The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-29
DISHONEST PENSION AGENTS.
The Authorities Determined on Breaking
Up the Business.

This business must be broken up" said
District Attorney Corkhill, to reporter. re-
ferring by a motion of his hand TO a mass of
circulars letters printed posters and envel-
opes, scattered over his desk. These were
posters and circulars sent out by pension at
torneys to poor ignorant and unwary peo-
pie, holding out to them the almost certain
prospect of securing pension by transmit
ting at once the customary fee to Messrs.
File & Bleed'em or whatever the names of
the disinlerested patriots who sign the circu-
lars may be. There were other letters, too,
from those who, it is claimed, had been
shared by specious circulars. The poor PEN
manship and bad spelling that characterized
most of these communications indicated that
the alleged frauds have been practiced chief
ly upon the ignorant and that the recent
letter of the District Attorney to Secretary
Teller, regarding the wrongful practices of
such attorneys, had reached the class of peo-
pie who have suffered.
MY attention was first attracted to these
frauds" said the District Attorney, 'by the
receipt OF a number of complaints from
iliterate, ignorant people, about several
pension attorneys of this city, setting forth
that money had been sent by them to at
torneVs, and that they had never received
their pension. | sent one day for a young
gentleman, who L knew was a clerk in one
of the prominent establishments in this
city, to question him in regard to a special
case, which appealed strongly to my SYM
pathy.
The young man was very communicate
i've, and informed me frankly that the
claim was good for nothing. l then asked
him the manner of doing business, and |
was astounded by his revelations. l deter
,ina tl,oT, tA h.axya fhNrO ,rv1
ton made, to ascertain whether there was
not law to punish such fraudulent prac-
tices.
~ am sorry to the Pqgqt dqsa Aterqsy
gagged in this business have been in re-
ceipt, since the publication of my letter to
Secretary Teller, of hundreds of letters, all
of them making specific complaints that
money has been obtained from them by pen
sion firms in this city, under pretense of
obtaining pensions, though in many cases
the parties themselves knew they were not
entitled to pensions"
II will give you an idea of their methods" :"
said the District Attorney, picking up pa
per from the heap on the desk before him.
Let me read you q circular received from
the postmaster in Lime Rock Conn. 1t is
circular sent to him with letter, requesting
him to please post it in a conspicuous place,
and saying that if he would send the pension
attorney list of soldiers who got their mail
at his office the attorney would forward to
him steel engraving of the late President
Garfield. -..e.
Here" said the District Attorney taking
up a poster ornamented with a flag and
screaming eagle "is the circular or poster
he wanted the postmaster to post in a con-
spicuous place. 1t is a displayed hand-bill,
calling the attention of soldiers to the TACT
that Congress has appropriated millions of
dollars for pensions, and that pearl y every
pensioner is now entitled to an increase of
pension"
Another very prominent firm announces
in its circular that the filing of the claim
this fee $40, is lawfully due, and they ex-
pected to be paid before they would perform
any other service. The same firm announced
that in view of the necessary outlay for
skilled legal and medical assistance, for Of
flee rent, blanks, stereotyping, stationary
and postage-the postage alone amounting
to 81, 200 a month-the ten-dollar fee must
be forwarded at once, in advance.
"You will notice that all these circulars
have, Please return this with your reply
printed upon them, which direction is evil
IDENTIFY intended to prevent nybody obtain
ing possession of the circular"
EXTENT OF THE FRAUDS
"Is there much of this fraudulent business
done?' inquired the reporter.
II should say, from the information have
that the soldiers and their widows, orphans
and dependent relatives had been defrauded
of million of dollars"
How long have these frauds been in prog
ress?"
For several years. But it is not until
lately that they have assumed enormous
proportions. By flooding the country with
these circulars, fraudulent in their misrepre-
sentations, pension attorneys have induced
the filing of claim which they knew, at the
time of taking them, were utterly worthless
and which they filed only for the purpose of
extorting the $40 fee. In most cases the
applicants are poor. In one instance
have on the table now, the
father of deceased soldier borrowed dol
lar at time until he had sent the whole ten
dollars asked His claim was absolutely
worthless and the pension attorney mnst
have known it, or else he was unfit to prac-
Jice before the department The courts of
this district have decided that fraud can take
the place of violence in larceny; that if you
destroy mans Judgment, impose upon him
with devices, and allure him to the loss of
his money by fraud it is larceny. These
claim agents send out circulars which they
know contain false allegations they file
claims they know to be worthless, and they
do it for the sole purpose OF obtaining lit
tie pittance of money, ranging from fifty
cents TO ten dollars from the applicant who
himself, in many cases, knows that he has no
claim against the government but joins with
the pension attolTleys in the hope of obtain
ing an unjust claim, just as the man victim
lied by three-card monte joins in the bet be-
cause he hopes to win"
Now, look at that envelope" said the Dis
trict Attorney, holding out an envelope