Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1877.djvu/42

XL while 46 cases are in the hands of various United States attorneys undisposed of and awaiting action.

It is estimated that the sum of $28,000,000 will be necessary for the pension service during the ensuing fiscal year.

The plan proposed by the Commissioner for the more prompt and efficient settlement of pension claims is worthy of special consideration.

Under the present system pension claims are adjusted on ex-parte testimony, given by witnesses unknown to the office, and whose affidavits are generally prepared by attorneys dependent for their fees upon a successful prosecution of the case. Testimony thus procured is too often colored to suit the facts necessary to be established, and where the proof involves a question of sequel to disabilities incurred in the service, it has been found very unreliable as a basis for correct judgment.

The Commissioner proposes to substitute for this unreliable system, with its 1,578 examining-surgeons, necessarily differing in medical skill and judgment, a corps of salaried surgeons, distributed throughout the country, each surgeon assisted by a competent clerk, to be assigned to a given district. Their duties will be to make a personal examination of each case referred to them, examine claimants and witnesses, and transmit the result to the office. The Commissioner gives it as his opinion that by this system a more prompt and just settlement of claims would be secured, and by a proper rating of pensioners a large saving of money would be effected.

The magnitude of the interests involved and the importance of securing speedy adjustment of claims now largely in arrears would appear to call for some radical change in the present defective system of examinations. As the plan proposed by the Commissioner of Pensions is urged not only on the ground of administrative economy, but as a measure of justice to deserving pension-claimants, I earnestly commend it to the attention of Congress.

The Commissioner also recommends amendments to certain sections of the Revised Statutes relating to the payment of pensions. As the changes proposed are for the purpose of removing certain hardships which the present laws inflict, I fully agree with the recommendation.

The consolidation of pension-agencies, in conformity to the President's order of May 7, appears to have been successfully accomplished without inconvenience to the government or the pensioners.

The Commissioner reports prompt payments at nearly all the agencies, and expresses the belief that by a consolidation of the rolls on a uniform plan — and to secure which steps have already been taken — payments even more prompt can be made in the future.

The necessary suspension of the agent at New Orleans on the eve of a payment and the appointment and qualification of his successor caused a delay in payments at that agency. Aside from this, the practical results of the consolidation have been highly gratifying, the saving in