The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-09-03
Observation-Disclosures.

w AsHIN GToN, d. G. August IS, So
Scarcely day passes now that some
fraud, some pecculati0n, some long
concealed crookedness OF the truly too
good old republican partizan party is
not brought to light. The hackneyed
metaphor "honeyed- with cor
ruptiOn'' is no tropical exaggeration
when applied TO the departments since
1860 under the control of the republic
can parry. The able and true men
placed over the departments and bu-
reaus by President Cleveland have,
many of them, not been in office five
months, and they have been impeded
by the civil-service STUN bling block
which compels them to make their in
vestigations with the knowledge OF
and through the very rascals who need
to be Investigated. But, in spite OF ali
obstacles, nearly every day has its sem
sation of a gang of official and clerical
bandits dragged from their fastness
and desIoiled of their booty. Early
this week it was the Alabama Claims
Commission in which Walker Blaine,
the son of the republican candidate,
held $500 place and helped many
other salaried tavoriteS TO do nothing
The court which was organized in
1874 to hear proofs of claims to be paid
out of the $I5, 100000 awarded by the
Geneva arbitration commission, was
continued 10y various acts of congress.
In Decem Der 1877 it was constituted OF
five Judges at an annual salary OF
$4,000 each, and a clerk at $4,000, and
an attorney at $1,000, and a stenOgra-
pher at $4,000. Provision was made
for rent of court room, printing, sta
tionery, furniture, fuel and other Incl
dental necessary expenses all to be
be paid out of the funds before judg-
ments were paid. The court was reor-
ganized by law in 1881 with three
judges. When Controller Durham
came too look into the accounts of the
court he found outside of the officers
named as authorized by congress, it
had on the pay-rolls an assistant coun-
sci for the United States, clerk to the
assistant counsel, experts, assistant ex-
perts, clerks to experts, messengers,
watchmen, etc., whose salaries amount
ed to $34 $40 per year. The controller
also found in the quarterly returns that
there has been paid to other assistant
counsel over IS 900 for the quarter end
ing December 81, So, and about $1,000
for the quarter ending March 81, '85,
besides other illegal payments. Among
these special counsel SO employed was
Walker Blaine, f. d. Hunt, Hamilton
Fish, jr., George F. Frelinhuysen,
and others. these payments are en-
dOrsed as correct By the presiding Judge
of the court. The controller finds no
law authorizing these payments, and
after consulting with the secretary
the treasury he has decided to stop all
future payments of the claims.
Since the present superintendent OF
the pension bureau building was APP
pointed two months ago, discoveries
were made upon which charges,o1theft,
false contracts and ,embezzlement will
be founded against his predecessor Mr..
Dickerson. Clerks, laborers and other
employers are implicated ,with the SUI
perintendent for the purpose of sys-
tematic stealing, which has been car
ried on for years.
The investigation is not yet finished,
but preliminary report has been made
by the commissioner OF pensions, from
which it appears that when Dickerson
was custodian of the pension bureau
buildings the carpets that were lifted in
the spring to make room for the sum-
mer mating did not come back to
their former places when the summer
was over. The tag ends only were pro-
duced just to show the necessity for or
dering new carpets.
Several of the men involved in the
charges have recently built cottages at
Colonial Beach and elsewhere, and
furnished them on most advantageous
terms. Window and door cases and
other materials used in building the
cottages are said to have been stolen
ready made, or in handy shape, from
the new pension building, and carpets,
chairs, desks and other useful articles
of furniture which have greatly con-
tributed to the elegance of the cottage
interiors, were obtained from the same
source. Most of the work of erecting
these cottages, it is said, twas done by
carpenters and laborers employed by
the. pension bureau and paid by the
United States government.