Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1896 — REPORT ON PENSION AFFAIRS [ARTICLE]

REPORT ON PENSION AFFAIRS

Assistant secretary of the Interior Reviews the Work. The report of Assistant Secretary of the Interior Reynolds for t\e present year shows the policy pursued* in the admi'fiistration of pension affairs. The Assistant Secretary says: “The liberal and generous spirit which prompted the enactment of the pension laws has been the guide of the department in their construction. Former' adjudications have not been disturbed, save when fraud, error in law or mistake was apparent.’Figures are cited to show the significant reduction of pending eases and to demonstrate that, for the first time in eight years, the work of the office during the last year was devoted to considering current appeals. The action of the Commissioner of Pensions was reversed in 2,000 of the cases ruled. Suggestion is again made as to the advisability of such legislation as will lodge in the Federal Courts the right of any one, on behalf of the Government, to ask better protection to the pension fund of those laboring under legal disabilities. ; 1 _ It is suggested that justice demands the universal application of the common-law rule in proof of marriage. State laws govern, ami lead to denial of title in cases which are equally meritorious. It is claimed pensionable rights of minor children, whose claims come under the act of June 27, 1890, should be defined with more certainty where the soldier dies leaving no widow surviving. The act of Aug. 5, 1892, relates to pensionable title of those women who served as nurses during the war of the rebellion. Title is confined to those who served in regimental, post, camp or general hospital. The refusal of the War Department to recognize' those as properly employed who served in the first three classes mentioned tends to defeat their title and renders this jjortion of the act nugatory. Attention is invited to this in order that proper legislation may be enacted to relieve any deserving claimants of an unjust and unintentional discrimination.