Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1878 — The Pension System. [ARTICLE]

The Pension System.

There is now under consideration by the Committee on Pensions in the lower house of Congress a bill to reorganize the entire pension system of the Government. It provides for the appointment of a commission of three persons, two of whom shall be surgeons, in each of sixty pension districts into which the United States shall be divided, who shall make investigations of claims for pensions, make surgical examinations, and have power to administer the oath, and compel the attendance of witnesses. This is recommended by the Commissioner, as the Government in granting pensions now acts conclusively upon erparte evidence furnished by the claimant. It is also proposed to have every pensioner in what are known as invalid cases examined once in two years, so that if the invalidity for which the pension was granted, as is often the case, shall cease to exist, the pensioner may be dropped from the rolls. This bill is in harmony with the suggestions of the Commissioner of Pensions in bis last annual report.