People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — PENSION LAWS. [ARTICLE]

PENSION LAWS.

Some Needed Changes Sugrested by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior. ' r ( Washington, Not. 24.—The annual. report of Cyrus Bussey, assistant of the interior, haj been received by Secretary Noble. The leport is summarized as follow* July 1, 1881, there were 5,0® appealed pension cases on file with the board, and tils number June 30, 1802, had been reduced to <348. There were 4,258 appeals filed during the year. Of the 48® cases acted upon during the year the decision of the commissioner was sustained in 8,865. Action was reversed in 464 cases, 201 were dismissed and 400 eases were reconsidered by the commissioner pending appeal There are several defects in pension legislation. Frem an early date in the history of our pension system there have prevailed under different administrations conflicting opinions as to the power to enforce the reimbursement of ■toney paid in excess for pensions in conformity with either inaccurate or Illegal certificates issued through mistakes, either of fact or of law, in the adjudication of claims by the bureau of 1 pensions. Consequently the government has been compelled to submit to serious losses of money, which, having ence been improperly paid either to claimants or pensioners, were irrecoverable under any established rule of departmental practice.

In the list of applications for widows* pensions under section 3of the act of June 27, 1880, my attention has been drawn to a number of cases wherein, according to the law, the claimant has been necessarily denied a pension because the soldier on whose death the claim was based, although serving “ninety days or more in the army or navy” as shown by the evidence, had not been “honorably discharged" prior to death, but had died while, for instance, on individual furlough and absent from the technical line of duty in the service. It seems that beth the spirit and the object of the act of June 27,1890, would be emphasized and observed by an amendment of this section that would be applicable to such meritorious cases of dependence and distress. The third section of the act of June 27, 1890, which provides pension for minor children who are “insane, idiotic, or otherwise permanently helpless,” properly provides that thepension granted to such children shall continue during the life of said child or during the period of such disability; but under the law as it stands, in order that such children shall be pensioned during lifo or during the period of such disability, it must appear that the father or the mother died prior to the expiration of the limit affixed to the pensionable minority period, viz.: 16 years of age, and therefore if, when the parent dies, the insane or idiotic or otherwise permanently helpless child is more than instead of under 16 years of age, a minor’s pension cannot be allowed. In view of this fact I respectfully suggest that the act should be so amended as to admit all insane, jldlotic, or otherwise permanently helpless children to minor's pension, regardless of the date of the parent's death or remarriage, at any period prior to and including the age of 21 years. I am gratified to be able to say that the pledge of the nation (expressed a century ago) that “if any person, whether officer or soldier, militia or regular, called into the service of the United States, be wounded or disabled while in actual service, he shall be taken care of and provided for at public expense,” has been redeemed with fidelity. In compliance with the provisions of the various pension laws, June 30, 1892, there was borne on the pension rolls the names of 865,087 pensioners, 179,928 more pensioners than were carried on the same rolls at the end of the preceding fiscal year, and 457,050 more than were on the rolls June 30, 1887. Gen. Bussey calls attention to tha fact that the appropriation bill for the Indian service is usually passed so late in the year that it seems impossible to let contracts for supplies in time for delivery before winter sets in, and this, especially as to blankets and winter clothing, has caused much suffering. He recommends that the appropriation for these supplies be made one year ahead.