The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-10-03
CORRUPTION RAMPANT.
The New York Tribune, the Leading Re-
publican Organ OF tho Country
Rakes tho Thieves.
THE PENSION FRAUDS.
tNew York Tribune Special

which appears to have addressed itself tc
the investigation which it conducted with
blue glasses on and its cars carefully
wadded with cotton, lest, peradyenture
some ray of light or some trenchant fact
might penetrate to its inner consciousness
had subpGnmd the clerks whom it re-
fused to hear, it might have developed
much interesting matter. 1t could have
learned, for instance, that the now cele-
bratcd completed files" system was not
only useful instrument for expcditing
the claims of certain favored ATTORNEYS,
but, strange as it may appear, was also
used for the purpose Of rctarding the
adjudication Of cases already placed upon
them which were filed by an attorney
whom the ring dislked. Thus they kept
the fees from him.
a case in point illustrating this inge-
NOUS punitive system ID that of an at
torney who is himself badly wounded
soldier, and from whom for that reason
his clients looked for unusual devotion to
their interests. This gentlemnn's fire.
quent and earnest appeals for justice to
certain claimants incensed the officials,
and they warned him that he must be less
urgent in the future. Feeling, however,
that no was merely performing faith
fully the duty for which he was paid,
he continued to urge his clients
rights. Mark the result. The practi-
toner referred to knows that he has
many claims upon the completed files, but
they are all "held up; he cannot get
them adjudicated, and he is suffering most
seriously, not only in his business but
also for money for his own living expenses,
in consequence. These indicative ring
sters were, naturally, well aware that
their malignant pursuit of this unfortu-
nate attorney was equally cruel toward
tho unhappy veterans whom they thus
kept out of their pension money, and
whose cases they were sworn to adjudi-
cate faithfully.
"Your Committee might, moreover,
have stumbled upon the written COM
plant Of second attorney, prominent i'll
the business circles of Washington, who
called attention to the fact that in hun
dreds of claims filed by him under con-
tract fees of $25 each, only $40 fees had
been allowed in such cases as had been
ndiudcatcd This letter of complaint
was unanswered for many months and has
not been replied to yet. Another modern
instance" is that Of an attorney who had
incurred the enmity of the ring upon
whose track they put certain malodorous
special agents for the purpose of formu-
lating charges against his integrity
Failing in this cminently praiseworthy
effort, they next attacked his pocket,
and performed the office Of the footpad,
only in a decidedly new and ingcn-
ious manner. This attorney filed many
claims with $25 fec contracts; now these
contracts were conveniently "l0st' in spite
of his frequent protests, and fee of only
$40 paid, the attorney thus losing SD on
each claim, which is unfair, US he is an
able lawyer and unusually thorough and
panstaking in the preparation of his
eases. The visiting statesman" would
possibly also have come across in the
second corridor pile of official trunks
which paternal Government furnishes
to the special examiner Of the Pension
Bureau for the safer custody of their
cases and papers while in 'thc field, and
might easily have tripped over the iden-
teal trunk which member of the divi-
sion to which they belong informs the
Tribune was found when opened to con-
tain u supply of certain attorneys circu-
lars. How the special examiner, to
whom the trunk belonged obtained these
circulars; whether he distributed them
among the soldiers along his route, thus
canvassing for his master, the attorney;
or whether, perchancc, tho man was inno-
cent, and his trunk was "salted' with
these obnoxious documents by members
of the ring to get him into trouble, are
matters which might well have engaged
the committee attention. 1t would, pos
sibly, have been profitable also to ex-
anime further one Francis II. Allen, who
testified SO glibly, recently in the com
mittcc room relative to the manifold
blessings conferred by the system of the
'completcd files" and whom this Re-
publican Administration might have
safely left in the unofficial obscurity to
which the physical Wreck" rclegated
him, at great profit to itself. Mr.. Allen
is chief of the Southern Division and
testified in somewhat vainglorious, man
ner about his own files, but, probably
from lack of time, omitted to state
whether or not, though the amiablc assis-
lance OF EuSur d. CITY MS Chiei Va WV
files, he has SO administered the latter as
to take away from conscientious and hard
working examiners numbers of claims
which they had worked up to "A point
where they were ready or nearly ready for
adjudication.
Inquiry might have been further made
as to whether these cases were then
assigned to worthless examiners for the
purpose Of keeping able clerks whom the
"Chicf" dislikes from making any record
at all and of securing the further pro-
motion of unworthy favorites. This wit
ness might have testified further, whether,
still through tho assistance Of this creature
Perry, recently promoted, of course, to
81 800 position by Secretary Noble, this
system has not yet prevailed, for years
-, III. Southern Division under il :