New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-02
AGE AND DISABILITY.
THE New Pension Rules Conformity to Fact
Questioned.
10 the EDITOR Of The Tribune.

70 the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: n your issue this morning Manual Labor
accuses ne OF confoundng Inability TO perform
manual labo- with -senility.' a confusion which
might warrsa. the characterization Of more than a
majority OF tie United States Senate senile. ="
used the word -'senilIty' exactly & was used
by Commissioner Ware in his last annual report
% Describe a physical condition due to age which
warranted a pension. and distinctly stated that the
sew pension order justified II il represented
az actual fact and the veterans with. sub
t:antial uniformity untitled for manual labor at
eixty-two Doubtless professional Of sixty
two could earn s. 20 a day with pick and shovel.
and Few men OK forty-fve. Tor that matter. A
,nar's ability sor any particular kind OF manual
,abor depends or habit. Many Of sixty-two
60 work with rsok and shovel. and thousands far
heyond that age are actively engaged IN other
manual occupations. such carpenters. -nasons
Farmers and a hundred Others. and. IL veterans
could secure a pension under the law which
requires The disability manual labor TO be such
''as 10 render them unable TO earn support
The employees OF the Pension Bureau to whom I
referred are indeed engaged IN mental labor. New
srtheless they show the falIacy OF assuming disa-
bsty at sixty-two. over half OF the Civ!l War
veterans employed 81 the bureau more than
eiSty-tvo. vet-so FAR be told from the last
report. which does specify the age OF the pen
sioners In the bureau-many OF them are without
pensions though with their specis facilities II they
were actually disab led manual labor. they would
undoubtedly have been Densioned under the old
rule.
In the ascal year -eos "A go original pensions
granted under the act OF zS3e snd Sss rejected
That agaost one-third Of ali applying were found
not 10 be partially disabled How many of
these sxty-two is not Shown but IL is
fair suppose that thirty-nine years after the
waS az least half OF them had reached that age
In the case OF al least three thousand Of these
applicants for new pensions the recent order does
not represent the actual fact IL the same year
s7.zs3 applied for ratings under the act Of
1Sse and s.. $50 were rejected. Doubtless many Of
these beyond the axe fixed by the new Groer
for a presumption OF progressive disability which
on Investigation thew were found lot to possess
Manual l-abor's' view OF the 'agnora nee NJ
those who that the Pension Bureau had
been carried away by the notion that Il might
properly make over the law by a process of literal
construction. must arise from his having read
Cos1<ciStlOler Wares statement FORMULATING he
rule. lie then frankly JUSTIFIED It as an ar
tempt read into tie act Of 1880 the PRINCIPLES
adopted BIZ Congress for the Mexican War VET
eraIs. arguing that the civil War veterans were
justiy entitled 20 equally GOOD treatment ana e1
pietnlae that he could not have made The order
before th.rtyrine years a1ser the close OF the war
II the order was the mere recognition OF a nnedI-
cal fact. and not ATTEMPT &c do By Construction
Fer Civil War veterans what Congress had done
by legislation for Mexican War veterans then m
just as proper thirty wears thrty-nine
after the war.
The order was first put forth with proud avovvals
that way had been discovered by adr.ntstrs tie