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During the Administrations of Presidents Grant and Hayes, extending from 1869 to 1880, the number of pensions allowed was as follows:

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The number of pensions allowed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, including war 1812, (7), was as follows: Army, 54,852; Navy, 1,885; total, 56,737.

The amount paid for pensions during the Administrations of Presidents Grant and Hayes, extending from 1869 to 1880, was as follows:

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The amount paid for pensions during the fiscal year ending June

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Reinstatement of ex-Union soldiers to June 30, 1898:

Reinstatement of ex-Union soldiers in Bureau..
Reinstatement of ex-Union soldiers in agencies..

Promotions of ex-Union soldiers in Bureau.
Promotions of ex-Union soldiers in agencies.

Soldiers' widows reinstated

Soldiers' widows promoted

Orphans and relatives of soldiers reinstated and pro-
moted

121

18

139

261

18

279

58

64

It will be observed that more pensions for service in the war of the rebellion were allowed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, than were allowed for that service during the entire four years of General Grant's second term, and the entire Administration of President Hayes, and that the amount actually paid for Army and Navy Pensions during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, was largely in excess of the amount paid during either the first or second Administration of President Grant, and almost as much as was paid during the entire four years of President Hayes' Administration.

Work of the Pension Bureau.-Much has been said importing that the present Administration in its administration of the pension laws through the present Commissioner of Pensions, Hon. H. Clay Evans, has been and is unfriendly to the pension system and to the old soldiers and their widows and orphans. A certain class of pension agents and attorneys and Democrats (called statesmen) have been exceedingly busy spreading this report. For a year or more during the last of the Administration of President Cleveland pensioners were advised to hold back their claims pending the approaching election and to present and press claims for pension increases as soon as the new President (certain to be a Republican) should be inaugurated.

The result was that Commissioner Evans found the Bureau "swamped" under a mass of new applications. The eager and expectant applicants could brook no delay. They seemed to expect the immediate allowance of every claim filed, whether for original pension, increase, or restoration to the rolls. They did not pause to consider that such action would be impolitic, unwise, and unjust. The propriety and necessity of a thorough examination of each individual case was a consideration not to be entertained, and as a result there was considerable friction between pension attorneys and the Commissioner.

But the work of the Bureau, impeded as it is by the presence of many incompetent clerks placed there by a Democratic Administration, unfriendly to the old soldiers and to the pension system, has gone on unceasingly, laboriously, and faithfully. A comparison of work done and of results obtained under the last Administration and the present will best tell the story.

Comparison of pension claims allowed and disallowed for years 1894, 1895, and 1896, and 1897 (nine months only included).

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It thus appears that during each of the years 1894, 1895, and 1896, up to March, 1897, when President McKinley was inaugurated, the Democratic Administration was allowing original claims under the general law at the rate of 27 per day and rejecting such claims at the rate of 58 per day. It was allowing original claims under the act of 1890 at the rate of 111 per day and rejecting them at the rate of 143 per day.

Under both laws it was allowing 138 original claims per day and rejecting 201 per day.

The Republican Administration has been allowing original claims under the general law at the rate of 31 per day and rejecting at the rate of 41 per day. It has been allowing original claims

under the act of 1890 at the rate of 158 per day and rejecting at the rate of 90 per day.

Under both laws it has allowed 189 original claims per day and rejected 131 per day.

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The above figures relate simply to original claims adjudicated. Now let us take claims for increase.

The Democratic Administration allowed 35 claims for increase under the general law per day and rejected 69 per day. It allowed of claims for increase under the act of 1890, 10 per day and rejected 43 per day. In other words, it was allowing 45 increase claims per day and rejecting 112 per day.

The Republican Administration has been allowing 37 increase claims per day under the general law, and 28 per day under the act of 1890, a total of 65 per day, while it has rejected 44 increase claims under the general law per day and 41 of such claims under the act of 1890, a total of 85 per day.

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It is seen that while the Democratic Administration was adjudicating 496 claims per day, as against 470 per day adjudicated by

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