2d Session.

No. 542.

FORBIDDING PAYMENT OF PENSION TO A DISLOYAL CITIZEN.

MAY 8, 1918.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GRAHAM, of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 5380.]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 5380) forbidding the payment of pensions to anyone who is or may hereafter become disloyal to the United States Government, report the same back to the House with the recommendation that the bill be amended as follows, and as so amended that the bill do pass. On line 4, page 1, after the word "who" strike out the remaining portion of the bill and substitute therefor the following: ", after final judgment, stands convicted of a violation of any of the provisions of an act entitled 'An act to punish the willful injury or destruction of war material or of war premises or utilities used in connection with war material, and for other purposes, approved April 20, 1918, and an act entitled 'An act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes,' approved June 15, 1917; or any of the provisions of the amendment of said last-named act.

Strike out all after the word "hereafter" in the title and substitute therefor the following: "be convicted of certain disloyal crimes against the United States."

This bill is intended to prevent the Government of the United States from paying a pension to any disloyal person after conviction of any crime such as those defined in the sabotage act, and espionage act as originally passed and as amended.

2d Session.

PENSION APPROPRIATION BILL.

No. 543.

MAY 9, 1918.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GALLIVAN, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 12000.]

The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the bill making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions for the fiscal year 1919, submitted the following in explanation thereof:

The estimates on which the bill is based aggregate $185,060,000, a sum which is composed of $157,060,000 submitted in the Book of Estimates for the fiscal year 1919 and $28,000,000 in a supplemental estimate. The appropriations for the current fiscal year amounted to $160,060,000. It should be stated, however, that a deficiency of $23,000,000 for the fiscal year 1918 has been granted which makes the appropriations for the current year $183,060,000.

The accompanying bill appropriates $185,050,000, which is $10,000 less than the estimates requested and $1,990,000 more than the total appropriations for the current fiscal year.

The deficiency of $23,000,000 for the fiscal year 1918 and the increase in this bill over the amount carried in the current pension appropriation act are due to the enactment of section 314 of the War Risk Insurance act approved October 6, 1917, which provided a minimum rate of $25 per month to widows of the Civil War, the War with Spain, and the Philippine insurrection. The number of persons of these classes on the rolls on March 31, 1918, was 292,809.

TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR PENSIONS.

The following table, furnished by the Commissioner of Pensions, shows the amounts paid by the Government in pensions to soldiers,

sailors, and marines, their widows, minor children, and dependent relatives, on account of military and naval service to June 30, 1917:

The first payments made on new certificates each year for the past five years, with the averages and the averages of first payments, by classes, during the past year, are shown in the commissioner's report, as follows:

Pensioners and amounts paid, arranged by States, Territories, insular possessions, Canal Zone, and foreign countries, during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917.