Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1887 — WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON.

As a matter of interest to pensioners, we print the following paragraph, which is sent out by telegraph from Washington: A difference of opinion and practice has for some time existed between the Pension Office and the office of tho Third Auditor of the Treasury as to when the payment of an accrued pension actually becomes con.-ummated. The Second Comptroller has decided that where a pensioner dies after transmitting the usual voucher and before the pension agent has executed and mailed to him a check for his pension, it is clear that there has been, in law, no payment of the accrued pension. But should the pensioner die after receiving tho c .eck it becomes a part of his estate, even though he has not indorsed it. Where the voucher has been executed by the Sensioner and delivered to the agent, and ie check has been mailed by the agent to the pensioner in his lifetime, but was not received by him, the Comptroller does not think that the act of payment

has been so far consummated as to defeat the rights of the widow or minor children to claims for reimbursement under section 4718, and the check cannot in such cases be properly deemed as a part of the assets of the estate of the deceased pensioner. To make a complete payment, two things mnst occur—the receipt of the check of the Government by the pensioner and the execution by him of an acquittance in proper form. The Commissioner of Agriculture has sent to the Governors Of several States a bill providing for co-operation with the Bureau of Animal Industry in stamping ont pleuro-pneu-monia. The act has already been passed in Virginia and Michigan. The report of the Department of Agriculture for April regarding the condition of winter grain and the comparative healthfulness of farm animals compares favorably with the corresponding reports of late years. The President has made the following appointments: Eugene Bemple, of Washington Territory, to be Governor of Washington Territory; Samuel D. Shannon, of Cheyenne, to be Secretary of Wyoming Territory; Edward Palmer Turner, of New York, to be Consul at Mozambique; Marshall Parks, to be Supervising Inspector of Steam Vessels for the Third District in place of James Curran, of Maryland, who was twice to that office, and who failed of confirmation each time; ex-Gov. Robert E. Pattison of Pennsylvania, E. Elery Anderson of New York, and D. T. Littler of Illinois Commissioners to investigate the affairs of the Pacific Railroads.