New-York tribune., 1883-11-05
THE SECOND AUDITORS REPORT
CLAIMS FOR ARREARS OF PAY AND BOUNTY AND
FOR BOUNTY ALREADY PAID.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4.-Judge Ferris, the
Second Auditor of the Treasury has submitted TO the Sec
rcary his annual report He asks for fifty additional
clerks to enable him TO dispose OF accumulated work,
there being unsettled claims hand than at any
time since 1872 He reports that 1657s applications for
Of pay and bounty filed between July l.,
1892 and June 80 1883, and says The great increase
I'm the number Of applications for OF pay and bounty
is something anomalous, and when it is stated that not
one In ten Of the applications being filed possesses
any merit, the inquiry is naturally suggested why at
this late pcrod-nearly twenty years after the war-sO
many claims are filed and the number increasing Not
IN twenty OF all these claims filed upon the sug-
gcsion by the voluntary action Of the claimant The
ordinary cduses that establish the relation Of attorney
and client do not exist The person who has business to
transact and Is ignorant of the proper manner Of accom-
p-hng usually applies to attorney who Is supposed
TO be well informed upon the subject In claims for back
pay ard bounty this order Is in most cases reversed
and the attorney seeks the client An agent employed
TO solicit business in certain section He IS armed with
blanks ready to be filed up and represents to the unn
formed more generally the cOored soldiers their heirs
that they have not been paid all that Is justly due
them: that law, or new construction
of existing law entities them TO more bounty or further
small Zee in advance il required, generally TWO or
three dollars sometimes more In TACT all that can be got
with the promise that no more VIII be demanded unless
the claim be- allowed. The fee II paid the Application
filed and In the end rejected. IL IL very common thing
TO receive In package, fifty or hundred such claims
has received his little advance fee and pays better TO
hunt up moro victims After few months the deluded
soldiers complain that their claims have been long time
pending and that they hear nothing from them They
state that their attorneys do not will not answer their
letters this way very large correspondence Is I'M
posed upon this ocCa correspondence that costs the
Government a large amount of money and benetsnO one
The soldiers 5winded and after their claims are re-
iected frequently denOunce the Government and its OIL
GERS who simply administer the law as they find it.
Another class OF worthless claims Is constantly in
crcasing namely, claims for bOuntics already paid. In
many OF these denials Of former payments are
made under OATH when the records OF this office, auhcn
tcacd In the highest known so the law ana tle
courts show COncusyely that payments were made
wears ago To perjury Is sometimes added forgery ana
the lapse OF time since the war increases the chances or
success 10 the forgers and pcIJurcrs Should these
records be destroyed and such calamity is not beyond
the pae OF possibility the Government would certainly
be defaudcd Of millions OF dollars. 1t Is not alone
with view of protecting the Government from raudu
lent claims but also for the protection OF soldiers and
their representatives, that | renew my former recon-
mcndatlOu for the passage OF law OF limitation All
claims growing of the late should be presented
for payment within years from the enactment
of tie law There is other way OF checking the grow
ing evils IL avoid the payment Of just demands
that statute of limitation is recommended person 70
whom the Government indebted Is not justified in with
holding the presentation of his claim until time when
the Government may be without the means OF deternn-
ing Is lustuess aud validity