CONGRESS. (PENSIONS.) 



187 



support by labor. It seems to me that the "sup- 

 port " here mentioned as one which can not be earned, 

 is a complete and entire support, with no diminution 

 on account of the least impairment of physical or 

 mental condition. If it had been intended to embrace 

 only those who by disease or injury were totally una- 

 ble to labor, it would have been very easy to express 

 that idea, instead of recognizing as is done a " de- 

 gree" of such inability. 



What is a support ? Who is to determine whether 

 a man earns it or has it or has it not? Is the Gov- 

 ernment to enter the homes of claimants for pension, 

 and after an examination of their surroundings ana 

 circumstances settle those questions ? Shall the Gov- 

 ernment say to one man that his manner of subsist- 

 ence by his" earnings is a support, and to another that 

 the things his earnings furnish are not a support ? 

 Any attempt, however honest, to administer this law 

 in such a manner would necessarily produce more 

 unfairness and unjust discrimination and give more 

 scope for partisan partiality, and would result in more 

 perversion of the Government's benevolent inten- 

 tions, than the execution of any statute ought to per- 

 mit. 



If in the effort to carry out the proposed law, the 

 degree of-disability as related to earnings, be consid- 

 ered for the purpose of discovering if in any way it 

 curtails the support which the applicant if entirely 

 sound would earn, and to which lie is entitled, we 

 enter the broad field long occupied by the Pension 

 Bureau, and we recognize as the only difference be- 

 tween the proposed legislation and previous laws 

 passed for the benefit of the surviving soldiers of the 

 civil war, the incurrence in one case of disabilities in 

 military service, and in the other disabilities existing 

 but in no way connected with or resulting from such 

 service. 



It must be borne in mind that in no case is there 

 any grading of this proposed pension. Under the 

 operation of the rule first suggested, if there is a lack 

 in any degree, great or small, of the ability to earn 

 such a support as the Government determines the 

 claimant should have, and by the application of the 

 rule secondly suggested, if there is a reduction in any 

 degree of the support which he might earn if sound, 

 he is entitled to a pension of f 12. 



In the latter case, and under the proviso of the pro- 

 posed bill, permitting persons now receiving pensions 

 to be admitted to the benefits of the act. I do not see 

 how those now on the pension-roll for disabilities in- 

 curred in the service, and which diminish their earn- 

 ing capacity, can be denied the pension provided in 

 this bill. " 



Of course none will apply who are now receiving 

 $12 or more per month. "But on the 30th day of 

 June, 1888, there were on the pension-rolls 202,621 

 persons who were receiving fifty-eight different rates of 

 pension from $1 to $11.75 per month. Of these, 28,- 

 142 were receiving $2 per month; 63,11*5, $4 per 

 month ; 37,254, $6 per month ; and 50,274, whose 

 disabilities were rated as total, $8 per month. 



As to the meaning of the section of the bill under 

 consideration there appears to have been quite a dif- 

 ference of opinion among its advocates in the Con- 

 gress. The chairman of the Committee on Pensions 

 in the Flouse of Representatives, who reported the 

 bill, _ declared that there was in it no provision for 

 pensioning any one who has a less disability than a 

 total inability to labor, and that it was a charity meas- 

 ure. The chairman of the Committee on Pensions in 

 the Senate, having charge of the bill in that body. 

 dissented from the construction of the bill announced 

 in the House of Representatives, and declared that it 

 not only embraced all soldiers totally disabled, but in 

 his judgment all who are disabled to any considerable 

 extent; and such a construction was substantially 

 given to the bill by another distinguished Senator 

 who, as a former Secretary of the Interior, had im- 

 posed upon him the duty of executing pension laws 

 and determining their intent and meaning. 



Another condition required of claimants under this 

 act is that they shall be ' dependent upon their daily 

 labor for support." 



This language, which may be said to assume that 

 there exists within the reach of the persons mentioned 

 "labor," or the ability in some degree to work, is 

 more aptly used in a statute describing those not 

 wholly deprived of this ability, than in one which 

 deals with those utterly unable to work. 



I am of the opinion that it may fairly be contended 

 that under the provisions of this section any soldier, 

 whose faculties of mind or body have become im- 

 paired by accident, disease, or age, irrespective of his 

 service in the army as a cause, and who by his labor 

 only is left incapable of gaining the fair support he 

 might with unimpaired powers have provided for 

 himself, and who is not so well endowed with this 

 world's goods as to live without work, may claim to 

 participate in its bounty ; that it is not required that 

 he should be without property, but only that labor 

 should be necessary to his support in some degree ; 

 nor is it required that he should be now receiving 

 support from others. 



Believing this to be the proper interpretation of the 

 bill, 1 can not but remember that the soldiers of our 

 civil war, in their pay and bounty, received such 

 compensation for military service as has never been 

 received by soldiers before, since mankind first went 

 to war ; that never before, on behalf of any soldiery, 

 have so many and such generous laws been passed to 

 relieve against the incidents of war; that statutes 

 have been passed giving them a preference in all pub- 

 lic employments; that^the really needy and home- 

 less Union soldiers of the rebellion have been, to a 

 large extent, provided for at soldiers' homes, insti- 

 tuted and supported by the Government, where they 

 are maintained together, free from the sense of degra- 

 dation which attaches to the usual support of charity ; 

 and that never before in the history of the country 

 has it been proposed to render Government aid to- 

 ward the support of any of its soldiers based alone 

 upon a military service so recent, and where age and 

 circumstances appeared so little to demand such aid. 



Hitherto such relief has been granted to surviving 

 soldiers few in number, venerable in age, after a long 

 lapse of time since their military service, and as a 

 parting benefaction tendered by a grateful people. 



I can not believe that the vast peaceful army of 

 Union soldiers, who have contentedly resumed their 

 places in the ordinary avocations of life cherish as 

 sacred the memory of patriotic service, or, who hav- 

 ing been disabled by the casualties of war justly re- 

 gard the present pension-roll, on which appear their 

 names, as a roll of honor, desire at this time and in 

 the present exigency, to be confounded with those 

 who through such a bill as this are willing to be ob- 

 jects of simple charity and to gain a place upon the 

 pension-roll through alleged dependence. 



Recent personal observation and experience con- 

 strain me to refer to another result which will inevi- 

 tably follow the passage of this bill. It is sad but 

 nevertheless true that already in the matter of pro- 

 curing pensions there exists a wide-spread disregard 

 of truth and good faith, stimulated by those who as 

 agents undertake to establish claims for pensions, 

 heedlessly entered upon by the expectant beneficiary, 

 and encouraged or at least not condemned by those 

 unwilling to obstruct a neighbor's plans. 



In the execution of this proposed law under any in-i 

 terpretation, a wide field of inquiry would be opened 

 for the establishment of facts largely within the 

 knowledge of the claimants alone ; ana there can be 

 no doubt that the race after the pensions offered by 

 this bill would not only stimulate weakness and pre- 

 tended incapacity for labor, but put a further premi- 

 um on dishonesty and mendacity. 



The effect of new invitations to apply for pensions, 

 or of new advantages added to causes for pensions 

 already existing, is sometimes startling. 



Thus in March, 1879, largo arrearages of pensions 



