Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-11-26
The Pension Scandal.

The New York Herald of Monday, the
18th, publishes statement in six closely
printed columns of what it calls "the sham
and fraud behind this pension giving" The
account given by the Herald relates only to
the dependent pension bill passed by the
last Congress. We have no space to go in
to this exposure in detail, but the salient
points of it will open the eyes of our read
ers to the enormties of bill that was en-
gineered by pension agents at Washington,
and who, it is stated, are believed to have
made their footing good with the republi-
can party by contributing three hundred
thousand dollars toward the expenses of the
last presidential campaign. This they
might easily do if it be true, as alleged,
that one pension attorney alone has made
five millions of dollars out of pension fees;
that last year "they divided more than two
millions and a-half of clear, easy profits;
that this year they will divide more than
three millions, while next year it is esti-
mated that their profits will he about four
or five Millions" The great bulk of this
profitable business is said to be in the hands
of few pension agents, the annual income
of one of them from this business being, it
is alleged, 'fve times greater than the an
nual salary of the President" How men,
bers of Congress we're hoodwinked with re
spect to the number of claims that could
possibly be filed under the dependent bill
may be gathered from this statement. 1t
was then asserted that "by no possibility
would the number of claims exceed three
hundred Thousand, and that one hundred
and seVenty-fve thousand was much more
likely to be the figure" The statement,
it now appears, was gross deception. "In
the first four months and a-half of the law
five hundred and thirty thousand claims
have been filed and more are coming in at
the rate of nine or ten thousand a week.
1t was said that the minimum amount of
| these pensions would be thirty millions of
dollars, and the maximum forty millions.
! "Instead of that the claims already filed
| represent an annual payment of nearly fifty
millions" 1t was asserted that the addi-
tional expense would be SO slight that no
extra appropriations we're necessary to meet
| the charges of the bill, which could be
| readily met out of the pension fund. SIN
stead of that there will be a deficiency this
year of from eighteen to twenty millions of
dollars in the pension account, and it IS a
grave question whether the revenues of the
country will be sufficient to meet these and
| the other expenses of the government"
Nor is this the worst showing of the PEN
sions business. When, last session, the de-
pendent pension bill became law 'there
were then pending before the pension de
partment four hundred and seventy nine
thousand claims growing out of other pen
sion bills which mad not been adjudicated. ="
| All these claims, some of which are Of ten
years standing, have yet to be passed upon.
Including the dependent pension claims,
there are now pending in the pension
| bureau one million claims of all kinds. The
| doors of the bureau have been thrown wide
open to all corners by the instructions given
to admit everything that can possibly be
admitted. Under this policy the number
| of claims allowed under the present and
Tanners administrations has exceeded any
| thing ever known before in the bureaus
| history. Case after case which had been
| rejected under former administrations has
been allowed under this" One hundred
and thirty inspectors appointed under
| former Administrations to examine and re-
port upon suspicious cases have been called
IN under the present administration, and
now, ''if there are frauds on the pension
bureau, they are left to time and the con-
sciences of the defrauders to reveal Them"
Bali. Sun, Nov. 18th.