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Show fel INFORMATION ON ! PENSIONS FOR VETERANS Ht - i aaaRv ' Senator IXeed Hmoot Anitwcrs Kany yjf. Inqtrlrlea for Benefit of '' I'etlUoaen. ! W j MIIS. COHEN MEETS H PATHRTIO CASKS Vi Liberal .Interpretation of Department I, . .May Overcome PomIdIo ". r Injustice Jamos Mctkle, pioneer and Indian war veteran of Smithfield, was In Logan yesterday and paid a visit to f this office, bringing an article which appeared In the Deseret News of Saturday Sat-urday evening. Mr. Melklo is of tho opinion thrft thore are Indian war veterans vet-erans moro desorving than those of y tho Dlnck Hawk war, and If those are not Included In tho pension act 1 ) of March, 1917, then amendment should be mado whereby theso dlserv-i dlserv-i lng fighters should bo pensioned by Uncle Sam. . Tho article from tho Nows Is here ' glvon In full: Specific Information which sho j considers very vnluablo to every 8 Indian war veteran of Utah, whether i ho fought in tho Block Hawk up- ' ' rising, or previously, Is contained In I n letter received by Mrs. Elizabeth I M. Cohen, Utah commissioner of pon- q ' slons, from Senator Heed Smoot. W Senator Smoot says that while the a ? now well known "Miscellaneous Doc ument No. 19," may bo UBcd ns evidence evi-dence that a claimant Is entitled to n pension, or tho records compiled ! a fow years ngo by tho Utah com- , mission may bo similarly, treated, absence of a name from either of theso two complications docs not ncc-1 ncc-1 j essarlly bar a person from receiving I t ? j n pension. Ho takca tho position jjV that tho proper thing to do is to for-in for-in ward a statement or claim to tho bull bu-ll i ' reau of pensions, and let tho com- II mlsBloner mako his ruling on it. Hi Mrs. Cohen's Inquiry. H i Mrs. Cohen in a letter to Senator D ) Smoot dated May S, naked" It it wcr H 1 final that mlscellancouB. document M J No. 19 would bo mado the 'basis for Kj3 proof of service. J "V-i H "Thcro are ninny pathetic cases.on H fllo In thU office," she wrote, "and H since coming here, my experience Is H- that document No. 19, Is Incomplete; H entire companies are omitted from HJ tho book. I have seennevoral mus- H ter rolls yellow with "ngo some in- M i eluding minutes of each day's pro- ll ceedlngs nnd they nro not listed in 1.1 ' document No. 19." 1! ? Mrs. Cohon nlso nsked as to H . whether a pension ngent would bo W sent to Utah to Investigate; wheth- ivi or discrimination would bo mado in U ' favor of tho expeditionary companies, f and no consideration bo given to tho ! home gunrds; nnd relntlvo to the status of n veteran's widow v. ho had I1 married again, and was again a widow. wid-ow. Senator Bmoot's reply fallows: "Washington, D. C, May 14, 1917? "Mrs. Elisabeth M.( Cohen, Commissioner Com-missioner of Pensions for Utah. "Salt 'Lake City, Utah. "IHar.Mrs. .Cohen: "I an just In receipt of your letter let-ter of May8, 1917, and have aent you under separata cover '100 application" appli-cation" blanks for Black Hawk war veterans and 100 for widows of veterans. vet-erans. Yon state you would Ilka to know If a final decision has boen arrived ar-rived at that miscellaneous document docu-ment No. 19 will bo made iho basis for proof of service. "In answer will state that the commissioner of pensions tins not positively stated that he would accept ac-cept docamont No. 19 as ovldenco, but woo Inclined to do so. I have been working with the commissioner with n view to getting him to accept as evidence miscellaneous document No. 19, but in doing so, that does not bar any veteran from offering nny other ovldonce that he may find In tho archives of the Btate as provided pro-vided for In the bill. I have Instructed Instruct-ed all tho veterans who havo written writ-ten to me, whoso names are not found In document No. 19, or whoso names aro not included In the list prepared by tho committee appointed by tho state legislature, to file their claims and let the Uepartment pubs -upon tho questions as to whether they nro entitled en-titled to n pension or not. "Whenever thero Is a question of tho right of an applicant to secure a peiiBlon, n pension agent will be sent to Utah to investigate tho case. "You will notice that tho law Includes In-cludes tho surviving widows of said officers nnd enlisted men who shall havo marrled-sald survivor prior to tho passage of this act, provided that such widows havo not roniarrlcd. "Shortly ntter I wns elected senator sen-ator from the state of Utnh, I secured permission from the' war department to copy a list or tho names of the vct-r erans of the Walker war nnd took stops to seeuro n pension for them. It developed thnt scarcely a third of tho names of those who took part In tho war could be found upon the records, and tho lnw granting them a pension specifically Btated that their service must be nt least 30 days, nnd that tho government had recognized their service by payment for It. Thero hns been an awful Injustice In-justice dono to many of the Walkor war veterans. I am In hopes that the law will bo construed liberally as affecting the lllnck Hawk Indian veterans, and that all who nro entitled enti-tled to a pension will secure it. "With very best wishes, I remain, "Yours truly, "ItEED SMOOT." Many Inquiries Itohelvcil. In this connection It Is to bo noted that this letter answers many Inqulr-1 les that have reached the office of I Mrs. Cohen. One came frornlWUIlam O'Neill, of Iloosevelt, former rere-sentatlve rere-sentatlve In the stats legislature, to tko effect that ho bad been asked by several Indian war veterans as to what was the proper court of action for them to pursne. He further asserts as-serts that there are several veterans Jn that county who now aro able to .prove their service, but who .were not able to do so for various reasons when the state commission was In that county. ? Letters are still arriving from would-b claimants stating that persons per-sons Are charging as1 high as "$10 for" 10 minutes' work" for filing out application blanks for' veterans or their widows who could 111 afford such an outlay. Mrs. Cohen reiterates reiter-ates that she will fill out all blanks free of chargo that are sent to her with the data, and will also relieve tho claimant of even the notary public's pub-lic's fee, usually CO or 76 cents, If tho claimant appears before her personally per-sonally In her office at the capltol. |