Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-07-11

He Outlines q Reform which He Thinks
is Demanded-HOw FayOrites are Said
to be Promoted at the Expense of the
Deserving-Chiefs who Have Power to
Make a Clerks Record Good or Bad.

1--WE are not disturbed much in our minds
about discharges as we were,'' remarked one of
the republican clerks in the Pension office to a
STARreporter.eW We no longer dream ofour official
heads being decapitated, at least not those who
are within the classified service. Nevertheless
q good many of us are very much disturbed,
and our minds are narrowed with fears of fu-
ture calamities.''
''What gives rise to such fears" asked the re-
porter"
"Well, we fear the spite of the chiefs of divi-
sions and the others associated with them in
what is known as the pension office ring. We
also fear the continuance of the fraud which
forms the basis upon which the rating and al
leged enlclency OF the examiners are founded,
when questions of promotion or retention in
office are considered. AS these changes are
based upon the record of each man. the stippo-
stion is that it is perfectly fair. But the fact is
the record is a shameless and audaciouS lie, as
Will explain. When Il claim leaves division
for and passes the board OF review, the eXami-
ner gets credit on the record for one case: the
sum of his cases submitted during the month
plus the letters he has written and the circulars
he has sent out, forming the record on which his
efficiency is Judged: the letters and circulars
however, count for little or nothing. Now, gun
SHOT wound Cases are comparatively very easy
to adjust, requiring very little testimony and
very little work or writing In their preparation;
while cases of pension for disease require much
testimony and often take years to ripen or be
when what is called new cases. or those re-
Gently filed, are given to an examiner, he has
to get in all the testimony and work up the
case which, from the dila:0riness of claimants
and difficulty of finding witnesses at this late
date, takes many months to do. There are also
which the examiner justly looks upon bonan-
ZaS and easy cases.
various examiners by the chiefs of the files or
the chiefs of division, often, as the result of
consultations between them, wherein they de-
eide what sort OF cases shall be given to John
Smith and what kind to Jim Brown. Thus, it
is perfectly i'll the power OF either one OF these
officials to secure the poorest examiner rapid
promotion from his record, to damn the
ablest one past all redemption by giving him
hard cases, recurring much and difficult labor;
and this has been done for years, and SO shame
lessly, too, that we all know it.
II believe that examiners DESTROYS of prefer
ment used formerly to pay money to the clerks
i'll the files for easy cases, and, for aught know
to the contrary, this is still done. Under this
system OF wrong and outrage all appeal is use
less When man is promoted whom we all
know well to be ignorant and incompetent the
chief of his division Immediately pulls the
record on US If we make complaint of the in
all question that the fraud promoted has put in
perhaps ten times as many claims each month
as any OF the complainants and that, too, for
an unanswerable argument, and the poor devils
who appealed for justice are at once looked upon
by tine commissioner as Slandercrs"
"The remedy for all this" concluded the off,
cial rs SIMPLE absolute and readily applied.
A printed card could be filed with each case
WHICH SuDuiGlcU ny Tie examiner submitting
it-a card which should be in the nature of a
teIi;taie: This card should have a place on
dence and papers in the case, the number of
letters and circulars written In course of its
preparation, and the number of pages of brief
written. In another place it should show the
number OF letters written, Of circulars sent out,
and Of pages of brief written by the examiner
submitting the case, and this statement he
should sign. There should be another space
upon the card for an estimate of the actual per
centage OF the whole work done on that parti-
cular case by the examiner submitting 1t, and
that percentage of q case should be entered
upon The record Of the division against the
name of the examiner"