Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-24
GEN. BLACK HARD AT WORK.
The EnOrnity of His Correspondence
COmpels Him to Use a Stamp.

The EnOrmity of His Correspondence
COmpels Him to Use Stamp.
WASHINGTON, March 23.-Gen. John
c. Black has been Commissioner of Pen
siOns for six full days, and is one of the
busiest men in Washington. Saturday
he signed over 1000 letters and other
pieces of mail matter, received 200 or 800
callers, and attended to the ordinary busi-
ness of the office requiring his personal
supervision. To-day the rush of callers
fell off a little. Two thousand signatures
day requires good deal of writing for
man both of whose arms are disabled bv
old wounds, and the General has resorted
10 rubber stamp, the legality of which
has been questioned, but he holds that
since he can legally authorize a man to
sign Tor him, either in his presence or alb
sence, or by touching pen to his name
after it is signed make it legally his sig
nature, he can stamp his name as often
as required and no court will ever Gues-
tion It's regularity. In fact, it will be a
physical imp0ssibility for him to get on
without it.
The General has entered upon his new
duties very quietly. He is not looking
for opportunities to be sensational. In
the immense business of which he has
charge he suspects that improvements
may be made, and, perhaps, some abuses
may be corrected. He is on the lookout
for these. He saws he has no desire or
intention to punish anybody, as he be-
lleVes that punishment, generally speak
ing, was applied so far as it need be
applied at the election last November
The only thing he has discovered so far
demanding correction was in the accounts
OF the special examiners. There are 366
OF these examiners, and they are paid a
salary per year with an extra allowance
per day when in the field, besides their
expenses. The General was struck with
the fact when their bills came in that
most OF them claimed the per diem allow
ance for twenty-eight days in February.
He does not believe so many of these men
were enterprising enough to have broken
t0ur SaDbaths in such a short month. He
also found some fault with a man in
IeXas who put in bill for about S75 for
expenses incurred in travelling about the
state, and who reported having examined
only three cases.
While Gen. Black will doubtless find
mucn that can be corrected and improved,
he nevertheless finds the Office in much
better condition than Col. Dudley found
it. There are now 200, 900 unadi1dicated
claims pending. When Dudley came in
there were good many more cases pend
ing, and the vast majority of them had
never been touched. The increase of
clerks voted by the Forty-seventh Con-
gress enabled him to catch up, and the
work is now kept up about as closely as
it can be. so long as the cases come in so
rapidly as they do. They still continue
to roll in at the rate of $500 to 5000
a month. The percentage of claims
by persons who are in no way entitled
to pensions under the law, as it now
stands, is greater than it has ever been
before, and it is constantly increasing.
The number of rejected cases is, there
fore, greater. The sum in arrears is so
large as to tempt many to apply for it.
and take the chances of losing the small
fee required for making out papers. The
solicitation of pension agents and attor-
neyS doubtless induces many to make
application. When the claims are thrown
out here they are carried to the special
examiners, where they are fought over
again. In case of failure a second time
they come to Congress with bills for
special relief.