The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-01-13
HOW THE PEOPLE ARE CHEATED

HOW THE PEOPLE ARE CHEATED.
The recent trial in Detroit of Richard
son, the colored pension swindler, furn-
ishes a good illustration Of class Of
frauds which have become monstrous in
amount.
During the war the Hundred and
Second Regiment of colored volunteers
was enlisted in Detroit. Like other reg
iments, Colored and white, it lost men
by death in battle or in hospital. These
deaths were duly noted on the muster
roll. James G. Richardson, q colored
man, procured copy of his roll, and
deliberately went to work, in every case
where a pension had not been already
applied for, to furnish fictitious widow
or set of fictitious children for each
name on the entire roll of deceased sol
ders. The law requires certain oaths
and statements, in applying for a pen
sion, to be made in person; accordingly
Richardson produced coored women
from a prolific quarter Of Detroit known
as Kentucky" to make the required
afidavits. 1t is said that the rascal as
signed them only beggarly share of bis
ill-gotten gains, on the ground that he
did all the cheating, except an easy bit
of perjury which the bogus widows
could commit without the danger Of be-
ing detected by their bushes.
Be that as it may, the frauds were
multiplied, and more than score of
fabricated widows filed claims, he even
caused his own wife to personate the
widow of deceased COlored soldier, un
der an assumed name. At last some
thing-perhaps due to the great number
of The persons impliCated-aroused sus
piCion at Washington, A special agent
was sent to Detroit, and twenty bogus
Colored widows were very soon in Jail,
while others were running across the
river to Canada AS it seemed impossi.
ole that the local claim agent, Teuton
named FaCht, could have been ignorant
of the fraud in preparing the papers, he
was indicted; but the jury in the United
State Court gave him the bon ii of the
doabt, and acquitted min, while convict
ing Richardson.
This is the sort of thing that takes
fifty million dollars every year out of the
Treasury. 1t will be answered by dem
agogues that this is an exceptional case
something very extraordinary. On the
contrary, it shows what can be ne in
a single city out of hundreds of cities,
concerning a single regiment of That sim
gle city. II was the unusual greed and
| boluness of these operations in single
Colored regiment, aided, perhaps, by the
| taIkativeness of his mauy partners in
the fraud, that at last exposed Richard
son. No doubt more adroit pension
swipdlers are living to-day on unknown
quantities of i'll gotten gAina.
People who, contemplating further
pension raids on the Tr asury, declare
this Detroit business except Jnal need
only read the last report of Pension Com
missioner Bentley. That officer, with a
! fraukness as rare as it is Commendable,
declares chat the great number of frauds
discovered each succeeding year, "when
it is considered that their discovery by
the Office is in large degree chargeable
to accident or to voluntary information"
is quite c. n ;lusive evidence that only
a small percentage Of the frauds co NIT
ted have been discovered" Take, for
example, the case of Prince, who sue
ceeded in osttiniDg nearly $2l 600 as
pensions for seven fictitious claimants.
The record in the Pension Office regard
ing him reads as follows:
"In 1864, George Prince of Bath,
Me-, then a clerk in the Pension Office,
began a series of frauds through which
to procure the allowance of pensions to
fictitious widows of officers whose rank
gave high rates-monthly payments.
While employed in, and after he left the
Office, he secured the issuance of seven
pension certificates, and, by adroit ar
rangements at different Post Off les,
came into the possession of the letters
addressed to the supposed pensioners
and by the commission of nearly
Thousand forgeries, extending over four
teen years, he obtained possession of the
pension checks, and appropriated the
proceeds, amounting in the aggregate to
nearly $2l 900 to his own use.
"In the commission of these frauds he
forged court records, having abstracted
the genuine originals from other claims
while clerk, and used fictitious seals
obtained by him for the purpose, and
finally secured an appointment as Jus
tice OF the Peace to enable him the more
readily to defraud the Government.
HE was arrested, pleaded guilty, was
sentenced to ten years imprisonment,
and civil suit instituted in the State
courts to recover to the Government the
amount paid in these cases, which was
compromised upon the refundment of
SIS 000."
Here is a case Of forgeres, nearly
thousand in number, extending over
fourteen years. In this, as in the De
troit case, the fair inference is that it
was only the rapacity and audsCity of
the swindler that led to his detection.
In thousands of other cases a greater de.
gree of caution may have safely covered
up the crimes.
The pension service is honeyCombed
with fraud. 1t is quite conceivable that,
if the whole truth were known, we
might find that the fraudulent and tor
tuously obtained pensions, alone are COS
ing the Government as much as the en-
tire foreign diplomatic service. Com.
missioner Bentley, in his report of what
has been done in his Office during the
past year, enumerates instances Of detec
ton that have directly saved $45l ,775 65.
And yet, h adds, this must be but a
small per centage of the frauds commit.
tee and now annually drawing money.
1t is time that Congress should give its