OCR Text |
Show WASHINGTON LETTER. (From our regular correspondent.) The debate upon the provisions of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Appropriation bill has shed some light on the pension question. The committee, in framing the bill, have undertaken so to increase the number of clerks employed, directly or indirectly, on pension cases that the claims will be adjudicated within three years from July 1st, 1882. There were 268,551 of these claims pending undetermined on April 1st, and with the present number of clerks it would take eight years to dispose of them. The committee provide in the bill for increasing the number of clerks employed in the pension bureau from 742 to 1659; the number in the Surgeon General's Office from 257 to 766; the number in the Adjutant General's office from 423 to 500, and for the addition of 60 clerks in other offices where a small part of the work is done. The additional annual cost of these clerks will be $4,732,430. The greater part of this sum will be expended in the Pension Bureau, where the cost of clerical work will be raised from $898,530 to $1,881,950, or more than doubled. It has been proposed by some to add a sufficient number of clerks to dispose of all the claims in one year instead of three, but it has been found that no more additional clerks than those provided in the bill can work upon the records to advantage, because there is only one copy of the records which these clerks must ??. It was thought that those records might be duplicated by photolithography, but an expert declared that their condition would not allow this. In order that fraudulent claims may not be allowed, the committee provide for 250 special examiners whose duty it will be to go to the homes of claimants and examine witnesses. It is estimated that each of these agents can examine 252 claims a year, or 63,000 a year in all. According to the estimate of the Commissioner there will be needed for the payment of pension claims during the next four years a sum equal to exactly one-fourth of the present amount of the national debt-$427,000,000. There has been much outcry ?? the arrears of pensions act of Congress, because of the heavy draft upon the Treasury, but it comes mostly from organs of corporations or ?? interests who went everything themselves. The great majority of people agree that the money is far better expended in this way than if given to subsidy schemes and the lobby, as millions have been heretofore. If those who denounce the extravagance of this measure would turn their attention to the River and Harbor bill and the reckless appropriations for the construction of public buildings there would be some method in their madness. Nearly $10,000,000 will be voted for these two objects this year, a large proportion of which is actually thrown away. The increasing proportions of the river and harbor bill really excites less apprehension among thoughtful people here. This annual humbug started with a modest two millions in 1870 and in twelve years has come up to about twenty millions. As reported to the House June 1st, the aggregate amount called for was $1,342,875; but several jobs are to be added, so that the total will reach $12,000,000 by the time it gets through both houses. Nearly every Congressman wants a hack at it, and as the whole thing is ?? on the principle of you help me and I'll help you, no addition can be refused, and increases the number of votes and helps to rush the scheme through under suspension of the rules, without debate. Just think what it will be in the next Congress when we have thirty-two additional members come in for their share of the "creeks" and damp places to be improved. The President it is said look cross wise at this sort of thing, and there is a bare possibility that his conscience may prompt him to veto the bill. With most people the Morey letter is a thing out of mind, and the true ?? of that affair or its authorship have been given up as a conundrum too hard to guess. But little Johnny Davenport has continued through all this time to occupy himself with efforts to solve the mystery. Perhaps he hasn't much else to do, and, according to all accounts, it pays him well. He was here recently on his return from Cumberland, where he thought he had a clue, but the result of which was not very satisfactory. A prominent member of the National Republican Committee who was here a day or two ago expressed the belief that Mr. Davenport had spent in the neighborhood of $20,000 on this investigation; that the national committee had advanced him various sums aggregating in all about $13,000, and had then thought it time to stop, as there seemed to be nothing in it. After the national committee ceased its contributions Mr. Davenport applied for and resolved several thousand dollars additional from the Congressional committee and from private parties, and he is apparently no nearer any discovery of consequence than he was when he commenced. Dom Pedro. Washington, D. C. June 16th, 1882. |