Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1897 — NEW PENSION RULING. [ARTICLE]

NEW PENSION RULING.

Slub Cast on Old Soldiers by the Pension Department. A Washington dispatch says that “a drastic ruling, until now secret, has been in force several days in the pension bureau to the effect that all ‘new disability cases, where a pensioner is now receiving a pension tor one disability and wants another, must be referred to a special field examiner to corroborate the evidences of the applicant and to look up the credibility of his comrades or neighbors who have acted as witnesses.’ casts A slur. ‘The old soldiers have not yet had a chance to criticise it, but in the office it has been the subject of much heated comment, where it is expected to prevent the granting of thousands ot pensions and de lay tens of thousands. It is also alleged that it casts a direct and unmistnkeable slur on tli3 credibility of old soldiers as witnesses. The at my physicians are nearly al) dead, yet the affidavit of the army physician who tr ated the soldier in the service is now practically essential.”