Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1879 — Pension Report. [ARTICLE]

Pension Report.

Washington, November 21. J. A. Bentley, Commissioner of Pensions, has completed his annual report to’ the Secretary of the Interior. It shows that on the 30th of June last there were 212,755. persons in the United States receiving pensions from the i Government. The pension-list is now larger than at any previous time. The present list is' composed of 11’5,150 army invalid pensioners, 81,174 anny widows, children and dependent relatives, 1,844 navy invalids, 1,772 navy .widows, etc., 11,621 surviving soldiers of the war of 1872, and 21,194 widows of deceased soldiers of that war. During the year 31,346 new .dames were added to the list, and 908 names which had previouslybeen dropped from the rolls, mainly from failure for three years to claim their pensions, were restored, and 13,497 were,'for various reasons, dropped. The aggregate amount of one year’s pension to all pensioners on the rolls is $25,491,742.15, but the actual annual payment exceeds that sum by several million dollars. This arises from the fact that nearly all the newly-admit-ted army and navy cages have several years’ accrued pension due at the time of admission, which is paid at, the first payment. During the year the first payment to new pensioners amounted to $5,763,758, of which $4,375,147 was paid to army and navy invalid widows, etc., and $7,388,611 to survivors and widows of the war of 1812. The first payment of pensioners of the war of 1812 will rapidly fall off, while a material increase may be expected in the army and navy cases for several years, owing to the removal of the limitation upon the commencement of pensions by tho acts of Jan. 25 and March 3, 1879. The above-named acts were passed after the estimates for the pensions for the fiscal year ending June 30,1880, were submitted, and were not, therefore, taken into account when the appropriation was made, and there will be a deficiency in the pension appropriation for the current year, as nearly as can now be estimated, as follows: $5,000,000 army pensions and $:»,000 navy pensions, which should be provided for, in order that the pensions for the June quarter may be promptlypaid. There were on the 30th of June 136,645 unsettled claims for arrears, an increase over last year of 16,258. To them areto be added about 40,000 old claims which were revived by the Arrears act of January 25, 1879, or called up from the rejected flies since that date, for further consideration, and these, with the new claims filed since the close of the year in excess of the number settled, added to the number shown by the record, will aggregate fully 200.000. Since the passage of the Arrears act new Invalid, widows, minor children and dependent relatives' claims have been filed at an unprecedented rate, the invalid claims being more than double the rate of the receipts at any previous period except in 1866, and the widows’ class exceeds any year since 1867, and twice as numerous as any year since 1871. It is estimated that at the close of the year there will be not less than 250,000 unsettled cases before the office. An examination into the papers in the cases of 500 pensioners whose names have been dropped from the rolls within the last three years and four months, because the pensions have been obtained by fraud, shows the following: 229 invalids established their cases by producing 1,581 affidavits and certificates, of which 1,233 were false. Of the latter, 391 were made by officers, 179 by comrades, and 763 by other persons. Two hundred and seventy-one pensions of widows, minor children and dependent relatives were established and allowed upon 2,816 certificates and affidavits, of which 1,850 were false. Ninetyfive of the latter were made by officers, 6# by comrades and 1.667 by other persons. It is also ascertained that at least 96 forgeries were committed in the 500 cases. There hud been paid to these pensioners before the discovery of their frauds $547,225. —lrish wit is certainly inimitable. It is like a flash of brilliancy which lights up the surrounding gloom and leaves a pleasant remembrance of itself behind. A son of the Green Isle stood on the highway looking on a comrade who was lying helpless through drink. The day was hot, and, as the Irishman wiped his forehead, he said sadly, “ Ah, my boy, I wish I had’just half of your disease.”— N. Y. Herald. —There is no drug which equals the soporific power of a sermon that is too long.— N.. Y. Herald,