should be conducted upon business principles, regulated by the public needs." Upon another occasion, in disposing of a bill for the relief of a stricken community, he assumed this statesmanlike position : "I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is inno manner related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government, and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of the kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthen the bond of a common brotherhood." THE PENSION VETOES. His most numerous class of vetoes has included a large number of the cases of private pension bills, whose beneficiaries or their agents, unwilling to depend upon the ordinary operation of the extremely liberal existing pension laws and their present prompt execution, resort to Congress for special action on their cases. In that body they are acted upon without general investigation of their merits and without any of the deliberation and care which characterize department work. The President, as all members of Congress well know, did not overstate the case when, in his message of June 21st, 1886, he said: "A large proportion of these bills have never been submitted to a majority of either branch of Congress, but are the results of nominal sessions, held for the express purpose of their consideration, and attended by a small minority of the members of the respective Houses of the legislative branch of Government. Thus, in considering these bills I have not felt that I was aided by the deliberate judgment of the Congress; and when I have deemed it my duty to disapprove many of the bills presented, I have hardly regarded my action as a dissent from the conclusions of the people's representatives." An uncontradicted description of a recent scene in the Senate, with the President's most relentless and abusive antagonist, Senator Ingalls, in the chair, illustrates how necessary to save the public treasury is the careful and judicious examination by the Executive of bills thus passed: "The Senate yesterday considered pension bills on the calendar and in a short space of time passed about ninety of them. The mode of procedure in this rapid passage of the bills is rather interesting. Usually, when such a measure is to be considered, the bill is reported by its number and the presiding officer says: 'In Committee of the Whole and the bill will he read at length.' This is done, and then he says: 'The bill is open to amendment: if there be no amendment it will be reported to the Senate. The Committee has had under consideration bill numbered The bill 一. is still open to amendment. If there be no amendment the question is upon ordering the bill to be engrossed and read a third time. Senators in the affirmative will say "aye;" negative, "no." The ayes appear to have it; the bill will be engrossed and read the third time.' The bill is then read by its title, when the presiding officer says: 'The question is upon the passage of the bill,' and the question is then put. "But when the Senate is considering these bills hastily upon the calendar a different method is adopted. It is understood that no objection will be made to them, and it is desirable to get them out of the way as quickly as possible. Yesterday Mr. Ingalls stood up in front of his desk marking the place on the calendar. He would call for a bill by its number on the order of business and the clerk would report its number as a bill. Then Mr. Ingalls says: 'In Committee of the Whole.' The clerk reads the bill rapidly, and as he finishes Mr. Ingalls says: 'Reported to the Senate, engrossed, read third time, and passed. No. -,' calling out the next measure. No vote is taken; no one listened to the bill; in fact, the whole business was transacted by the President pro tempore and the Clerk. There were less than a dozen Senators in the chamber, all engaged in something else than giving attention to the business being transacted, as, in fact, their attention was not required." The frequency with which private bills have had to be vetoed therefore illustrates the carelessness of Congress and not the existence of any hostility on Mr. Cleveland's part to this special class of legislation. On the contrary, with proper qualification against frauds and impostures upon the Government's bounty, Mr. Cleveland has shown himself consistently in favor of its most liberal extension to deserving subjects of it. In his annual message, December 6th, 1886, he presents this succinct and striking statement: "The report of the Commissioner of Pensions contains a detailed and most satisfactory exhibit of the operations of the Pension Bureau during the last fiscal year. The amount of work done was the largest in any year since the organization of the Bureau; and it has been done at less cost than during the previous year in every division. "On the thirtieth day of June, 1886, there were 365,783 pensioners on the rolls of the Bureau. "Since 1861 there have been 1,018,732 applications for pensions filed, of which 78,834 were based upon service in the War of 1812. There were 621,754 of these applications allowed, including 60,178 to the soldiers of 1812 and their widows. "The total amount paid for pensions since 1861 is $808,624,811.57. "The number of new pensions allowed during the year ended June 30th, 1886, is 40,857-alarger number than has been allowed in any year save one since 1861; the names of 2,229 pensioners which had been previously dropped from the rolls, were restored during the year, and after deducting those dropped within the same time for various causes, a net increase remains for the year of 20,658 names. "From January 1st, 1861, to December 1st, 1885, 1,967 private pension acts had been passed. Since the last-mentioned date, and during the last session of the Congress, 644 such acts became laws. "It seems to me that no one can examine our pension establishment and its operations without being convinced that through its instrumentality justice can be very nearly done to all who are entitled under present laws to the pension bounty of the Government. "But it is undeniable that cases exist, well en |