enty-nine years; mothers of the late war, seventy-five years; pensioners of wars prior to 1861, eighty-two years. The general average of all was sixty-seven years, which may be taken to establish pretty fairly the average duration of the lives of pensioners now borne upon the rolls.

AVERAGE LENGTH OF SERVICE OF PENSIONERS.

In this connection I mention another interesting fact. Beginning with the 1st day of November, 1887, and ending the 30th day of June, 1888, I directed the chief of the Certificate Division to prepare a daily statement which would show the number of each kind of original pen. sion granted and the average length of service for which such original pension was granted. The result is exhibited in the table here inserted. It shows that the average pensioner served more than two years before being disabled by disease or wounds.

Statement showing number and kind of pension granted and average length of service.

(1) There survive thirty-seven revolutionary pensioners, being the widows of men who served in that war. There are no survivors of that war. Three persons have been pensioned by special act, as the descendants of soldiers of the Revolutionary war.

(2) There are 11,593 pensioners of the war of 1812, 806 being survivors, and 10,787 being widows.

(3) There are 21,164 pensioners of the war with Mexico; 16,060 survivors, and 5,104 widows.

(4) There are 419,763 pensioners of the war of the rebellion, of whom 326,835 are soldiers and sailors, and the remainder are widows and dependents.

For full information as to the first three classes above named, reference is hereby made to table No. 5 of this report.

ACT OF JUNE 7, 1888.

Following the precedent of proceedings under the acts of March 19, 1886, and August 4, 1886, notice was published to all parties concerned that no application of a formal nature need be filed, nor attorneys em ployed to secure the benefits of the act of June 7, 1888, providing for the payment to the widows for the full period of time which had elapsed between the deaths of their husbands and the dates of the commencement of the pensions they were then enjoying. The success attending the execution of the acts above recited had become so generally known that the request for forbearance under the latter act has been exten

sively complied with. The beneficiaries contemplated by said act seemed to believe that the Government would do what it promised without their interposition by correspondence. The result has up to this time been satisfactory, and a great number of the cases provided for under the act has already been adjusted.

The cost of the execution of this law can not as yet be determined, although it will be found to be relatively small.

SPECIAL ACTS.

After due advisement it has seemed to me my duty to report to you publicly and in this formal manner the method which from the beginning has been pursued in regard to Special Acts, and also to state the results thereof. Upon the receipt at the Executive Mansion of a special act granting pension it is referred through the office of the Secretary of the Interior to the Commissioner of Pensions, whose duty it is to present for the consideration of the Executive all the facts, favorable and unfavorable, shown in the records and files of the Bureau of Pensions concerning such case. To this end the Commissioner employs the services of the chiefs of the Boards of Review and Re-review, and under them four men from among the most highly trained and best-equipped in the office, whose sole duty in connection with the cases is to present an impartial, colorless, and accurate brief of all the matter in evidence and every substantial averment of the claimant and every part of his military record. To this end calls are made upon the Adjutant-General and Surgeon-General for their reports, to complete the military history of the claimant, if such history is not already in the case; the claimant's own declaration is briefed and every statement that he has made in his own behalf is set forth. The substantial evidence in support thereof is added, as well as that which is adverse thereto.

These reports are fully examined by the chiefs of the Boards of Review and Re-review, to the end that errors may be corrected. The briefs thus prepared are transcribed and submitted to the Commissioner of Pensions, who examines them with a view, first, to the correction of any error; next, to indicate the complexion of the case under the general law, and to state whether the action of the office on the case, if any has been taken, had been right according to the general law; next, to indicate whether in his judgment the case is one based on equitable grounds, as shown by the whole of the evidence, including the military record and history of the claimant. In this work he is aided by the counsel and presence of the chiefs, two of the oldest and most trusted employés in this branch of the civil service. The clerks who prepare the brief of facts are old and new men, selected for fidelity, capacity, and integrity. When this work is so done it is forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior, and by that official to the President.

The annexed table will show the total number of all special pension acts which have become laws since the year 1861 and the time at which they were enacted:

I submit herewith a statement of private pension acts disapproved by the Executive from March 4, 1885, to August 15, 1888, inclusive, showing the grounds for the adverse action, and date of the original rejections in the Bureau of Pensions.

Total number of special pension acts vetoed..

Number of said vetoes in the interests of the claimants and based upon the fact that the claimants would be entitled to greater amounts under the general law than they would have received under the special acts (and the amount paid to said applicants aggregated $17,249, much of which has been paid the widows and dependent children of said soldiers)...

Number of such cases in which the disapproval was based upon or contained the charge of desertion or dishonorable discharge from the military service of the United States.....

Number of cases (dependent fathers) in which the disapproval was based upon the grounds that the fathers abandoned their sons while said sons were infants, and never resumed the care or custody of the sons, nor did they manifest any interest in them until after their death, when they became applicants for pension.....

Number of cases vetoed upon the ground that the bills were duplicates of acts already passed by Congress, being precisely the same special acts already approved by the Executive and in full force and effect. One of said original acts was passed by the Forty-ninth and one by the Fiftieth Congress.... Number of said acts disapproved upon the grounds that the death-cause was suicide and had no connection with the military service of the United States..... Number of acts vetoed on the ground that the soldiers' disabilities or deaths were in nowise due to the service, but arose from causes entirely distinct therefrom......

191

17

12

2

2

7

121

Number of acts vetoed upon the ground that they were already pending in the Pension Bureau, that many of them involved the question of arrears, that it would be a manifest injustice to conclude the claimants' rights to arrears or to issue pension certificate until the cases were established, and that there seemed to be no disposition upon the part of the officials in charge of the Bureau of Pensions to either delay the cases or to decide them adversely and improperly. 17 Number of cases vetoed for the reason that they affixed no rate, and that the claimants were now receiving pensions commensurate with the degree of disability found to exist on examination by competent boards of surgeons, and that the approval of the acts could in nowise benefit the claimants. (In four of these cases the hightest rates given by the law were already being paid.).. Number of cases vetoed upon the ground that there was no dependence shown by the evidence on file.......

Number of cases vetoed on the ground that the bill sought to set aside the limitation fixed by the law of 1879, governing the question of arrears, and which

9

2

applied to all other claimants who had filed their applications since the 1st day of July, 1880. (In this case soldier is in receipt of $50 per month under a subsequent special act which was allowed to become a law.)............................ Vetoed upon the ground that the beneficiary was dead at the time of the passage of the act and hence the act was nugatory..........

DATES OF REJECTION.

1

1

Ninety-three of the claims involved in said acts had been rejected by the Bureau of Pensions prior to the 1st day of July, 1885. Fifty-four of them were rejected subsequent to that time. Three were rejected both before and after the 1st of July, 1885. Thirty were pending and undisposed of in the Bureau of Pensions at the times of the vetoes, and no applications had been filed in eleven.

Rejected prior to July 1, 1885.

RECAPITULATION.

Rejected subsequent to July 1, 1885.

Rejections priɔr and subsequent to July 1, 1885, (double).
Pending at time of veto

No. applications filed at time of veto

DIVISION REPORTS.

I append the various reports of the chiefs of the several divisions. They present in detail an account of the work done in the Bureau of Pensions during the fiscal year. The condition of affairs exhibited by said reports is very satisfactory. The following facts selected from said reports are particularly presented. Each report, however, will repay perusal, and it is only by an examination of them that a full comprehension can be reached of the present condition of affairs in this Bureau.

MAIL DIVISION.

The report of the chief of the Mail Division shows that in one day 14,000 letters have been received for answer; 64,000 in one week; 260,000 in one month; and 2,698,000 in the year.

For handling this great correspondence in the Mail Division the force of clerks has been diminished and not increased.

Ninety-four thousand Congressional letters have been received in the course of the year. Two thousand five hundred and seventy-one dollars and fifty-one cents in money and checks have been received by mail and all properly applied.

THE RECORD DIVISION.

The report of the chief of the Record Division will show that during the year 47,349 applications for original invalid pensions were filed; 11,789 widows, 2,785 minors, 2,446 dependent mothers, 1,335 dependent fathers; making a total of 65,704 applications for pensions filed for service in the late war.

The tables will exhibit the number from each State and political sub

division. Ohio heads this list, Indiana comes next, New York next, Pennsylvania next, and so on down to Utah, Montana, and South Carolina, from which no applications were filed.

In the report of the Record Division will further be found statistics as to the correction of army records, etc., by which it will appear that with all the broad power conferred upon the War Department by recent legislation, but 1,110 "removals of the charge of desertion" were received during the year, showing that this power has not been abused, but is exercised with judgment and proper sense of responsibility to the honorably discharged soldiers of the volunteer service.

Of the total number of "removals of the charge of desertion" certificates from the War Department but 528 have been applied in pension cases pending.

THE ADJUDICATING DIVISIONS.

Particular attention is called to the reports of the chiefs of these various divisions. They are full of matters of interest.

Territorial divisions embraced within the jurisdiction of each of said divisions have not been changed since my last report. At the time of the rendition of said reports, current work was being done in each of said divisions, and cases ready for admissson or rejection were and are immediately disposed of.

The fullest information as to Revolutionary pensions, pensions of the old wars, so called, and pensions for the Mexican war will be found in the report of the Old War and Navy Division. In said report also will be found a résumé of various service pension acts which, from time to time, have become laws. Under the act granting a service pension for the survivors of the Mexican war there have been filed, up to the 30th of June last, 26,581 claims: 19,788 by survivors; 6,793 by widows: The whole of this number wherein favorable action could be taken has been settled, viz, 16,529 survivors and 5,195 widows, being every case where the evidence called for has been furnished. Many of the survivors of the Mexican war are still under the age provided by statute, and these, from time to time, will file their claims.

For this and other reasons not necessary to give in detail 2,922 cases have been rejected, viz, 2,321 survivors' claims, and 601 widows' claims. The probability is that, upon arrival at full age, 90 per cent., and perhaps even a greater number, of these claims will be admitted. There were, furthermore, 22 survivors' and 21 widows' claims consolidated with claims already filed under other sections of the law, because of disability in line of duty, etc., making a total of 43 claims rejected by consolidation with existing claims. There remained on hand in the divis ion on the 30th of June, 1888, undisposed of, 916 survivors' claims and 976 widows' claims, a total, under the act of January 29, 1887, of only 1,892 pending claims, and these pending for lack of the requisite evidence for their establishment.

Very rarely has better work been done or more promptly than this.