Pension Veto

ARMY & NAVY

Greatest of pension-vetoing Presidents was Grover Cleveland. He killed more than 275 bounty measures in four years, thereby incurring the hot anger of the Grand Army of the Republic. Like Cleveland, President Hoover views pension bills with suspicion. In three years he has vetoed three general measures concerning veterans and their government pay: 1) pensions for World Warriors disabled in civil life; 2) increased allowances for Spanish War soldiers and their dependents; 3) the 50% Bonus loan law. All three were repassed by Congress.

Last week President Hoover added to his reputation as a pension-killer when he vetoed an omnibus bill granting or increasing pensions to veterans and their widows who could not make their claims stick under the general laws. Lumping 367 such extra-legal claims together into one measure (H. R. 9575), an indulgent Congress passed it without serious consideration, debate or a roll call vote. Declared the President in a veto message as sharp as any by Cleveland:

"The bill contains many meritorious cases . . . [but] I must withhold approval because of the number of cases which I do not deem worthy of public bounty. Most of these undeserving cases have been previously rejected by the Pension Bureau. ... I cite some instances:

"A proposed pension for a man who was courtmartialed for drunkenness and conduct prejudicial to good order, sentenced to six months' confinement, and whose conduct during confinement was so bad that he was finally discharged without honor for the good of the service.

"A proposed pension to a man who was discharged without honor because of chronic alcoholism.

"A proposed pension to a man who still suffers from a wound in the throat self-inflicted with a razor, with no disability relating to the service.

"A proposed pension for loss of a leg, as the result of being struck by the fender of a street car while claimant was lying on the track in a completely intoxicated condition.

"A proposed pension to a man who spent most of his service in the hospital, and was discharged without honor because of diseases not contracted in line of duty; was shown to have been guilty of malingering by taking soap pills to aid him in appearing anemic, and was recorded to have remarked that he knew 'how to play it and proposes doing it as long as he could.' . . ."

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