New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-03-28
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PENSIONS BY INTERPRETATION.
A Criticism Of the Recent Disability
Order.

TO the EGltor or Inc tribune.
Sir. Pension COMMISSIONS Ware has gone
South for a vacation. He doubtless needs the
rest after doing alone and out Of hand. work
which the whole Congress OF the United States
has for many years been unable to perform.
When the scheme 70 esta bIish a virtual service
pension. without legal enactment. by new and
evolutionary exercise Of administrative discre-
tion was first proposed as a convenient method
OF giving to veterans what Congress apparently
did not wish TO give them. The Tribune ex-
pressed the opinion that It was bad policy.
which tended to undermine government by law.
Many Of your readers now regret that the Pen
sion Bureau should have been carried away by
the notion that it might properly make over
the law by a process Of liberal construction
and read into it new meanings TO accomplish
purposes confessedIy never contemplated by the
lawmakrg body
Commissioner Wares statement concerning
his essay in legislation is somewhat confused.
The fact that It is thirty-nine years since the
close OF the Civil War and that Mexican War
veterans were by law pensioned thirty-nine
years after the termination Of their service has
nothing To do with the construction Of the act
pensioning Civil War veterans incapable Of
manual labor. Perhaps Commissioner Ware is
right when he says.
It would seem that H. thirty-nine years after the
expiration Of service. a Mexican War soldier was
emitted 10 a pension at SlNTy-tWO years, ana no
other requisite FOR drawing a pension should exist
except ase, 20 soldiers Of the civil War. who
a rule ought to apply
He might be equally right In saying that II a
railroad president gets 100000 the President
OF the United States. with much greater re-
sponsbilties. ought to have as much But
thinking that something ought to be the law
does not make 1t So Congress distinctly gave
the Mexican War soldiers their service pension
at sixty-twO. 1t has repeatedly refused to give
the Civil War soldiers a similar pension and
though a plan for one has been brought for
ward for the present session. its enactment has
been found impossible. Only If he Is possessed
OF legislative power does the Commissioners
opinion Of the prOpriety Of the Mexican War
rule and the fitness Of applying it at this par
ticular time to Civil War veterans justify his
new ruling The law. and the only law under
which this new service pension is given grants
a pension to ninety-day soldiers and sailors in
the War Of the Rebellion who suffer from
any mental or physical disability OF perna-
nent character. not the result Of their own
vicious habits. which so incapacitates them
from the performance OF manual labor as to
render them unable to earn a support" Under
this law the only question for Interpretation.
liberal or otherwise, by the Commissioner IS
one OF fact Is an applicant incapacitated?-
not. Ought he to have pension IN abstract
justice or by analogy with the Mexican War
veteran7 According to tho last report OF the
Pension Commissioner. the rule hitherto has
been:
A claimant who has reached the age OF seventy
five years IS allowed the maximum rate for seniIty
alone, where there are no special pensionaole
Of sixty-fvs years is allowed at least the minimum
rate, unless he appears 70 have unusual vlgor and
ability for the performance OF manual labor IN one
Of that age
Now the Commissioner declares that he VIII
take administrative notice as a fact that any
man sixty-two years old is seniIe. He moves
up the limit OF presumed partial senility three
years, and changes the presumption. subject to
removal on evidence OF vigor. to an absolutely
settled rule Then he advances the age OF as
sumsd total seniIlty i've years. Now. that is
Justifabls only II It represents an actual fact
concerning the condition Of men OF that age.
In that case IL was Just much the fact ten
years ago as now though nobody discovered Il.
and even the most urgent pension attorney
never dreamed OF asking for any such con-
struction OF the law. 1t is clear that Congress
had no notion that the disability II was PEN
sloning automatically attached TO a veteran at
siXty-two, Il would either have told those
who for years have been Clamoring for a ser
vice pension at sixty-twO TO go to the pension
Office and collect It. else have declared that
the commissioners with their old rulings were
misinterpreting the law and deprtving disabled
soldiers OF the pension which Congress IN
tended them TO have. Nothing OF the kind &C.
CURED. and IL IS only after 10 IS known IhaL
Congress has no such view OF the existing stat
utes enacted BY II. and no intention OF chang
ing them in accord with that view, that the
Commissioner discovers, new medical fact,
that veterans OF siXty-twO are senile, though
the army retirement age IS slXty-four. not
sixty-tvo as he says About u per cent OF
his own bureau force are over stxty-two years
old and the average age 81 the Civil War
veterans drawing salaries for active work in
the bureau is sxty-three. Thus by happy
thought OF odhand medical diagnosis Is Con-
gress relieved OF the trouble OF establishing the
much discussed service pension and an unesti-
mated appropriation from the Treasury ordered.
Nevv-York. March 26 1904 B.