The Butler weekly times., 1889-05-15
NO MORE PENSION LISTS.
Tanner Refnses the Press the Right Of
Publication.


services t. the republican party III
New York were such as to compel
recognition. 1t was not necessary
that Corporal Tanner should be
made commissioner of pensions, but
he compelled partisan compliance
with his desires. His best quallti
cation is disqualification. Because
he lost his legs, or rather his feet,
entitled him to sylnpathy-but not
to office. The loss of his feet was
considered his pre-eminent qualitica
ton for high Office; especially iuas
much as Cleveland had given the
country physical wreck for com
missioner of pensions. President
Harrison ought to have done some
thing for Tanner, and Cleveland
ought to have done something for
Black, but neither of them should
have been appointed commissioner
of pensions. Any Washington cor
respondent could have told the adj
ministrations better. General Black
did more than all other dyspeptic
noodles to defeat Cleveland He
was the pnerulous concoctor Of
vetoes on pensions. Now, mark ye,
Tanner will not be Z vetoer. HIS
ism will be esotism. He has found
several mares nests IN the pension
office. One of them is that the
great bureau of which his intellectu-
al littleness now is chief, has been
an advertising medium for pension
attorneys, commonly yclept sharks. =
He has determined that the work Of
the public masters. Although the
people pay him for attending to their
pension work for them, Commission
er Tanner draws his pay cheerfully,
and then tells the people that what
he does is none of their business.
He practically says: 1t is true that
this Office grants pensions, but
whose business is it? | don't intend
to allow the newspapers to publish
the pension lists. If l do all the
pension sharks in the country will
use the published lists and do their
utmost to work the pensioners and
get fees from them ON promises to
secure an increase of pension for
them. / shall not consent to the
publication of the daily pension lists
on that account, and I must decline
to accommodate the press"
Now Commissioner Black was
physical wreck, but he had a little
political sagacity. He did not say
to the newspapers: "You fiends and
vampires are of no use to me. and
you can get no news from this de-
partment." On the contrary, Com
missioner Black sat him down in his
parlor and said to himself: 'See
here, John Black, these Washington
correspondents represent big con-
stituencias. They talk directly to
all of the people of the country.
They are willing to advertise what
democratic administration is doing
for the soldier if I will give them
half a chance. I'll cultivate these
fellows for they are not common re-
porters. They represent the best
papers in the best states. I'll cult
vate them" And he did.
Now comes Tanner the trouble
some, and he fires his optics at a
great mares nest of evil. He sees
that pension sharks may get onto the
pensioners. and he constitutes him
self commissioner of pensions,
guardian of pensioners and detec
tive versus pension lawyers-all
this at the same time, and on only
one salary as commissioner. In
other words, the commissioner is
undertaking to make an ass of him.
self by exhibiting his undraped base
to the Washington correspondents
OF the leading newspapers, He
means well; we all agree to that.
But so did Brutus, Sizera, Guiteau
and Judas lscariot mean we'll. None
OF them, SO far as 1 have been ad-
vised, have yet received the approval
OF the men who mold if not make
public opinion. Corporal Tanner
has not yet received that approval
He looks at himself in the rlsss