The National tribune., 1909-12-09
A MOST IMPORTANT ITEM.

| "A N1OSI ImfoIfthNI
One highly important part of the re.
port OF the Commissioner of Pensions
has entirely escaped the attention OF
those who are singing such dismal
songs on the size of the pension ex-
penditures. Probably they did moi
want to see it. The report says the
amount paid in first payment for the
year was $6.4S9,416.73, a reduction OF
$685. less than the first pay
ments of the year before. This de-
crease OF nearly s7.OO0,00O in one item
is a matter of the highest Importance.
1t shows that the end is nearing.
The great increase in pension expen-
ditures has been due to the lauda BILE
work of Commissioner Warner in bring
ing the business of the Pension Bureau
up to date. His predecessors were given
q certain amount of money to expend
each year for pensions, and they exert
ed themselves to keep their expendi-
lures within this limit. They had TO
resort to many devices to do this, the
principal one being the studied delay in
the adjudication of pension cases with
the expectation that the claimants
would die and the Government would
be saved the money. All the readers
of The National Tribune will remem-
Der how continuous and earnest were
our attacks upon this unjust policy.
1t was the burden of The National
Tribune's editorials for many years.
missioner Evans was mainly that when
a pensioner had proved his legal right
to a pension the medical referee was
set to work to find pretexts to reject
the pensioner on medical grounds. 1t
will be remembered that Commissioner
Evans kept such a close tab on the
grayeyards of the country that his al
lowances every year were within a few
hundred of the number of deaths of
pensioners. For this it will be remem-
bered The National Tribane criticized
him with the utmost severity.
Under the predecessors of Comms-
sioner Warner the clerks in the Pension
Office put ipe a. great deal Of their time
in taking up the jackets containing
pension cases, 'solemnly noting an in
dorsenient thereon and then putting
the jackets back in the cases without
often represented that the labor of the
Pension Bureau in taking up these
jackets and making the useless nota-
tions upon them, and then returning
them to their cases, was sufficient in the
aggregate to have picked up the Army
of the Potomac at its greatest strength
and carried it from Washington to
Richmond.
The policy of Commissioner Warner
was a complete reversal of this. He
set his whole force actively at work to
really adjudicate the cases. When he
entered Office he found something like
half a million cases pending. These
were in jackets yellowed with time,
frayed with much handling, and the
ink of the earlier notations dimmed
by age. The order went out for these
cases to be thoroly examined and acted
upon. The result was astonishing. In
spite of the great increase of appli-
other more liberal legislation these
pending cases We're worked off so
rapidly that when Commissioner War
ner retired from Office there were but
66.220 cases on hand waiting action,
and the business OF the Pension Office,
practically current Anyone can see
that the adjudication of these long
standing cases. which had been shirked
for years tby previous Commissioners,
meant a very great increase every year
in the amount of the first payments of
the accumulated pensions. The amount
of these first payments for the year
ended June 30, 1908, was s13,394 $685.
AS before stated this fell off during
the year ended June 80, 1903, to &c.
4S9.416.7S, or a reduction of nearly
$7,000,000. This points to an almost
equal reduction during the present
fiscal year. The $1,000 cases which
were pending June 80. 1909. and the
cases which may be filed during the
present year. will carry only small
fraction of the first payments required
by the 124.634 cases upon which first
payments were made during the last
fiscal year. With this great reduction
in the first payments and the death
rate. which must rapidly increase from
that of last year, which caused loss
to the roll of 48,312 pensioners, the re-
duction of the pension expenditures
must 20 on at a rapidity that should
satisfy the most obdurate of pension
officials. g
THE ENGLISH CRISIS.
10 nnderStaHl fIllY the PaIlia men,