The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-05-08
The Pension Frauds.

The new Commissioner of Pensions
has made good start exposing and
putting an end to the gross frauds
which have been perpetrated for many
years in the executive bureau over which
he presides. The number of illegally
drawn pensions whose suspensions
he has Just directed is 100, all belong
ing to a single agency, that of Phila-
delphia. In 1O2 of these cases the
only persons entitled to the pensions
have been dead for years. Some died
as long ago as 1871, yet the periodi-
cal allowances have ever since been re-
gularly drawn in their names. In seven
Of the cases widows who forfeited their
rights to pensions by re-marriage years
ago, have called for and received mon.
ey as usual ever since.
These are the first fruits Of an inves-
tigation begun by special agent in a
single locality. There is no reason for
supposing that Philadelphia is the only
place where these practices have been
carried on, and we may therefore pre-
sumo that the unlawful disbursements
of this kind in the whole country are
to be numbered by thousands. This,
too, is only one form of possible fraud,
and form, perhaps, comparativly
easy of detection. 1t risks not only
the disbursing officers personal &C
quaintance with the lawful applicant,
but the circulation of the news of the
death Of pensioner by his friends and
neighbors. Frauds in the original
granting Of pensions, when once &C
complished, are usually safe from de-
lection.
So far as can be judged from the
nature of the Philadeldhia frauds,
they must have resulted from careless
or corrupt discharge of official duties.
There are now over three hundred
thousand pensioners on the roll, and
more than a hundred different grades
of pensioners. The Government has
sometimes paid out fifty or sixty mil
lions year in pensions. These facts,
coupled with the looseness 10 taking
evidence upon pension cases, of which
the Commissioners have often com.
planned, indicate the extent of the field
open for fraud.
But in addition for several years,
the pension Office has been managed
by people who ridiculed the idea tha,
any fraud worth worrying about was
perpetrated One of the Commission
ers, when asked to recommend needed
pension legislation, gravcly called for
special laws, in addition to the ordina.
ry statutes against perjury, TO punish
severely "those who swear falsely
against meritorious claimants right
to a pension"--a demand directly
tending to prevent persons who strong
ly suspect frauds from mentioning the
ground of their belief, lest they should
be prosecuted by the Government they
wished to aid. The same Officer
thought that the proportion of pension,
affected by fraud was not more thar
one in thousand, and that "the pre-
cautions against fraud are extraordin
aay." A previous Commissioner, whose
frankness cost him his place, had mad,
known that five hundred fraudulent pen
sions were dropped from the roll in abou
three years, after over half million dol
lars had been paid to them; and he ha(
also reported that as these discoveric
were mostly due to accident or volun
tary information, "the evidence is con
elusive that small percentage of tn,
frauds committed have been discover
ed"
Congress, short time since, in des
pair of otherwise ferreting out frauds
ordered the publication of the pension
roll. The Pension Office discount
enanced this project from the begin
ming. and a few days after it wa
carried into effect exultingly announces
that tthus far not single complain
has reached this office going to shoS
that persons not entitled to recelv
pensions are getting assistance
change of administration, nevertheless
as we have seen, has already reveale
in a single city more than a hundre
instances of persons who had for year
been getting pension assistance :
which they were not entitled.
would be human nature for those unde
which chronic occupation of office loos
methods OF gross corruption hav
been in vogue to shrink from exposin
either existing or past iniquities. Blu
with thorough reorganization of th
Pension Office, from top to bottom
and thorough investigation OF a
abuses, there will be hope of tha
reform which the people demand AM
deserve.-N T. Sun.