Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-26
WAIT FOR THE JNvEsTIG A TTON.

According to the most trustworthy
authority the investigation OF affairs In
the pension bureau ordered by the sec
retary OF the interior was requested by
Commissioner Tanner. Undoubtedly it
is made with the full approval, II not by
direction, OF the president. In all such
matters, where honesty and thorough
ness are evidently intended, justice to
all concerned requires that public
criticism and opinion be held In
allegiance until the investigation is
completed and the result Off
cially announced. But this fair and
proper principle is not being re-
garded in the present case. The news
papers which feel called upon to cast
odium upon the administration under
any and all circumstances, whether
there be justification or not, are intimat-
ing that there Is no sincerity in the
investigation, and that it will be a
whitewashing affair. 1t is alleged that
the president is not in sympathy with
it, that the officials who are conducting
the investigation are weak men who
will be easily influenced, that the sec
retary OF the interior is not In earnest,
and that it will be easy enough to find
few scapegoats on whom to load the
blame and let Tanner down easy.
All this is absolutely gratuitous. Not
only is 1t without warrant in anything
that has occurred, but the entire course
OF the secretary OF the interior since the
tSl ~ ,rf rf,t, in, hn
sion Office came TO his knowledge has
proved beyond question the desire OF
the administration to ascertain the
whole truth as to what has been going
on, and to purge the Office of those who
are shown to have failed of their duty
or been dishonest. Before the in
vestigation was ordered the Sec
retary had directed the dis
missal Of number OF pen
sion bureau officials OF whose mis-
conduct there was no question, and it is
to be presumed that this was done with
the full knowledge and concurrence OF
the president. A matter of such i'm
portance as this would certainly be q
subject Of cabinet deliberation, so that
the proceedings taken may safely be
supposed to have the approval Of the
entire administration. The scandal
necessarily involved the head Of the bu-
reau and most others connected with it,
and the only proper way to reach the
truth was through IN investigation. 1t
would doubtless have been agrea-
BILE to the opponents Of the
administration If the commits
sioner Of pensions had been ruth
lessly dismissed without being given an
opportunity to vindicate himself, but
all fair-minded mon will approve the
course that has been pursued.
1t may be granted that Commissioner
Tanner has not in all respects shown
the wisest discretion. He has undoubt-
edly made mistakes, and his unneces-
sarily open and vigorous manifestations
of zeal in the matter Of securing what
he believed to be just to pensioners
may have encouraged certain officials in
his bureau to do unwarrantable things
for the benefit OF themselves aud their
friends. But we doubt if even mis- bit
terest personal and political enemies
believe him to have been dishonest, or
that he gave any countenanco to the
abuses in his office for which some have
already been punished by dismissal from
service and others are likely to be. The
pension bureau is the most extensive
| under the goyernme Mt, and its opera
tions more various and complicated
than that of any other. 1t must be
quite impossible for the commissions,
to be familiar with all the de-
tails of the vast work. A grea
deal must necessarily be confidet
to subordinates, and collusion among
these might easily result in abuses
which the commissioner could not at
once discover. The investigation nov
being prosecuted, there is every fair
reason to believe, will probe to the bot
tom the alleged abuses, and justice re-
| quires that Commissioner Tanner be
not condemned, either as incompeten
or dishonest, pending the result of the
investigation. 1t is undoubtedly the
purpose of the administration that M
guilty man shall escape.
|