amining surgeon's certificate establishing the same, made under the pending claim for increase, and in this, as well as all other cases, the certificate of an examining surgeon, or of a board of examining surgeons, shall be subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Pen

sions.

RATE OF $18 DIVISIBLE.

SECTION 4699, REVISED STATUTES.

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.

MINIMUM RATE, $6.

ACT MARCH 2, 1895 (28 STAT. L., 704).

And it is further provided, That from and after the passage of this Act all pensioners now on the rolls who are pensioned at less than six dollars per month, for any degree of pensionable disability, 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: Provided also, That the provisions hereof shall not be held to cover any pensionable period prior to the passage of this Act, nor authorize a rerating of any claims 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.

ARREARS OF PENSIONS.

ACT JANUARY 25, 1879 (20 STAT. L., 265).

SECTION 1. That all pensions which have been granted under the general laws regulating pensions, or may hereafter be granted, in consequence of death from a cause which originated in the United States service during the continuance of the late war of the rebellion, or in consequence of wounds, injuries, or disease received or contracted in said service during said war of the rebellion, shall commence from the date of the death or discharge from said service of the person on whose account the claim has been or shall hereafter be granted, or from the termination of the right of the party having prior title to such pension: Provided, The rate of pension for the intervening time for which arrears of pension are hereby granted shall be the same per month for which the pension was originally granted.

SEC. 2. That the Commissioner of Pensions is hereby authorized and directed to adopt such rules and regulations for the payment of the arrears of pension hereby granted as will be necessary to cause to be paid to such pensioner, or, if the pensioner shall have died, to the person or persons entitled to the same, all such arrears of pension as the pensioner may be, or would have been, entitled to under this act.

SEC. 3. That section forty-seven hundred and seventeen of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which provides that "no claim for pension not prosecuted to a successful issue within five years from the date of filing the same shall be admitted without record evidence from the War or Navy Department of the injury or the disease which resulted in the disability or death of the person on whose account the claim is made: Provided, That in any case in which the limitation prescribed by this section bars the further prosecution of the claim, the claimant may present, through the Pension Office, to the Adjutant-General of the Army or the Surgeon-General of the Navy, evidence that the disease or injury which resulted in the disability or death of the person on whose account the claim is made originated in the service and in the line of duty; and if such evidence is deemed satisfactory by the officer to whom it may be submitted, he shall cause a record of the fact so proved to be made, and a copy of the same to be transmitted to the Commissioner of Pensions, and the bar to the prosecution of the claim shall thereby be removed," be, and the same is hereby, repealed.

SEC. 4. No claim agent or other person shall be entitled to receive any compensation for services in making application for arrears of pension.

SEC. 5. That all acts or parts of acts so far as they may conflict with the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

RATE OF ARREARS AND COMMENCEMENT OF PENSION.

ACT MARCH 3, 1879 (20 STAT. L., 469).

SECTION 1. That the rate at which the arrears of invalid pensions shall be allowed and computed in the cases which have been or shall hereafter be allowed shall be graded according to the degree of the pensioner's disability from time to time, and the provisions of the pension laws in force over the period for which the arrears shall be computed.

That section one of the act of January twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, granting arrears of pensions shall be construed to extend to and include pensions on account of soldiers who were enlisted or drafted for the service in the War of the Rebellion, but died or incurred disability from a cause originating after the cessation of hostilities, and before being mustered out: Provided, That in no case shall arrears of pensions be allowed and paid from a time prior to the date of actual disability.

SEC. 2. All pensions which have been, or which may hereafter be, granted in consequence of death occurring from a cause which originated in the service since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or in consequence of wounds or injuries received or disease contracted since that date shall commence from the death or discharge of the person on whose account the claim has been or is hereafter granted if the disability occurred prior to discharge, and if such disability occurred after the discharge then from the date of actual disability or from the termination of the right of party having prior title to such pension: Provided, The application for such pension has been or is hereafter filed with the Commissioner of Pensions prior to the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty, other

wise the pension shall commence from the date of filing the application 1; but the limitation herein prescribed shall not apply to claims by or in behalf of insane persons and children under sixteen years of age.

SEC. 3. Section forty-seven hundred and nine of the Revised Statutes is hereby repealed.

SOUNDNESS AT ENLISTMENT PRESUMED.

ACT MARCH 3, 1885 (23 STAT. L., 362).

* Provided, That all applicants for pensions shall be presumed to have had no disability at the time of enlistment; but such presumption may be rebutted.

NOTES.

Act July 16, 1862 (12 Stat. L., 587), Western gunboat fleet transferred from War to Navy Department.

Act February 27, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 894), provides for relief of the Fourth Arkansas Mounted Infantry, commanded by Elisha Baxter.

Act February 2, 1901, secs. 36 and 37 (31 Stat. L., 757-8), relates to status of Philippine scouts and provisional regiment Porto Rico infantry.

Act February 27, 1905 (33 Stat. L., 816), provides for the relief of certain enlisted men of the Twentieth New York Volunteer Infantry. Honorable discharge as of June 1, 1863, etc.

1 Limitation as to date of filing application in widows' claims removed by act of June 7, 1888, p. 45.

CHAPTER IV.

PENSIONS TO WIDOWS AND DEPENDENT RELATIVES BASED ON SERVICE SINCE MARCH 4, 1861.

WIDOWS AND MINORS-WHEN ENTITLED.

ACT AUGUST 7, 1882, AMENDING SECTION 4702, REVISED STATUTES (22 STAT. L., 345).

"SEC. 4702. If any person embraced within the provisions of sections forty-six hundred and ninety-two and forty-six hundred and ninety-three has died since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or hereafter dies, by reason of any wound, injury. or disease which under the conditions and limitations of such sections would have entitled him to an invalid pension had he been disabled, his widow, or if there be no widow, or in case of her death without payment to her of any part of the pension hereinafter mentioned, his child or children under sixteen years of age, shall be entitled to receive the same pension as the husband or father would have been entitled to had he been totally disabled, to commence from the death of the husband or father, to continue to the widow during her widowhood, and to his child or children until they severally attain the age of sixteen years, and no longer; and if the widow remarry, the child or children shall be entitled from the date of remarriage, except when such widow has continued to draw the pension-money after her remarriage, in contravention of law, and such child or children have resided with and been supported by her, their pension will commence at the date to which the widow was last paid."

SECTION 2. That marriages, except such as are mentioned in section forty-seven hundred and five of the Revised Statutes shall be proven in pension cases to be legal marriages according to the law of the place where the parties resided at the time of marriage or at the time when the right to pension accrued; and the open and notorious adulterous cohabitation of a widow who is a pensioner shall operate to terminate her pension from the commencement of such cohabitation.

INCREASED RATE-WIDOWS, MINORS, AND DEPENDENTS.

ACT MARCH 19, 1886 (24 STAT. L., 5).

SECTION 1. That from and after the passage of this act the rate of pension for widows, minor children, and dependent relatives on the pension-roll, or hereafter to be placed on the pension-roll, and entitled to receive a less rate than hereinafter pro

now

vided, shall be twelve dollars per month; and nothing herein shall be construed to affect the existing allowance of two dollars per month for each child under the age of sixteen years: Provided, That this act shall apply only to widows who were married to the deceased soldier or sailor prior to its passage and to those who may hereafter marry prior to or during the service of the soldier or sailor. And all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. That no claim agent or attorney shall be recognized in the adjudication of claims under this act, nor shall any such person be entitled to receive any compensation whatever for services or pretended services in making applications thereunder.

COMMENCEMENT OF WIDOW'S PENSION.

ACT JUNE 7, 1888 (25 STAT. L., 173).

That all pensions which have been, or which may hereafter be, granted under the general laws regulating pensions to widows in consequence of death occurring from a cause which originated in the service since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixtyone, shall commence from the date of death of the husband:

SOLDIERS MURDERED AT CENTRALIA, MO.

ACT MARCH 3, 1875 (18 STAT. L., 671).

*

SECTION 1. That the provisions of existing pension laws be, and the same are hereby, extended to the widows, children, dependent mothers and fathers, or orphan brothers and sisters, in the order named, of those lately discharged soldiers of the Army of the United States, who were murdered by guerrillas at Centralia, Missouri, in eighteen hundred and sixty-four, while being transported on the North Missouri Railroad.

SEC. 2. That the provisions of this act shall be construed to extend to the widows, children, dependent mothers and fathers, or orphan brothers and sisters, in the order named, of any member of the Missouri militia who was murdered as aforesaid by guerrillas at Centralia, Missouri, in eighteen hundred and sixty-four.

INCREASE ON ACCOUNT OF MINOR CHILDREN.

SECTION 4703, REVISED STATUTES.

The pensions of widows shall be increased from and after the twenty-fifth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-six at the rate of two dollars per month for each child under the age of sixteen years, of the husband on account of whose death the claim has been, or shall be, granted. And in every case in which the deceased husband has left, or shall leave, no widow, or where his widow has died or married again, or where she has been deprived of her pension under the provisions of the pension-law, the pension granted to such child or children shall be increased to the same amount per month that would be allowed under the foregoing provisions to the widow, if living and entitled to a pension: Provided, That the additional pen