Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1876 — Pension Report. [ARTICLE]

Pension Report.

Hon. J. A. Bentley, Commissioner of Pensions, has furnished to the Secretary of Utednteriqr the annual report exhibiting the operations of the Pension Bureau fbf thb last fiscal year: i It appears that the total number of pensioners on the roll June 80, 1876, was 234,821, or 2,684 less than the total number one year previous. The roll of army Invalid peri-' sloncrs was increased by the addition pf 2,912 names duringtha year, and numbered on the 30th of last June 105,478* The number of widows and minors on the roll decaased, 3,718, leaving 104,855 names. The' total number of the survivors of the war of 1812 borne on the roll at the close of the last fiscal year was 15,865, showing that 1,669 had died during the twelve motatns. The totm amount paid out for;pen«lofr during the year was 828,351,599, leasing a balance of about 81,650,000 not drawn from the appropriation. There were filed during the year 42,877 pensions claims of various character, original and for Increase es pensions, of which 17,541 were adjudicated by allowance, and 10,183 by rejection. Total 27,.588, or only sixty-four per cent of the number filed.

It also appears from the tables furnished by the Commissioner' that on the 30th of June last there was in his office 88,973 tin-' adjudicated claims, besides upward of, 60,000 so-called “rejected claims” pertaining to service In the late war, all of which are subject to be called up and reopened; 2,033 of this latter class weW-re-opened during the year; 19,2fi3 of the pend;, ing claims were filed prior to Jan* I,IBTK Commissioner Bentley remarkuthat nptk>n|y is this accumulation of claims afidiag'greatly to the labor of the office year by year, but the great delay in their settlement is, earn* ing much complaint, and In many cases is undoubtedly working hardship and to the claimants. He attributes this condition of affairs partly to the smallness df the force of the Bureau, partly to the total unfitness and inconvenience of the buildihgs occupied, until recently, by its clerks,, arfi, furthermore, to th? great delay in obtaining answers to calls upon the Surgeoti-tleneVal for the hospital histories of soldiers. He says the Surgeon-General’s s office lias fatten' so far behind on account of ; its small force, that on the 30th of June’ last there' Were 1 nearly 13,000 unanswered, icalls from the. Pension Bureau, with the number constantly increasing. . dtu u; - l-i The Commissioner reports, however, that, although these causes of delay may be re* moved, the present system- of adjudication is itself radically defective. When ap-' plied to cases involving dbscure questions of fact and of medical science, as was the case with some of theVarlieitelaittiS, - and is the case with most of those.of years, he says it provides for the settlement of claims upon ex-patte testimony exclusively, given by witnesses who are entirely unknown to the office, and whose affidavits are almost universally prepared by claim agents who can fecelve no compensation fdr* their services unless the- claim is allowed. : Moreover, the examining surgeon who certifies to the existence, character and degree of the disability is almost universally the neigh-, borhood practitioner, whose prof-kafOfial Interest is to plefide Mie claimant at tfce ex,, pense of the Government; so, not only Is the door thrown wide open for the perperra*tion of fraud and deception, but every interest connected wi|b the preparation of the case Is adverse to*'the Government Ti\« Commissioner says, in conclusion, that he Is. not/now prepared to submit a plan to remedy the evils of the,-present system, but will make it the subject of a future communication.