ACTS OF JULY 14, 1862, AND MARCH 3, 1873.

Any officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, disabled by reason of wound received or disease contracted in the service of the United States, and in the line of duty, may be pensioned for such disability during its continuance.

In case of his death from causes originating as above set forth, his widow or his child or children under 16 years of age become entitled to pension. If he left no widow or child under 16, his dependent mother, father, or orphan sisters and brothers are entitled in the order named.

ACT OF JUNE 27, 1890.

Any officer, soldier, sailor, or marine who served ninety days or more in the military or naval service of the United States during the late war of the rebellion, who has been honorably discharged therefrom, and who is suffering from disability of a permanent character, not the result of his own vicious habits, which incapacitates him from the performance of manual labor in such a degree as to render him unable to earn a support, is entitled to pension under this act of not less than $6 per month nor more than $12 per month.

In case of the death of any person named above, his widow becomes entitled to pension, provided she married him prior to June 27, 1890, and that she is without other means of support than her daily labor. If she remarries or dies, the child or children of such soldier or sailor under the age of 16 years becomes entitled.

ACT OF AUGUST 5, 1892.

All women employed by the Surgeon-General of the Army as nurses during the late war of the rebellion for a period of six months or more and who were honorably relieved from such service, are granted a pension, provided they are unable to earn a support.

SERVICE PENSIONS,

There is no law granting service pension to any person for service rendered since the war with Mexico.

RULES ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PENSIONS, UNITED STATES

SENATE, JANUARY 11, 1898.

1. Consideration will not be given to any bill which has not first been submitted to the Pension Bureau for adjudication, unless conclusive proof is presented that the claimant has no pensionable status before the Bureau. Claims passed upon by the Bureau, whether allowed or rejected, will not be entertained by this committee until a period of at least one year has elapsod.

2. Where original pension or increase of pension has been allowed by special act, no proposition for additional pension will be entertained by this committee.

3. Bills providing for the payment of arrears will not be considered in any case.

4. Bills proposing to pension children of soldiers will not be entertained except in cases where the child has been idiotic, deformed, or otherwise mentally or physically incapacitated from birth or early child. hood, and then only in cases of destitution. INT 99-MIS, PT 1-8

-S

5. Bills for increasing pensions by special act, which have been granted by the Bureau at the maximum rate under the act of June 27, 1890, will not be given consideration, except in cases of actual destitu. tion or extreme physical disability: Provided, however, That where pension has been allowed under the act of June 27, 1890, and a rejected claim exists under the general law, the equities in the latter claim will be considered with a view to increase.

6. Bills proposing to pension men who were not mustered into service, except in cases where they performed actual military duty and were wounded, or unless some special or extraordinaey service was rendered in connection with the Army, are not admissible.

7. No widow's pension will be granted by special act in excess of the maximum rate allowed by law, except in cases of destitution, to be substantiated by sworn testimony, including the claimant's affidavit; and in no case will a higher rate than $50 per month be allowed.

8. This committee will not give consideration to any bill which proposes to restore to the roll the name of a widow of a soldier whose pension was forfeited by remarriage, unless she was the wife of a soldier during the war and is now a widow in actual need.

9. Bills proposing to pension the brothers and sisters of soldiers will not be given favorable consideration.

10. As a rule, bills for original pension will be given consideration in preference to those for increase.

11. Bills will be promptly referred to a subcommittee upon request of any Senator, but all bills referred to subcommittees must be reported back to the full committee for action before being reported to the Senate.

12. An authorized statement, by a member of the committee or by the Senator introducing a bill, as to the circumstances of the claimant, will be required when satisfactory evidence does not appear among the papers accompanying the bill.

RULES ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PENSIONS, HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES.

I. Consideration will not be given to any bill which has not first been presented to and settled by the Pension Bureau, unless it shall appear that claimant has no pensionable status under any general law.

II. Bill proposing to increase pensions by special act in cases where the existing pension was so granted will not be considered.

III. Bills providing for the payment of arrears will not be considered.

IV. Bills for those not enlisted will not be considered except for disability incurred in action.

V. Bills for original pension exceeding in rate the general law, provisions for same disabilities or rank, will not be favorably considered.

VI. Bills granting pension by private act to children or other descendants of soldiers or sailors will not be considered.

VII. Where dependency is required to be shown, it must be by the affidavits of disinterested persons, except that when members intro. ducing such bills have personal knowledge of the facts, their written statements may be accepted.

TABLE OF RATES.

RATINGS NOW IN FORCE FOR DISABILITIES INCURRED IN THE MILITARY

OR NAVAL SERVICE AND IN LINE OF DUTY,

TABLE I.

For simple total (a disability equivalent to the anchylosis of a wrist) provided by section

4695, Revised Statutes, United States.

ARMY.

Per month. Lieutenant-colonel aud all officers of higher rank.

$30,00 Major, surgeon, and paymaster....

25. 00 Captain, provost-marshal, and chaplain....

20.00 First lieutenant, assistant surgeon, deputy provost-marshal, and quartermaster....

17.00 Second lieutenant and enrolling officer.

15.00 All enlisted men

8. 00

NAVY AND MARINE CORPS.

30.00

25.00

Captain, and all officers of higher rank, commander, lieutenant commanding,

and master commanding, surgeon, paymaster, and chief engineer ranking
with commander by law, lieutenant-colonel, and all of higher rank in

Marine Corps ....
Lieutenant, passed assistant surgeon, surgeon, paymaster and chief enigneer

ranking with lieutenant by law, and major in Marine Corps....
Master, professor of mathematics, assistant surgeon, paymaster, and chap-

lain, and captain in Marine Corps..
First lieutenant in Marine Corps .
First assistant engineer, ensign, and pilot, and second lieutenant in Marine

Corps.
Cadet midshipmen, passed midshipmen, midshipmen, clerks of admirals, of

paymasters, and of officers commanding vessels, second and third assistant
engineers, master's mate, and warrant officers..
All enlisted men, except warrant officers....

115

20.00 17.00

15.00

10.00 8.00

From July 4, 1864.
From June 6, 1866.

From June 4, 1872.
: : : : : : : : : From Mar. 3. 1865.
:::::

From June 4, 1874.

From June 17, 1878. : : : : : : : : | From Feb. 28, 1877.

$25

25 20

$72
72

$314 $50
31350
311 50

72

$25 311 50
25 311 50
25 311 50

72 72 72

15 24
15 18

$373

24

$45 $30 $3745

Logs of both hands..
Loss of sight of both eyes
Loss of both feet..
Loss of sight of one eye, the sigbt of the

other lost before enlistment...
Total disability in both hands..
Regular aid and attendance (first grade).
Periodical aid and attendance.
Loss of a leg at hip joint.....
Loss of an arm at shoulder joint.
Loss of an arm at or above elbow, or a leg at

or above knee...
Loss of a log above the knee causing inability

to wear an artificial limb.
Loss of one land and one foot.
Total disability in one arm or one leg.
Total disability in one hand and one foot.
Total disability in both feet...
Loss of a hand or a foot ..
Total disability in one hand or oue foot
Incapacity to perform manual labor..
Total deafness.
Disability equivalent to the loss of a hand or

a foot.....

: : : : : : : : : : : : :

a Seventy-two dollars from June 17, 1878, only where the rate was $50 under the act of June 18, 1874, and granted prior to June 16, 1880. First grade proper is $30. amended by act of March 4, 1890, which increases rato to $72.

o Froin date of medical examination held after July 14, 1892.

TABLE III.

Rates fired by the Commissioner of Pensions for certain disabilities not specified by law. Anchylosis of shoulder

$12.00 Anchylosis of elbow

10.00 Anchylosis of knee

10.00 Anchylosis of ankle

8.00 Anchylosis of wrist...

8.00 Loss of sight of one eye

12.00 Loss of one eye..

17.00 Nearly total deafness of one ear..

6.00 Total deafness of one ear

10.00 Slight deafness of both ears..

6.00 Severe deafness of one ear and slight of the other...

10.00 Nearly total deafuess of one ear and slight of the other.

15.00 Total deafness of one ear and slight of the other

20.00 Severe deafness of both ears

22.00 Total deafness of one ear and severe of the other...

25. 00 Deafness of both ears existing in a degree nearly total

27.00 Loss of palm of hand and all the fingers, the thumb remaming

17.00 Loss of thumb, index, middle, and ring tingers

17.00 Loss of thumb, index, and middle fingers

16.00 Loss of thumb and index finger

12.00 Loss of thumb and little finger

10.00 Loss of thumb, index, and little fingers.

16 00 Loss of thumb...

8. 00 Loss of thumb and metacarpal bone..

Logs of little and ring fingers ...

$6.00 Loss of ring and middle fingers

6.00 Loss of index and little fingers...

6.00 Loss of index finger

4.00 Loss of any other finger without complications.

2.00 Loss of all the toes of one foot....

10.00 Loss of great, second, and third toes

8. 00 Loss of great toe and metatarsal.

8.00 Loss of great and second toes

8.00 Loss of great toe

6.00 Loss of any other too and metatarsal.

6.00 Loss of any other too.

2.00 Chopart's amputation of foot, with good results

14.00 Pirogoft’s modification of Syme's....

17.00 Small varicocele....

2.00 Well-marked varicocele...

4.00 Inguinal hernia, which passes through the external ring..

10.00 Inguinal bernia, which does not pass through the external ring.

6.00 Double inguinal hernia, each of which passes through the external ring .. 14.00 Double inguinal hernia, one of which passes through the external ring and the other does not...

12.00 Double inguinal hernia, neither of which passes through the external ring.. 8. 00 Femoral hernia

10.00 NOTE.—Section 4699, Revised Statutes, provides that the rate of eighteen dollars per month may be proportionately divided for any degree of disability established for which section forty-six hundred and ninety-five makes no provision, thus fixing the highest rating provided by existing laws which can be allowed by considering disabilities separately and compounding so as to allow the full amount which the disabilities, so considered, would aggregate.

The act of March 2, 1895, provides that all pensioners now on the rolls, who are pensioned at less than six dollars per month, for any degree of pensionable disabil. ity, shall have their pensions increased to six dollars per month; and that, hereafter, whenever any applicant for pension would, under existing rates, be entitled to less than six dollars for any single disability or several combined disabilities, such pensioner shall be rated at not less than six dollars per month: Prorided, also, That the provisions hereof shall not be held to cover any pensionable period prior to the passage of this act, nor anthorize a rerating of any claim for any part of such period, nor prevent the allowance of lower rates than six dollars per month, according to the existing practice in the Pension Office in pending cases covering any pensionable period prior to the passage of this act.

WIDOWS.

The widow of a soldier or sailor who died of a disability incurred while in the service and in line of duty is, under the provisions of section 4702, Revised Statutes, entitled to the rating to which he would have been entitled for a simple total disability, as shown in Table I; and, under the provisions of section 4696, Revised Statutes, the rank of the soldier is determined by the rank held by him when death cause was incurred, without regard to subsequent promotions.

From and after March 19, 1886, by the act approved on that date, the widow of a private or noncommissioned officer is entitled to $12 per month, provided that she married deceased soldier or sailor prior to March 19, 1886, or thereafter married him prior to or during his term of service.

WIDOW'S INCREASE.

From and after July 25, 1866, a widow is entitled to $2 per month increase for each legitimate minor child of the soldier or sailor in her care and custody.

MINOR'S PENSION.

Same rates and increase as in widows' claims, except that in cases of children of fathers below the rank of a commissioned officer the rate is increased to $12 per month from March 19, 1886, without regard to date of soldier's or sailor's marriage.

MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

Same rates as provided in minors' and widows' claims in cases of commissioned officers, and $8 per month to March 19, 1886, and $12 thereafter in other cases.