The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1911-10-19
PLNSI0N ROLL
DECREASING
And Millions of Dollars Will
Be Saved by the New
Plan.

wv AStft4NG ION u. VI OcI. 10
A saving, estimated at $1,O0O,00o
annually to the pensioners of the
United States and eventually about
$4,000 a year to the government
is contemplated by simpllfed plan
for the payment of pensions with.
out vouchers which Commissioner
of Pensions ] L. Davenport submit
ted to the secretary of the interior
in his annual report Just made pub
| lie.
| During the year 1851. S25.16O was
paid as pensions, a decrease of $3,-
49S,154. from last year, making the
total amount paid in pensions since
the foundation of the government
$4,23O,3s1,7 SO. There were 55, 1S5
names dropped from the pension
rolls and 10000 added, leaving a
net loss Of 2S,9S5 pensioners. The
total number at the end of the year
was S92,O9S, the smallest since
1892. Methods of economy resulted
in a decrease of the cost of admin
istration by s140,546, the amount
being $2,5a7,127, the lowest since
1882.
Commissioner Davenport's plan,
which was devised at the request of
Congress and which will require the
passage of law, would greatly sim
plify the methods of paying pensions
result in the mailing of pension
checks on the date upon which the
pension falls due, eliminate the
cost to the pensioner in large ma
jorlty of cases of the execution of
pension vouchers, which varies from
81 to SO yearly; decrease to a con-
siderable extent the work in draw
ing and mailing pension checks AMI
eliminate the sending of 1000. 900
letters yearly through the mails.
saving about $4,000 thereby.
The plan contemplates payment
direct by check mailed to the last
address of the pensioner. Besides
the Endorsement on the back of these
checks the government would re-
quire certificates by the witnesses as
to identity. In few instances Com
missioner davenport said vouchers
still would be required.
Commissioner Davenport told Of
his efforts to ascertain the truthful
ness in the press and else
where that the pension roll was
honey-combed with fraud. He sent
field men from pensioner to pen.
sioner in the Washington agency
and is now doing the same in the
Knoxville agency with a view 10
probing fraud. Out of a total OF
47,1S1 pensioners seen and ques-
toned only twenty-six cases of i'm
proper pensioning were revealed.
The commissioner said he believed
the check system would put an end
to any fraud that may now exist
The number OF soldiers and sailors
on the pension roll at the close OF
the fiscal year was 57O,O50, depend
ents and widows 321 GAP, and army
nurses 400. There were 529,SS4
survivors of the Civil war, 1928
having died during the year. 1t is
believed that only about twenty-five
per cent of the estimated 2,213,365
individuals in the United States SER
vice during the Civil war are now
living, the death rate of the sur
vivors being now slightly in excess
of six per cent yearly. The average
age of survivors is now about 10
years.
The last pensioner of the Revolu-
tionary war, Mrs. Phoebe Palmeter,
daughter of Jonathan Weekly, who
served in New Hampshire com
pany, died at Brookfeld, n. Y,
April 25, 1911, aged 80 years.
Mrs. Britannia w. Kennen, of
Washington, ID. C., great grand
daughter of Martha Washington,
and who died during the year, drew
pension as a widow longer prob
ably than any other person in the
history of the pension office, having
received $50 a month almost 81
years. Mrs. Kennen was the widow
Of the captain of the U. S. s. Prince
ton, who was killed FEBRUARY 90,
1874. by the bursting of a cannon
on that vessel, on which occasion two
members of president Tyler's cabi-
net were killed.