Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-09-12
WARE ORDER INDICATED.
Critics of the Administration Ridi-
culed By the Record.
New Yorl, Tribune

view 1oTk tribune.
The report of the Commissioner of PEN
sions for the fiscal year 1904-O6 will
scarcely prove palatable reading to the
statesmen and economists who twelve
months ago were working themselves into
a frenzy over President Roosevelt's age
disability order-known popularity as the
Ware order, or as Order No. 7s The
Parker Constitution club of New York
City, then in the heyday of it's public use
fulness, was constructing mastery argu-
ments to show not only that the order
aforesaid was an executive usurpation,"
null, void and impotent alb initio, but also
that If some self-sacrihcing patriot did not
enjoin the secretary of the treasury from
paying the pensions granted under IL the
government would be put TO a ruinous
extra-legal expense. 1t was estimated that
II nobody stepped into the breach and
mandamused the treasury the annual ex-
penditure for pensions would be swollen
some ten or twenty millions. But no one
subscribed to relief fund. and the in
junction theory was never tested.
Perhaps IL was Just as well for the re-
putations OF the constituencies Of the
Parker club that their proposal to tie up
the treasury never got beyond the pamph-
let's stage. How far askew their ideas
about executive usurpation" were we
shall never know oficially But to see
how lamentably beside the mark were
their estimates of the cost OF the age order
we need only turn to the Pension commits
sioners report for the first full year under
the new ruling. Order No. Is was issued on
March IS, 1904 It did not become effective
however, until April IS, 1904, so that II was
in force for only two months and a half
| in 1eO3-O4. The sum paid for pensions in
that year was tl4l.O9s.b7l. But the amount
paid for pension in 19O4-O6. with the new
order in full force was only NE1, lA2s6l-an
increase Of $4,000
During lsO4-o6, 65.sl2 claims affected by
Order No. IS were allowed by the Commits
sioner Of Pension But the effect OF these
allowances on the business OF the bureau
was inhnitesimal No Jump in pension eK-
penditures OF t2OOoO. 600. OF 100000. OF even
100000. occurred AS we argued at the
time. the lowering of the age limit at which
\ disability might be presumed involved no
/ reckless broadening OF the pension system
/ II was a step taken as much to simplify
administration as to liberalize the terms on
which a disability claim might be admitted.
| The modification OF previous orders au-
thorized by President Roosevelt was justi-
fed on grounds Of common sense and by
the pension olfice's accumulated experience.
| In practice the new rule seems to have
worked 30 the satisfaction both OF the
government and OF the pensioner. II has
disappointed only It's Overhasty and over
partisan critics. Within a year the presi-
dents much misrepresented pension policy
has been fully vindicated. In this instance,
| as Ia so many other instances time has
corrected the misjudgments OF the ad-
ministration's critics. AS the president
| we'll nut AZ An hts letter Of acceptance last
September. these critics have been In the
main convincing only when they have
InisstHtsd VI missonesiyed the facts.