/ have boon intended. But there may be
| some doubt as to whether the order will
be so heartily approved by the clerks who
wore found In the s.,evicc whom the en-
| clerks were reappointed. The latter may
now be Jumped up over the heads of
! the clerks who have held on, and 1T is
| but natural that the ''stickers' should
| have 1t in for the "quitters, and the
President, also. But on the whole, the
order Is believed to BIO n shrewd move,
and one that Will strengthen the man
who made 1t.
INCREASE IN PENSIONS.
Then there is the now celebrated ex-
ecutivc order Is, issued by the Secretary
of the Interior, at the direction of the
President. This is the order which Is IN
the exact words of the bill drawn from
presentation in the House of Repre-
sentatives last winter, increasing the
pensions of old soldiers The bill pro-
vded that such veterans as had reached
tho age of slxty-two years, whether dis
abled In whole or In part, or at all,
should receive a pension of sc a month.
It was doubted whether such measure
could be gotten through Congress, and
so an executive order was issued. couch
ed in the exact language OF the bill,
save that the enacting clause was strick-
en- out, fact first brought to light by
Senator Carmack, Of Tennessee. The
majority of the Republicans of tho Sen
nte are said to have dlsapproved Of
the order, as being beyond the constitu-
tional authority OF the Executive. but
Congress made All appropriation Of a
million and a half dollars to meet the In
crease in pensions resulting from tho
order,
PENSIONS FROM DOUBTFUI. STATES
FIRST.
II enough pensions are not granted to
exhaust this sum by the end OF the
fiscal year on tho 31st of the present
month. In order that none OF the money
may be turned back into the treasury
on the first Of July, a large addition has
been made to the clerical force Of the
pension office, and the applications are
being acted OH as fast as the men can
be made to work, local paper charges
that Pension Commissioner Ware issued
orders that the applications made for
pensions by veterans from the three
doubtful States Of New York, Illinois and
Indiana, should be acted OH first. Mr.
Ware denied that this was true, but
the Washington paper renewed the state
lie is strongly inclined to take the state
ment of the newspaper at Its face value.
There Is little doubt that the admins
ttration is playing this order for all it
is worth. II may be that II Is cheap
politics. but there can bo no doubf that
1t is politics thnt viii colnt There has
been expressed In tho press Of the Ncrth
considerable sentiment in opposition to
the general opinion that the soldier vote
would be caught by any such method,
and some pyrotechnics emphasizing tho
statement that the patriots Of the old
deichdeis u Ia, Tlior was not OF y
mercenary character, But familiarity
with pension grabbers for more than a
quarter of centllry-'p pension woves'
as an officer of the army called them
in conversation with The Times Dispatch
correspondent last winter-is calculated
to beget a reasonable skeptcism in the
minds Of the average American citizen
and voter tr- H. E.N