eneral objects and consequences.

Upon a careful consideration of the language of the section of this bill
above given it seems to me to be so uncertain and liable to such
conflicting constructions and to be subject to such unjust and
mischievous application as to alone furnish sufficient ground for
disapproving the proposed legislation.

Persons seeking to obtain the pension provided by this section must be
now or hereafter--

1. "Suffering from mental or physical disability."

2. Such disability must not be "the result of their own vicious habits
or gross carelessness."

3. Such disability must be such as "incapacitates them for the
performance of labor in such a degree as to render them unable to earn
a support."

4. They must be "dependent upon their daily labor for support."

5. Upon proof of these conditions they shall "be placed on the lists of
invalid pensioners of the United States, and be entitled to receive for
such total inability to procure their subsistence by daily labor $12 per
month."

It is not probable that the words last quoted, "such total inability to
procure their subsistence by daily labor," at all qualify the conditions
prescribed in the preceding language of the section. The "total
inability" spoken of must be "such" inability--that is, the inability
already described and constituted by the conditions already detailed in
the previous parts of the section.

It thus becomes important to consider the meaning and the scope of these
last-mentioned conditions.

The mental and physical disability spoken of has a distinct meaning in
the practice of the Pension Bureau and includes every impairment of
bodily or mental strength and vigor. For such disabilities there are now
paid 131 different rates of pension, ranging from $1 to $100 per month.

This disability must not be the result of the applicant's "vicious
habits or gross carelessness." Practically this provision is not
important. The attempt of the Government to escape the payment of a
pension on such a plea would of course in a very large majority of
instances, and regardless of the merits of the case, prove a failure.
There would be that strange but nearly universal willingness to help the
individual as between him and the public Treasury which goes very far to
insure a state of proof in favor of the claimant.

The disability of applicants must be such as to "incapacitate them for
the performance of labor in such a degree as to rend