The National tribune., 1885-03-19
PENSION TEE LEGISLATION.

! " no nave sinister reasons lof thelt SpuAaE'
These slandercrs hare not hositated to at
tribute the worst possible motives to men
who have secured legislation Of great benefit
10 every soldier in the country. In briet.
the facts are theSc: Prior TO 1873 there was
8 law which allowed fee of SO. contingent
upon the securing Of a pension for the sol
der. This worked very well for every one
for the soldier and the Government. IL
1e13 Commissioner Bentley (among other
bad operations of his administration pro-
cured the passage of Law which prescribed
fee Of SIC to be paid by the claimant IN
advance. This worked IN the worst possible
manner, rs any man o. common foresight
would hare known.
UnscEupuIcus men encouraged every PEI
son TO put in claims fer pensions without
reference to their reasonabIeneSs OF any pos
sibiity Of their being allowed. Their only
motive was TO get the soldiers application
and hi $40, or so much of the fee as they
could induce him to pay in advance. An
enormous amount Of money WAS taken from
the soldiers Of the country, their widows
and orphans, which was worse than thrown
away. Any man, without reference to his
standing before the Department or repUte
ii his own community, could set up as
solicitor OF pensions, get the preliminary
fee and then pay no farther attention what
ever TO the cIaim. II not only robbed the
soldier Of money which he could not spare,
! but ii cloggcd the operations q the Pension
1 O0iee with host q claims, many Of them
utterly worthless and many more so badly
presented that the preparatory work had 20
be done over again, to the great increase Of
the work Of the Pension Oiiice and the de
lay of the settlement Of Just claims. The
evils Of this law became so hagTant that 8
reform was impoTatiyoly demanded, and
Hon. II. II. Teller, Secretary Of the Interior,
who had been Chairman o. the Senate Com
mittee on Pensions and ygas as familiar with
the whole subject Of pensions as any man
in public life, prepared bill at the request
OF the Conference Committees OF the Senate
and House, which did away with the OBJ
jectionable feature Of the Bentley law, and
provided, among other things, for q fee
Of S25, payable only when the pension
was allowed. This law has worked
admirably. Pension Agents ROW only
receive and file IN the Office such claims rs
| seem TO have reasonable chance of success.
The incompetent aud interruptions men
who have been pToying on the soldier in
the guise CT pension agents, have been
driven out, and only those remain who are
skilled in the business and can prepare 4 just
claim SO as to get it through the Bureau ia
the shortest possible time. They must be
men Of henor and standing
The Interior Department now has all who
practice before il thoroughly under its con
troll Anyone Who is found guilty of any
form Of imposition upon the soldier or dis
honesty of any kind is summarily disbarred
and the fact of the same published III al
the papers Of the country.
The fee Of S25 is an exceedingly moderate
one, no matter in what light it is viewed.
In the first place from 10 to So per cent. of
the Claims filed are rejected. As the attor-
ney is compelled TO prosecute all Of them
with the same vigor and skill, this would
make the average fee from 81 to S14, an e1-
ceedingly small one when we remember that
! the average payment TO the soldier in arrears
cases is now over 81 geo. No attorney in the
| country makes commercial collections on any
such small percentage, and there isno COMPARE
| son betweenthe trouble ofmakingan ordinary
! commercial collection and that Of prosecuting
| a pension claim. il takes from one to 10
| years TO put claim through the Pension
| Bureau. The average is about four years.
There is a voluminous correspondence, and
a great amount of clerical labor required
in prosecuting pension claim, which
is rarely necessary in any other class Ct
business No reputable attorney any
where can be expected to do this amount
OF work foT less than S25. To make lower
fee compulsory is to deny the old soldiers
the services Of competent counsel, and hand
them over to the tender mercies Of the
shystcrs and the incOmpetcnts, from whom
they were rescued by the passage of the
present law. The soldiers should have the
services Of the best counsel, and it is unjust
to him to compel him to take any other.
This plain, obvious view is the one which Is
instantly accepted by sensible men every
where when the subject is properly brought
10 their attention.
Even those who ere raising all this clamor,
and whose uttcrauces tecm with misrepre-
sensations and virulent ISLANDERS, do not DENY
that the Laws is just one. They cannot say
that $25 is anything but q very moderate fee
for the great labor, spread over series Of
years, OF collecting allowances which run