The National tribune., 1908-04-30
THE WIDOWS. PENSION BILL.

III Tic PdpCiS tiitt o"ihS
to grave doubts raised as to the legali-
ty of the approval; of the Widows Pen
sion Bill oRs Sunday that the Pension
Bureau was holding up the pensions
until there gould, be decision and ii
was possibleu that Congress would have
to repass the act.itIThere is no founda-
ton for this. Some question was, in
1 deed, raised at the State Department
over the legalitydof the approval OF
the bill on Sundays but an examination
of the Statutes showed that no less
than 127 important bills had been ap-
/ proved by the President on Sunday
Among these are the Naval Appro-
priation bills and the act giving a
code of laws for the District of Colum-
bia. Everyone in Washington is liv-
ing under laws which were approved
on Sunday.
AS we said last week, precedents are
| of small importance compared with
the intolerable proposition that the
power of the President shall be limited
to days in the week. Such a thing
would be unwise and dangerous in the
highest degree. The President might
want to call out troops or perform
some other act to meet a dire emer-
gency and it is absurd to think that he
could not do this on Sunday. His
power runs continually and public
safety requires that it should do So
AS a matter of fact, the Pension
Bureau was not disturbed in the least
by any doubts on this subject, and the
next day after the approval of the act
it began to put the law into execution
1t took the nearest and best practica-
BILE course In this direction by making
the increase act automatically without
the necessity of any renewed applica
I'll n. Each one of the 18 Pension
Agents thruout the country sent out a
notice to all of. the widows on his list
in about the following words: +..-
The Act of Congress, approved
April 10, 1908, increases your pension
to twelve dollars per month from that
date.
In order to have the increase proper
ly endorsed on your Pension Certificate,
it will be necessary for you, on or i'm
mediately after the 18th day of May,
to forward the certificate to this
Agency, with slip securely attached
to the upper left hand corner giving
your postoffice address.
In response to letters of inquiry the
Pension Commissioner directed that
cards reading as follows, should be
sent out:
In reply to your inquiry you are ad-
-
widows, minors, and helpless children
now on the pension rolls at less rate
will be increased to $12 per month un-
der the act of April IS, 1908. from the
date of the act. No application is re-
quired to obtain the increased rate, but
the Same will be paid by the 9Unitedd
States Pension Agent at the next quar-
terly payment upon receipt of the
voucher properly executed which - is
now in possession of the pensioner.
The present pension certificate should
be retained until its return shall I1avel
been requested by the Pension Agent
from whom the pension is received.
Very respectfully.
W Warner, Commissioner.
At the next pension payment every
certificate now outstanding will upon
presentation receive the increased rate
and the Pension Agent will stamp it|
with the following words:
Increased to $1,000 per month from
April 10, 1908, by act of that date.
Those who will be benefited by this
act are divided by this act into three
classes with about $1,000 in each class.
Those who will receive their payments
May will get SO additional or s26
for their quarterly payment. The
nextrclass, which will be paid June 4,
will RECEIVE Sc additional, or SSe1 alto
gether, and the third class. which will
be paid July 4, will get $40 additional.
or S34 for their quarterly payment.
Let us repeat that there is no neces-
sity for any correspondence or any ap-
plication and that all that is needed
is for the pensioner to present her cer-l
tificate to the pension agent, when he
will stamp it with the increased rate.