shows in detail the operations of the mail division.

TABLE NO. 18

shows in brief the operations of the army and navy survivors division, which is a great source of satisfaction and of information to the soldiers in finding and locating their comrades in the different organizations.

TABLE NO. 19

is a classified statement of the number of claims pending on the 30th of June, 1899. Also the number of rejected and abandoned claims in the files of the Bureau on that date.

This table is based upon an actual count of the files which was made at the close of the fiscal year, and I desire to invite your special attention to some of the features presented in this table.

On June 30, 1898, there were 635,059 claims pending. In this number there was included a large number of claims filed many years ago, and which were awaiting testimony called for by the Bureau at different times.

No testimony having been furnished in such cases and no inquiry having been made by the claimants, it is presumed that the claimants are deceased or have abandoned the prosecution of their claims, and as many new claims are being received daily it was deemed expedient to establish a separate file for these abandoned cases and thus make room for the new claims in the pending files. These abandoned claims have therefore been transferred from the pending files and they are not included in the number of pending claims in this table.

Exhibit E presents a statement of rejected and abandoned claims in the files of the Bureau. It must be remembered that these cases, while no longer carried as pending claims, are subject to reopening upon the filing of new and material evidence, and when so reopened they are brought back to the pending files and carried on the reports as pending claims.

The number of claims based upon service rendered prior to March 4, 1861, including claims for bounty land, has been reduced from 4,239 to 2,453 during the year ended June 30, 1899.

Exhibit B shows the total number of claims of all classes pending June 30, 1899, to be 477,239.

On June 30, 1898, there were pending 635,059 claims, showing a decrease for the year of 157,820 claims, which is a very material reduction when we consider that the number of cases reported pending June 30, 1899, includes 17,335 claims arising out of the war with Spain, and that no claims of this class were embraced in the number reported as pending June 30, 1898.

Exhibit C shows the number of "original" claims pending at the close of the fiscal year.

It will be noticed that the number of claimants of all classes (invalids, widows, etc.), including those based upon service in the war with Spain, who have not received pension is 135,641. Excluding army nurses and soldiers of the war with Spain, there are 69,468 soldier claimants who have not yet been pensioned.

This number includes soldiers who served prior to 1861, and in the war of the rebellion, as well as those who have served in the Army and Navy since 1865, and up to April 21, 1898.

The number of surviving claimants represented by the rejected and abandoned claims can, of course, not be determined by any obtainable data, as the death of claimants in that class of cases is not usually reported to this Bureau.

I desire to invite your attention more particularly to the 305,042 claims in which pension has heretofore been granted and in which an additional allowance or an increase of rate is claimed.

This number embraces many thousand claims in which pension has been granted long since for wounds and diseases shown as of service origin.

Many of these men filed applications soon after discharge, and alleged disabilities which were shown due to service, and pensions were allowed for the same. Applications for increase followed from time to time, which have been duly settled.

In the course of advancing age other disabilities developed, and the claimant has been induced to make an application for pension on their account, in most cases alleging that they were the result of service. Usually the official records of the War Department afford no evidence of said disabilities in service, and in most cases the many different medical examinations have failed to disclose their existence. Yet, under the rule, all such applicants are entitled to a medical examination, although such examinations fail to find any evidence of the disabilities alleged, and, as a result, several hundred thousand dollars are yearly expended in holding medical examinations in cases where a disability, even if found, can not be established as being in any way due to the service, having developed many years after the discharge of claimant. These claims take up the time and labor of many efficient examiners, frequently to the detriment of worthy claims in which no pension has INT 99-MIS, PT 1—2

yet been granted, and the pressure for early action in that class of cases is, as a rule, the most persistent.

The mails are filled with complaints of delay, which upon investigation are found to pertain to claims of this description, and it frequently happens that pensioners receiving a high rate of pension complain very bitterly if their cases do not receive immediate consideration.

Included in this number are many claims for increase in which pension has been granted for permanent disabilities not liable to change for the worse. But, notwithstanding this fact, pensioners are induced to apply for increase year after year, thus causing the expenditure of a large amount of money in holding medical examinations which show that no change has occurred in the degree of the pensioner's disability. It is shown by the report of the medical referee that adverse action was taken in his division in 51,989 claims of this character during the year.

It may not be out of place to state that I have given the right of way to "original" claims in which no pension has ever been allowed. and this rule is deemed by me to be eminently just and proper in the disposition of the work of the Bureau.

As an illustration of the manner in which these claims have been presented I may cite a case, which is not an unusual one, where a soi dier applied for pension in 1884 (nineteen years after his discharge. for disability on account of chronic diarrhea, disease of kidneys and lungs, and rheumatism, resulting in general debility, contracted in the service.

He was granted a pension in 1885 for rheumatism, diarrhea and resulting piles, the only disabilities shown on two medical examinations held in 1884 by different boards of surgeons.

In 1889 (twenty-four years after his discharge) he filed an application for increase, claiming that the disabilities for which he was pensioned had resulted in disease of the heart, liver, stomach, bowels, spleen, and throat, and partial paralysis of right arm, forearm, and hand, also atrophy of the muscles of left arm, and lumbago.

A medical examination by a board of surgeons found no signs of disease aside from those for which he was pensioned, and no increase was shown from pensioned causes.

In 1894 (twenty-nine years after he left the service) he filed another application for increase, in which he claimed, in addition to the disa bilities for which he was pensioned, disease of heart and digestive organs, cold and resulting disease of respiratory organs, catarrh, disease of eyes and urinary organs, scurvy and resulting disease of mouth and loss of teeth, and disease of legs, all contracted in the service. The records of the War Department afford no evidence of his treatment for any of the alleged diseases in the service.

The foregoing is only a sample of hundreds, even thousands, similar in character, where numerous medical examinations have been had of

the respective claimants, covering the period of many years, and while the established practice gives the claimant always a right to be heard, it is next to impossible, under these conditions, to furnish evidence to establish new disabilities for claims filed at this late date, when the war records do not give any foundation for such a claim, and the medical examinations from time to time, covering the period of a third of a century discredit the claim; however, the time of many examiners is given to this class of claims, they are necessarily rejected only to be again reopened, and again rejected from time to time.

Your attention is respectfully invited to the figures in Table No. 19 (pp. 66, 67), with explanatory notes, showing the various classes of claims as per a very careful inventory.

TABLES NOs. 20 AND 21

give in detail the operations of the special-examination division, showing amount of work accomplished.

It will be noticed that the number of cases in the hands of special examiners in the field for investigation and completion June 30, 1898, was 14,721, while the number June 30, 1899, was 11,497, showing a decrease of 3,224 cases, or there were 27 per cent more cases in the field June 30, 1898, than at the close of the last fiscal year.

Much of the time and skill of the special examiners in the field for the past two years has been given to the working up of the old cases (the "knots in the wood pile") that had been pending for a long time, and a commendable effort has been made to settle many of these old cases, one way or the other, that they might be disposed of, and thereby give the more consideration to current work, and it will be seen that substantial progress has been made in this direction.

TABLE NO. 22

is a report in detail of the law division of this Bureau. This division has charge of all law questions, the criminal prosecutions of offenders against the pensioners, as well as against the Government, and attention is particularly requested to this feature of the report. Reference is made to the discovery of a considerable number of fraudulent claims filed (see pp. 73, 74). These claims were filed through different attorneys in this city by subagents or solicitors. Your Commissioner has no reason to suspect the attorneys that filed the claims in this Bureau as being in collusion with the fabricators of the claims (the subagents or solicitors) that prepared them; but, on the other hand, the attor neys filing them being of reputable character and standing, it only illustrates more forcibly the dangers incident to the system, or "established practice," of accepting claims made up (all the evidence complete, ex parte, prima facie cases) by unknown and irresponsible parties. Reputable attorneys should be held to an accountability for

their subagents and solicitors, and I do most earnestly commend the recommendations made by the chief of the law division upon this branch of the service, looking to the protection of the Bureau. The attorney must in some way be held accountable for the acts of his agent or subattorney. When this Bureau ascertains that a reputable attorney is filing claims prepared by irresponsible and unscrupulous solicitors or subagents, it necessarily puts all his claims under suspi cion, delays the adjudication of claims of deserving claimants, and renders it necessary oftentimes to send the claims to the field for examination, thereby visiting a considerable expense upon the Government (see pp. 76, 77, 78).

A partial list of crimes against the pension laws for which convictions were had during the year is submitted.

ATTORNEYS.

Your Department authorized the revision of the list of registered attorneys. The result in detail is given.

The records contained, all told, of individuals (attorneys and individuals comprising firms) on July 1, 1898, about 50,000 names. Necessarily in the verification of the records and fee contracts search had to be made through this extended register, many of whom had ceased to practice long since.

On the revision the names of 24,435 attorneys were dropped.

This exhibit also shows the amount of cash recovered from various sources, $11,268.27.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1899,

providing for the payment of one-half the pension to the wife or minor children, under specified conditions, is being enforced through the law division. There have been 1,137 claims filed under this act. This law, in my opinion, will afford considerable relief to a very deserving class of people.

TABLE NO. 23 (SPECIAL).

Your attention and consideration is asked to the report of the acting chief of a section of reviewers detailed and assigned to the duty of reviewing a lot of claims brought in from the field. Last January I directed that all claims that had been in the field undergoing special examinations for the purpose of giving the claimant an opportunity to establish his or her claim by the aid of special examiners calling upon designated witnesses or others, should be returned to the Bureau for examination where they had been out under investigation twelve months or more, for the purpose of determining by careful and expert examiners, whether or not there was merit in each individual claim. Twelve of as competent, careful, and skilled examiners as are in this Bureau were designated to do this work.