Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — A PECULIAR PENSION RULING. [ARTICLE]

A PECULIAR PENSION RULING.

Tbe late Republican administration had so completely demoralized the financial condition of tbe government that members of that party everywhere declare I with great gusto and secret satisfaotio a that Mr. Cleveland would at an early day be obliged to issue bonds. Some, however. now seek to lie outright. Chauncey M. Depew, in a recent deliveranoe says: When Mr. Cleveland took the reins of government we were moving along prosperously. The government was on a good solid footing financially, industries were flourishing and we had the world’s fair in proßpect, with the belief that it would bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the country from other parts of the world. In spite of all that we find ourselves in the midst of a financial crisis that is making havoc with everything. In the above statements Mr. Depew dearly and wilfully misrepresents facts. Equally so did Whiteltw Beid the other day in similar utterances. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, although a Republican paper, thus refers to the assumptions of these m9n: All of them are false and vicious, and deserve the severest reprobation of all fair-minded persons. The assertiou that the republicans, so long as they remained in power, “had money enough, in spite of the heavy foreign demand for gold,” is silly as well as untrue. It is silly, because eve y person interested in the financial question remembers that the dread of an early depletion in the treasury reserve was felt twelve monti.s ago, and Seoietary Foster soon after began to resort to various devices hitherto unheard of, because uunecessary, to keep the gold fund from being reduced to the conventional danger line. 'I he situation seemed to be steadily prowing worse. Ouce or twice before the election took place, and, of course, while the result of the canvass was in doubt, a financial crisis seemed to be close at hand. No improvement came after the election, and none could have eome, whichever party had won. Many times during the winter, while the old administration had still several weeks of power tne treasury’s free gold was so low that demands were heard from certain quarters for a sale of bonds to replenish the gold fund, and t> e country foi a few days feared this would be resorted to. * * * Every newspaper reader has known for six or eight yearsjpast that Mr. Cleveland is intelligent and pronounced sound money man, and that he is as sincerely devoted to the true theories of finance and as resolute in defending them as Gen. Harrison or any other man in the country, republican or otherwise. Nobody fears now or has feared that the financial interests of the country would suffer in his hands.

And the Globe Democrat further scathingly rebukes these falsifiers: All these accusations and inuendoes overstep the bounds of legitimate politics. They are the methods of the pirate, and not of the honest partisan. They help no man and no cause, while they, to the extent of the prominence and the influence of their authors, tend to excite a feeling of distrust in the community which might exert n injurious dffect in an emergency like this. The republican party directly and emphatically disclaims all responsibility for these accusations, deplores and condemns the spirit which prompts them, and pledges itself to sustain the sdministration in this crisis by all the resources at its (ommand. C anncey and Whitelaw seem to have brought up against a suag.

Five ministers of Macon, Ga., are being tried upon the charge of libel for publishing a circular denouncing a school in which dancing was taught. “Dixon eavs their cook is an angel ” “Is it because she keeps dinner until he comi8?” “No: she lighted the fire with coal oil, poor thing." It is said tnat when Benjamin Franklin proposed to start a newspaper"his mother tried to dissuade him from it because she s«.id there were already two papers in America and there was no room for another. The Georgia editor wrote: “Let the galled jade wince!” But the printer, whe wasn’t familiar with the phrase, thought the “old man" had made a mistake; and so he set it up bs it should have been: “Let the gallon jug win!” When Napoleen overran I alyhis attention was called to a number of silver sta'ues of the apostles which had decorated an ecclesiastical institution for centuries. “Take them down.” said the great onqueror, “and coin thdm into|ourrency, that they may go 'about doing good, as d.d their master.” • The editorof the Tiftoa i(Ga.) Gazette Scratched the following lines with his poetic pen: “Backward, turn backward, O time, in thy flight; give us July again, just for one night; givens mosquitoes and give us the flies, bat turn on the heat before every one dies! bring back our straw hats and good linen pants; give us a chance to live, give us a chancce!” The correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, now in this country, tel s his readers that every American wea s a diamond pih costing $1,200. Attorney-General Olney does not have to attack the trusts; he is simply letting them commit suicide.

Our old friend Simons, chair, man of the Democratic Centre Committee of White county, has called an election for postmaster at Monticello. At bst a chair* man has i uthority only to carry out instructions of the committee, and a committee’s duty is to at* tend only to campaign work. After submitting papers to the congressman no applicant should re* sort to different method to secure th a prize without the consent or order of the congressman As the matter stands there will be but one applicant voted for—the oth - lers standing by their first prciceeding—and an election under I such circumstances certainly can* not count. The proper way wo’d be by agreement of applicants ami sanction of congressman.

Services at Presbyterian church next Sunday, at usual hours — morning and evening. Everybody cordially invited. The slumu in stocks on Wall sircet “bust” tne cordage trust, and the squeezers were squeezed, McKinley at a recent dinner of the Home Market club said: “The republican party needs neither eulogy nor apology.” Probably an obituary and a tomb-stone would suit it better. “Old Bob.” as he is familiarly called, is dead. Itober Robinson, the patriarch of the Michigan City prison, was a historic character. — He was one of the convicts who labored to build the penitentiary. He was convicted in 1857 of the crime of murder, and sentenced to a term ; n the southern penitentiary. He was afterward transferred to Michigan City. He was t->nd ered a pardon by Governor Williams, but preferred prison confinement rather than liberty. He expressed a wisn that he might die in prison. Robinson was a familiar figure to all visitors at the prison. He wis a trusty—free to come and go as he willed. He is identified with its history. Ur. I. B. Washburn, handles the celebrated Tolley’s Kochinoor eye glasses, the best made. We invite attention to tbe ‘ad’ “Jee Again as in Youth,” in another column.

On the 27thof June, 1890, ccngress passed a law by which soldiers who served ninety days or more, and were honorably discharged, ahd who we e suffeiing from a mental or pliys'cal disorder of a permanent character, uot the re ult of their own vicious habits, which incapacitated them from tlie performance of manual labor in such a degree as to render them unable to earn a support, shall, upon making due proof of the fact, be plact d on the list oi iuvalid pensioners, and be entitled to receive a pension not exceeding sl2 a month and not Jess than‘s6 per month, proportionate to the degree oi debilitv to earn a support, etc. The rule established bv tbe commissioner of pensions after the passage of this law was such that a pensioner was rated on any a. d all disabilities which he had, and if such disabilities were rated at $2 and less than $6 they were added together and if all together th.ey amounted to $6 or moie a pensio" was granted. But under the ruling of assistant secretary Bussev of January 17,1893, the pensioner must have at least one debility thnt rates at $6 or more, nominal rates not being added togeiher to make a rate under the act.

Of course if this rule was good in 1893, it was good in 1890, when the liw was passed, but aidstaut secretary Bussey evid >ntlv had a purpose in view when he promulgated it at a time its opera, tion would -xtend to tbe democratic administration, causing thousands of pensioners to be dropped from the lolls. If the first interpretatio. of the law is correct the pensioners whose names will be dropped can blame only a republican official. If the last interpretation is correct then the first ruling by a republican official has taken many thousands of dollars out of the nation’s treasury, In either case it is a republican—not a democratic mistake.