See note 4. Feb. 12, 1889. cases of partial deafness as the Secretary of the Interior may deem equitable; the amount paid to be determined by the degree of disability existing in each case. That from and after the passage of this act all persons Loss of both Who, in the military or naval service of the United States and in the line of duty have lost both hands, shall be enti1892, extended tled to a pension of one hundred dollars per month. hands. Act July 27, the time two years from July 1, 1892. Mar. 4, 1890. bled. See note 5. That all soldiers, sailors, and marines who have since the Totally disa sixteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and eighty, or who may hereafter become so totally and permanently helpless from injuries received or disease contracted in the service and line of duty as to require the regular personal aid and attendance of another person, or who, if otherwise entitled, were excluded from the provisions of "An act to increase pensions of certain pensioned soldiers and sailors who are utterly helpless from injuries received or disease contracted while in the United States service," approved June sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty, shall be entitled to receive a pension at the rate of seventy-two dollars per month from the date of the passage of this act or of the certificate of the examining surgeon or board of surgeons showing such degree of disability made subsequent to the passage of this act. June 27, 1890. ents. That in considering the pension claims of dependent Dependent par parents, the fact of the soldier's death by reason of any wound, injury, casualty, or disease which, under the conditions and limitations of existing laws, would have entitled him to an invalid pension, and the fact that the soldier left no widow or minor children having been shown as required by law, it shall be necessary only to show by competent and sufficient evidence that such parent or parents are without other present means of support than their own manual labor or the contributions of others not legally bound for their support: Provided, That all pensions allowed to dependent parents under this act shall commence from date of the filing of the application hereunder and shall continue no longer than the existence of the dependence. Invalid, service ninety days. charge. SEC. 2. That all persons who served ninety days or Honorable dis- more in the military or naval service of the United States during the late war of the rebellion and who have been honorably discharged therefrom, and who are now or who may hereafter be suffering from a mental or physical disability of a permanent character, not the result of their own vicious habits, which incapacitates them from the performance of manual labor in such a degree as to render them unable to earn a support, shall, upon making due proof of Note 4.-For total deafness, or deafness approaching to total, affecting one ear, oneeighth of a pension may be allowed. For slight deafness in both ears, or severe or total deafness in one ear and slight deafness in the other, one-fourth of a total pension. For severe deafness of both ears, or total deafness in one car and severe deafness in the other, one-half of a total pension; or if the deafness should exist in a degree nearly total, three-fourths of a total pension. For total deafness the pension for total disability should be allowed except in the cases for which the rate for total disability is less than $13 a month. (Pension Office Digest, p. 146.) Note Amendment of act June 16, 1880. An intermediate rate of pension was established by act of July 14, 1892, wherein those who require frequent and periodical aid and attendance should receive $50 per month. the fact according to such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may provide, be placed upon the list of invalid pensioners of the United States, and be entitled to receive a pension not exceeding twelve dollars per month, and not less than six dollars per month, proportioned to the degree of inability to earn a support; and such pension shall commence from the date of the filing of the application in the Pension Office, after the passage of this act upon proof that the disability then existed, and shall continue during the existence of the same: Provided, That persons who are now receiving pensions under existing laws, or whose claims are pending in the Pension Office, may, by application to the Commissioner of Pensions, in such form as he may prescribe, showing themselves entitled thereto, receive the benefits of this act; and nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent any pensioner thereunder from prosecuting his claim and receiving his pension under any other general or special act: Provided, however, That no person shall receive more than one pension for the same period: And provided further, That rank in the service shall not be considered in applications filed under this act. minors. SEC. 3. That if any officer or enlisted man who served Widows and ninety days or more in the Army or Navy of the United States during the late war of the rebellion, and who was honorably discharged has died, or shall hereafter die, leaving a widow without other means of support than her daily labor, or minor children under the age of sixteen years, such widow shall upon due proof of her husband's death, without proving his death to be the result of his army service, be placed on the pension-roll from the date of the application therefor under this act, at the rate of eight dollars per month during her widowhood, and shall also be paid two dollars per month for each child of such officer or enlisted man under sixteen years of age, and in case of the death or remarriage of the widow, leaving a child or children of such officer or enlisted man under the age of sixteen years, such pension shall be paid such child or children until the age of sixteen: Provided, That in case a minor Insane or per child is insane, idiotic, or otherwise permanently helpless, manently help. the pension shall continue during the life of said child, or during the period of such disability, and this proviso shall apply to all pensions heretofore granted or hereafter to be granted under this or any former statute, and such pensions shall commence from the date of application therefor after the passage of this act: And provided further, That said widow shall have married said soldier prior to the passage of this act. of. SEC. 4. That no agent, attorney, or other person engaged Attorney, fee in preparing, presenting, or prosecuting any claim under the provisions of this act shall, directly or indirectly, contract for, demand, receive, or retain for such services in preparing, presenting, or prosecuting such claim a sum greater than ten dollars, which sum shall be payable only upon the order of the Commissioner of Pensions, by the pension agent making payment of the pension allowed, and withholding pen sioner. Wrongfully any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this sion from pen- section, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or claimant the whole or any part of a pension or claim allowed or due such pensioner or claimant under this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conFine and im-viction thereof shall, for each and every such offence, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court. prisonment. June 30, 1890. For Army and Navy pensions as follows: For invalids, and widows, minor children, and dependent relatives; survivors Navy pensions. and widows of the war of eighteen hundred and twelve and Proviso. Aug. 29, 1890. Chief clerks to administer. Officer on tired list. of money. re with Mexico, ninety-seven million ninety thousand seven hundred and sixty-one dollars: Provided, That the appropriation aforesaid for Navy pensions shall be paid from the income of the Navy pension fund, so far as the same may be sufficient for that purpose: And provided further, That the amount expended under each of the above items shall be accounted for separately. * * And no officer, clerk, or employee of any executive department who is also a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths, shall charge or receive any fee or compensation for administering oaths of office to employees of such department required to be taken on appointment or promotion therein. And the Chief Clerks of the several Executive Departments and of the various bureaus and offices thereof in Washington, District of Columbia, are hereby authorized and directed, on application and without compensation therefor, to administer oaths of office to employees required to be taken on their appointment or promotion. SEC. 2. Hereafter no officer of the Army, Navy or Marine Corps on the retired list shall draw or receive any pension under any law. Feb. 10, 1891. "Every guardian, conservator, curator, committee, tutor, Embezzlement or other person having charge and custody in a fiduciary pension capacity of the pension of his ward, who shall embezzle the same in violation of his trust, or fraudulently convert the same to his own use, shall be punished by fine not exceed ing two thousand dollars or imprisonment at hard labor for a term not exceeding five years, or both, at the discretion of the court." Mar. 3, 1891. list. * That the appropriation for Navy pensions shall be paid from the income of the Navy pension fund, so tive or retired far as the same may be sufficient for that purpose: And provided further, That the amount expended under each of the above items shall be accounted for separately: And provided further, That hereafter no pension shall be allowed or paid to any officer, non commissioned officer, or private in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States, either on the active or retired list. Artificial limb. 8.4787. That section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven of the Amending act, Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by striking out the word "five" where it occurs therein, and inserting in lieu thereof the word "three" so that when amended said section will read as follows: Every officer, soldier, seaman, and marine who was disabled during the war for the suppression of the rebellion, in the military or naval service, and in the line of duty, or in consequence of wounds received or disease contracted therein, and who was furnished by the War Department since the seventeenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy, with an artificial limb or apparatus for resection who was entitled to receive such limb or apparatus since said date, shall be entitled to receive a new limb or apparatus at the expiration of every three years thereafter, under such regulations as have been or may be prescribed by the Surgeon-General of the Army. July 14, 1892. bled. That soldiers and sailors who are shown to be totally incapacitated for performing manual labor by reason of Totally disainjuries received or disease contracted in the service of the Those requir United States and in line of duty, and who are thereby ing frequent and disabled to such a degree as to require frequent and period-itled to $50. periodical aid enical, though not regular and constant, personal aid and attendance of another person, shall be entitled to receive a pension of fifty dollars per month from and after the date of the certificate of the examining surgeon or board of examining surgeons showing such degree of disability, and made subsequent to the passage of this act. July 27, 1892. Desertion. Amending sec. 9, act of Mar. 2, That section nine of the act for the relief of certain volunteer and regular soldiers of the late war and the war with Mexico, passed March second, anno Domini eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, be, and the same is hereby, so 1889. amended as to extend the time for the limitation of the Limitation operation of said section for the period of two years from tion for removal. the first of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-two. as to filing applicå 1892. in certain cases That the act entitled "An act amending the pension law Aug. 1, so as to remove the disability of those who, having partici-Pensions to solpated in the rebellion, have since its termination enlisted diers and sailors in the Army of the United States, and become disabled," allowed though approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy- they had engaged seven, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: in rebellion. R. S., 4716. "That the law prohibiting the payment of any money Act of Mar. 3, on account of pensions to any person, or to the widow, chil. 1877, as amended. dren, or heirs of any deceased person who, in any manner, engaged in or aided or abetted the late rebellion against the authority of the United States, shall not be construed to apply to such persons as afterward voluntarily enlisted in either the Navy or Army of the United States, and who, while in such service, incurred disability from a wound or injury received or disease contracted in the line of duty." after notice. That any pension heretofore or that may hereafter be Dec. 21, 1893. granted to any applicant therefor under any law of the Pension not to United States authorizing the granting and payment of be withheld or pensions, on application made and adjudicated upon, shall suspended until be deemed and held by all officers of the United States to be a vested right in the grantee to that extent that payment thereof shall not be withheld or suspended until, after due notice to the grantee of not less than thirty days, the Commissioner of Pensions, after hearing all the evidence, Aug. 23, 1894. Vouchers may fore fourth-class postmasters. shall decide to annul, vacate, modify, and set aside the decision upon which such pension was granted. Such notice to grantee must contain a full and true statement of any charges or allegations upon which such decision granting such pension shall be sought to be in any manner disturbed or modified. That hereafter, in addition to the officers now authorized to administer oaths in such cases, fourth-class postmasters be executed be of the United States are hereby required, empowered, and authorized to administer any and all oaths required to be made by pensioners and their witnesses in the execution of their vouchers with like effect and force as officers baying a seal; and such postmaster shall affix the stamp of his office to his signature to such vouchers, and he is authorized to charge and receive for each voucher not exceeding twenty-five cents, to be paid by the pensioner. Mar. 2, 1895. sions, how and to whom paid. That from and after the twenty-eighth day of September, Accrued pen- eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the accrued pension to the date of the death of any pensioner, or of any person entitled to a pension having an application therefor pending, and whether a certificate therefor shall issue prior or subsequent to the death of such person, shall, in the case of a person pensioned, or applying for pension, on account of his disabilities or service, be paid, first, to his widow; second, if there is no widow, to his child or children under the age of sixteen years at his death; third, in case of a widow, to her minor children under the age of sixteen years at her death. Such accrued pension shall not be considered a part of the assets of the estate of such deceased person, nor be liable for the payment of the debts of said estate in any case whatsoever, but shall inure to the sole and exclusive benefit of the widow or children. And if no widow or child survive such pensioner, and in the case of his last surviving child who was such minor at his death, and in case of a dependent mother, father, sister, or brother, no payment whatsoever of their accrued pension shall be made or allowed except so much as may be necessary to reimburse the person who bore the expense of their last sickness and burial, if they did not leave sufficient assets to meet such expense. And the mailing of a pension check, drawn by a pension agent in payment of a pension due, to the address of a pensioner, shall constitute payment in the event of the death of a pensioner subsequent to the execution of the voucher therefor. And all prior laws relating to the payment of accrued pension are hereby repealed. Mar. 2, 1895. Pensions. * * That so much of the fourth proviso of an Act 28 Stat. L., 703. entitled "An Act making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions of the United States for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and for other purposes," approved March first, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, which reads as follows: "That from and after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, no pension shall be paid to a nonresident who is not a citizen of the United States, except for actual dis Repeal of 1893, abilities incurred in the service," Alienage to be no bar. Mar. 1, ch. 187, last clause, p.102. be and the same is hereby repealed. |