Year: 1879

brought about by several causes. In practice it is
failure. 1t does not do the work it was created
for and the head of the Office officially admits that it
is a failure


Considering that it handles regularly $50 OOO 900
that it handles now many millions more of arrears ;
that it reaches over the whole country that it has
all the assistance in agencies and clerks it asks for
that it passes hourly upon interests the most deli
cate in class entitled to highest sympathy, it
is very evident that it needs thorough and complete
overhauling.


1t is the great duty of this Congress to examine
it from root to branch to study its workings to find
out its capacities to remedy its evils of plan and of
detail


When the full food of the Nations bounty is
barred and damned up by It's own agents. when its
Chief Amoner admits that It takes, on an average
three years thereabout to get case through his
Office Gas long 1t took to put doacn the Rebellion
there is something singularly defective either in the
machine or the engineer in charge, or perhaps in
both


Technical stupidity, that unfortunate propensity
to be great in very little things is one of the curses
of the Pension Office


We cannot illustrate this any better than by few
Y
sentatves, in the 2nd session Of the 45th Congress,
in the ease of Elizabeth Reese


The husband, John Reese, of the 14th New York
Volunteers was discharged for disability in 1868,
and died July 90 1871 His widow asked for pen
sion on the ground that the disease of which he died
was contracted in the service in the line of duty


This application rejected by the Commission
er, and she appealed to Congress


The Committee on Invalid Pensions close their
report thus


There is no doubt that the soldier was healthy man
when he entered the service, and that he left it disabled
with complication OF diseases and continued to grow
worse worse until he died The medical referee thinks
the proof does not show the death with the
service.


The Committee are not medical experts but from the
whole body OF the testimony lay and professional
refuse believe that he contracted the disease
pication of diseases of which he died in the
the United States.


The difference between common sense and tech
nicaty cannot be more clearly shown than by this
contrast


Doctors may disagree frequently do Disagree
but the stubborn facts remain and the Committee
did right


One surgeon Of repute examines into the symp-
toms and decies that the man died Of disease with





equal repute, from the same symptoms, gives the
disease another equally hard name, and in the dis
pute as to which has discovered the right
name they lose sight Of the great fact that the man
himself is dead


There is such thing as too much learning,
there is such thing too tenacious adherence to
mere opinon-and hundreds Of cases can be cited
from the record where the case perished because
the medical referee did not agree in opinion with
the examining surgeon as to the proper name by
which to enter the actual cause of death


In the case glven--a goes into service healthy
and strong receives injuries and contracts disease
by which he is disabled and for which he is dis
charged. This same disease or complication of dis
eases hang to him until death relieves him Does
any sane man doubt that he is proper for
pension But the Commissioner thought not