, 1889-10-24
A LETTER FROM NOBLE
1t Appears That Tanner Set
Himself Above Control.
SUPERIOR TO The SECRETARY.
If Left Alone He Would Have
Bankrupted the National
Treasury.

WAsHiseroS, Oct. 1S.--Secretary
Mobiles first letter to Commissioners
Tanner on the subject of ro.rating OF
pensions is made public tonight. II
Is dated July 2s. The secretary acknowl.
edges the receipt of Tanners letter oi
July II marked "unoificial,' but which
he could not receive as any thing hut an
official paper, raising as 1t did a question
OF authority between the commissioner
and secretary, and asserting that of the
commissioner to be superior as to the
matter discussed.
"Your position in your own Ian.
guagc,' says the secretary, Sthat,
while the secretary of the interior has
power to reverse a decision of the COM
missioner of pensions, an appeal by Il
claimant against whom the commits.
sioner has decided, on the other hand, ii
for any reason 1t be held that the claim
ant has been granted too much pension,
the commissioners himself is the only
person who has the POWER to call n halt
and reduce the pension. The commits
sioncr is laboring under IA great misap.
prchension. The secretary has power to
correct any abuses In the bureau of pen
sions, or any other bureau In the depart.
mont.'
TANNERS NERVE.
The secretary, In support of his posi-.
ton, quotes copiously from the revised
statutes, and adds;
at will not do to say that tho score
tary may not interfere and stop any or
dcrs obviously illegal and arbitrary.
The secretary Is responsible for the con.
duct of the commissioner, and Is bound
to see that the law Is enforced that the
public treasury Is not unlawfully in
vadod, and that one citizen entitled to q
right, whether of pension, or land, or
anything else, Is not unduly preferred
In time of hearing or allowance of
money"
The secretary takes the re-rating case,
which he says seems to be largely mere
increase Of pensions allowed for long pc
riods prior to the date of the examining
surgeons certificate establishing the
same under the pending claim for an in
crease. In fact he says, the commis-
sioner himself acknowledged them to
be cases of increase of pensions. The
secretary continues:
The cases referred to were ten in
number. In each OF these the claimant
was an employe in the pension bureau,
receiving a salary sufficient for his com
Portable subsistence, and is at his work
daily. They were associated together.
Most of them had been in their places
under q former administration, but
they did not then prefer their
claims. They made them soon
after the advent of the present admins
tration; there was no reason under the
existing rules that their cases should be
made special or rushed through in ad-
vance of all Others. On the contrary,
there was then, and had been for some
years printed rule, in full force, that
no cases should be made special except
in case OF destitution, or when the appli-
cant was at the point of death. Yet
these cases were all hurried through in
order, while hundreds of thousands OF
other pensions were awaiting through
out the land the allowance for the first
time Of the bounty the government had
promised them. These other pension
claimants were many of them, supported
by no such salaries as these particular
men were receiving, and the association
together of these mcn whereby the pref
erence seemed to have been secured and
subsequent allowances obtained, Ia in it
self fact that their purpose was to i'm
pose upon tho commissioner. The fur
ther fact in each case is that the increase
was allowed prior to the surgeons ccrtif-
icates in the pending cluims, and that
the sums allowed aggregate over SIG, 900.
Neither YOU nor can afford to act upon
personal considerations in u matter of
this magnitude. We are each bound by
tho law In all things, and 1t Is our duty
to take the law as We find it, and TO
fully exercise that power given to either
of us and abstain from the abuse of 1t to
any degree Whatpvcrb