ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 229 



been impossible in many cases to prove up those claims. 

 Consequently a man who had had a claim filed under the 

 old law would change his application and accept a pen- 

 sion under the new law, such pension being limited to 

 $12 per month. This has been done in many cases where 

 the disability was actually contracted in the service and 

 in the line of duty. It was the purpose of the act of 1890 

 to enable claimants to do this. 



To illustrate : Only a short time ago a man came to see 

 me in regard to his pension application. He had lost one 

 of his eyes in the service, yet he could not prove that 

 fact. The injury was received from the explosion of a 

 shell at Cold Harbor ; but the exact circumstances of the 

 occurrence could not be proved, so far as his case was 

 concerned, because by that same shot fourteen of the fif- 

 teen men were killed or injured. The difficulty was to 

 prove which persons were injured by the explosion, and 

 the injury to his eye was slight in the beginning. This 

 man had endeavored to prove up his case under the old 

 law, but some of the witnesses were dead and others scat- 

 tered in various parts of the county, and he had not seen 

 them for thirty years. I said to him, "Simply put in 

 your application under the new law, and the pension of- 

 fice will give you a rating for the loss of your eye without 

 proof that the injury originated in the service." Yet 

 the man undoubtedly lost the sight of that eye by the ex- 

 plosion of a shell, although it was impossible for him to 

 prove it after so great a lapse of time. 



It was to cover cases of that kind that this law was 

 adopted; yet the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. DeAr- 

 mond) insists that we should first inquire in those cases 

 whether the individual who has suffered an injury is able 

 to support himself out of means which he may have ac- 

 cumulated, whether he is capable of earning a living in 

 some other way than by manual labor. If, for instance, 



