Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1887 — THE PENSION OFFICE [ARTICLE]

THE PENSION OFFICE

What the Democratic Party is Doing for the Soldiers of the Late War An Immense Improvement Over the Republican Policy—Pensions Never Issued as Rapidly. Washington Special to Indianapolis Sentinel: The following comparative statement of the work of tne Pension Bureau during the last two years of the Republican rule and the first two years of the Democratic Administration speaks volumes. The records of the Government are, of course, kept by fiscal years, the appropriations being made by Congress in that manner: In the year ending June 30,1883, under the administration of 'V. W. Dudley, there were 52,’79-pension certificates issued, of which number 38,161 were original cases, and he remainder increase and miscellaneous claims. For the fiscal

year ending June 30,1884, the total number of cert : ficates issued 56,729, of which 34,190 were original, and the remainder increase and miscellaneous cases. In the next fiscal year, up to the 17th of March, 1885, when the present Commissioner entered upon the duties of his office, *here were 39,154 certificates of all kinds issued. From March 17 up to* June 30 of the same year, a period of only two months and a half, there were issued 31,252 pension certificates.— The fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, made a splendid showing for the new administration, there having been issued 76,654 pension certificates, -&,852 of which were original cases. In that same fiscal year of 1886 there were also issued 79,985 supplemental certificates to widows and dependent relatives whose pension (had been increas d by the act of March 19, 1886— a grand total for that one year of 159,643 allowances. These supplemental certificates were issued within a very few months after the passage of the law, the Commissioner of Pensions having

personally directed how the work should be done. At no time in the history of the office hi.s such an enormous numb r of pensions been increased without interference with the regular work of the office, cr without a call upon Congress for additional help. From the Ist of July, 1886, up to and including the 30th of Apr l, 1887, there were 74,608 certificates issued of which 34,852 were original cases. There are yet remaining two months of the present fiscal year, and the result will be a magnificent showing, greater by far than any previous year in the history of the office. It should be borne in mind that this immense amount of work has been performed with a reduction of the clerical force of over 100. With the administration of the present Commissioner a new era was inaugurated in the Pension Bureau. He determined to conduct the office on strict business principles, and required that the entire time of the clerical force during office hours should be devoted to the consideration and transaction of the public business, and the settlement of long delayed pension claims. As one result of this the fiscal year exhibited a saving in the matter of leaves of absence of 15,664 days of the aggregate time of the c-.erical force, or forty-two years, eleven months and four days of the time of a single clerk. In the year 18§6 the present Commissioner turned over to the Treasury one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) of unexpended appropriations on accouit of the hire of clerical force,.and he effected a savingin the same year in the item of stationery of over thirteen thousand dollars ($13,000) —this, not withstanding the fact tnat the business of the bureau has been very largely increased. It was formerly the practice that when a pension claim had been neglected— that is, when tile claimant or his attorn *y had failed to call up the case for a certain length of time, to mark the case “abandoned,” and consider it in about the same light as a rejected case. The Commissioner reverse s this unjust practice, and required of his chiefs that >ll claims should be given a chance of bei g considered and finally adjudicated. Every case filed during his administration has received-prompt at 'ehtion and his order that all cases filed prior to his entry into office should b? examined before the Ist of June has already been complied with, and there is not a single case in the pending files of the office which has not been examined, and in which steps have not been taken toward its final settlement. To illustrate the enormous increase in the business of the f. ension Bureau, during the month of March. 1884, there were received 159,383 pieces of mail matter, and there were sent out from the office 141,898 circulars and letters. In the month of March, 1887, there were received 287,263 pieces of mail matter, and there were sent put from the office 188,142 letters and circulars.

There are thousands of our comrades in Indian that can testify t 8 the efficiency of the present administration as compared with that of other years. Covington Friend: .during the campaign of 1884 the Republican press was teeming with information that if Cleveland was elected the country would go to the demnition bow-wows; slavery would again be enthroned; the poor man killed off, and even old Humbug Barnum said he’d give his show away. But now Bradstreet says: “As an evidence of the good tim *s there are now employed in thi° country 400,000 more wage workers than in 1885, and wages are above the high level of 1882.” How these Republicans were mistaken. Paoli News: Secretary of State Griffin’s continuous display of incompetency has, reached a climax