Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1878 — Annual Report of the Commissioner of Pensions. [ARTICLE]

Annual Report of the Commissioner of Pensions.

Hon. J. A. Bentley, Commissioner of Pensions, has completed his annual report to the Secretary of the Interior, showing the operations of the Pension Service during the fiscal year ended June 30, and making sundry recommendations for the future. A Washington dispatch gives the following synopsis: B The number of new claims of all classes filed during the year was 07,509. Of these, 18,812 were original claims for invalid pensions, being more than double the number of the same class filed in either of the four years from 1871 to 1874; 18,240 were for the War of 1812 service, under the act of March 9, 1878. About one-eighth of these claims were in behalf of survivors, the remainder were widows’ claims; 43,764 claims were settled, at an average cost to the Government of $10.15 per case. The average cost in 1877 was $ 12.8 b, and in 1870 $17.11. The saving through the increased efficiency of the office, including the reduction in the salary appropriation of $33,550 in 1877 over • 1870, was $183,050, and in 1878 over 1876, including the reduction in the salary fond of, $37,800, was $340,172.' The number of cases settled in 1877 was per cent, greater than in 1876, and in 1878, 50 per cent greater than in 1870. At the beginning of the year the number of agencies for paying pensions was, by order of the President, reduced from fifty-eight to eighteen, saving In salaries for the year $142,000. The aggregate saving in the bureau for the year In reduced payment for salaries of all descriptions, and reduction in the number of agencies, was $482,172; adding $180,050 for 1877, the aggregate saving for the two years in these items alone has been $002,222. On the 80th oi June, iB7B, there were 228,998 pensioners on the rolls, a reduction of 2,045 during the year. It is expected that the number ol pensioners will considerably increase during the current year, on account of the 1812 pensioners. Exclusive of the fees of Examining Surgeons, and the fees and salaries of Pension Agents, the amount paid for pensions during the year was $20,530,792. Of this amount, $940,901 was retained from the pensioners and paid to Claim Agents for their Some rather strange errors and anachronisms are committed by newspaper writers. The Times of this city recently located the Osborne House—the Isle of Wight residence of Queen Victoria—in Scotland. The same journal stated that Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, visited England and was decorated with the Order of the Garter by Henry r VIII. Sigismund was Emperor from 1410 till 1437. Henry VIII. reigned front 1509 till 1547. It is therefore impossible that Sigismund could have received the,. Order of the Garter from him. Henry VL was on the throne of England when Sigismund died. The Washington Past, in a recent editorial on -“Tne Begr Business,” says: “It is doubtful if the most ardent votaries known of the extreme antiquity of this beverage. Tacitus, who visited Germany at the time of Christ,” etc. Christ is said to have been crucified in the year 38, under the reign of Tiberius. Tacitus was born A- D. 55, when Nero wits Emperor of Rome, who was the third successor of Tiberius. It is always well to examine and compare the statements of some newspapers before yotl bet youff money on them.—iv. Y. Graphic. 4r The packing-boxes made in the United States in 1374 cost $12,000,000, and the lumber manufactured into wagons, agricultural implements, etc., was worth over $100,000,000. V - 7 \ If you do not want to be robbed of .your good name, do not have it printed on yous umbrella.— Camden Port,