Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1893 — PENSION RULINGS. [ARTICLE]

PENSION RULINGS.

Four Important Decisions by Assistant Secretary Reynolds. Assistant Secretary of the Interior Reynolds made four important pension rulings, Wednesday. He decided that the act of Congress- prohibiting payment of pensions after J uiy, 1893, to a nonresident of the United States, except for actual disabilities, applies to widows who are nonresident aliens; that where a soldier dies leaving a legally divorced wife and minor children over sixteen years old his mother occupies a pensionable status and can apply for and receive a pension as dependent mother of such soldier upon making necessary proof, and that where an s Invalid pensioner die 9 leaving no increase or relating claim pending at the bureau, but has accepted the rate of pension then received, without demurring, the widow can not file an original claim forre-rating of her dead husband’s pension. It Is also decided that the Commissioner of Pensions has no authority to change terms of contract for pension attorneys’ fees where the contract with claimant was in accordance with law, nor can he refuse to issue a pension to a claimant because the allowance is insufficient to pay the fee contracted for. Certificates must issue, irrespective of the amount due.