If in the effort to carry out the proposed law the degree of disability
as related to earnings be considered for the purpose of discovering if
in any way it curtails the support which the applicant, if entirely
sound, would earn, and to which he is entitled, we enter the broad field
long occupied by the Pension Bureau, and we recognize as the only
difference between the proposed legislation and previous laws passed for
the benefit of the surviving soldiers of the Civil War the incurrence in
one case of disabilities in military service and in the other
disabilities existing, but in no way connected with or resulting from
such service.
It must be borne in mind that in no case is there any grading of this
proposed pension. Under the operation of the rule first suggested, if
there is a lack in any degree, great or small, of the ability to earn
such a support as the Government determines the claimant should have,
and, by the application of the rule secondly suggested, if there is a
reduction in any degree of the support which he might earn if sound, he
is entitled to a pension of $12.
In the latter case, and under the proviso of the proposed bill
permitting persons now receiving pensions to be admitted to the benefits
of the act, I do not see how those now on the pension roll for
disabilities incurred in the service, and which diminish their earning
capacity, can be denied the pension provided in this bill.
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