The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-06-18
THE WASTES euRpLus:
How the Leaks In the Public Treas ur,
Were Created

The wAsTEB SURPLUS:
How the Leaks In the Public Treas ury
Were Created
The billion dollar congress put out .
good deal Of its plumber at good inter
est Although the brakes were turned
on just in time in regard to the most
thieving ship subsidy bill that was
ever conceived, and the horde uf
wolves Id Washington, that constitute
the steamship lobby, were baked Of
their principal prey. Yet they got d
toothscme morsel in the postal subsidy,
and with the connivance of such a keen
treasury pointer as John Wanamaker,
they may reasonably hope to secure q
goodly share Of plumber from the re-
ceptacfe of the peoples money. The
owner of the bargain counter ut Phila-
delphia, who suborns all the papers in
his guild by enormous advertising, and
who was smart enough to have the
Pan-American congress corraled in, his
store and addressed by his principal
foor-walker, has charge of the postal
subsidy business, and he has already
made the hearts Of the lobby glad and
raised their expectations by his pre-
liminary arrangements in reference to
the mail subsidy steal. Pious John
may always be relied upon to execute
the orders of the "boys" with neatness
and dispatch, as far as the law will
permit him. He is thoroughly repre-
sentative member Of the Harrison adj
ministration, the motto of which has
been repeatedly put in practice and may
be described as: Curse the public, and
spend all their money"
Allied to John Wanamaker in the
work of spending the money of the
people in the most lavish manner posi-
bic, is the notorious Green B. Raum,
commissioner of pensions. That coat
Of whitewash, flung over this tattooed
official at the eleventh hour, by a re-
luctant majority of a congressional in
vestigating committee, is already
cracked in several places, and the
marks are still visible. A large proper
ton of the revenues of the government
are handed over to this branded official
that he may work his sweet will upon
them and dispense them according to
the dictates of his brother sharks, and
in the interest of the private 'sSon
John" annex he has attached to the
pension Office. There is no branch of
the government in which such whole
sale fraud exists and receives the in
dorsement OF official authority as in
the pension office. Union veterans, the
most deserving ofp the pension appli-
cants, are treated with contempt, and
their claims thrust aside without a
word, unless they consent to share
literally with the Washington sharks.
One of the most recent instances of
fraud in this fraud infected Office is
Pratt, who was formerly in the volun-
teer service. He appeared, eighteen
years after the war, for a pension, ON
the ground that be had received a.
wound in the left hand, and the sur
geons who examined him declared adj
versely to his claim. But, being an
employee of the bureau, he got his pen
sion all the same. For a scar on the
third finger of his right hand, Mr..
Pratt not only received regular PEN
sion, but received nine dollars month
cation and thirteen dollars month
after the decision of the bureau in
which he was employed. The loss of
the entire finger would have entitled
him, under the law, to only two dollars
month. Dudley got the increased
amount for him, and he put it into real
estate purchased from Dudley. Odell,
Washington shark, had his pension
increased by Tanner from six dollars
to twenty-four dollars month, with
over one thousand dollars back pay
through rerating. A townsman of Har-
rison, named johnson, who had been
dropped from the rolls as fraud, has
managed to rake in seventeen hundred
dollars through rerating by Dudley's
aid, and is now applying for an in
crease.
The pension Office is absolutely rot
ten from the commissioner to the hum
blest employee. There is no longer any
disguise as to the waste of the peoples
money in that corrupt bureau. Anyone
fortunate enough to have o pull in
ner and John Raum, can get pension
on the fiimsiest grounds, and there are
thousands of democratic ex-soldiers,
with genuine claims, who cannot even
get hearing. The American peo-
pie have been, goodness knows, lib
eral to the utmost degree in this pen
sion business. and, although it is nearly
twenty-six years since the war closed,
they are still willing to pay literally
for the claims of the survivors of the
war. But they decidedly object to
such preposterous claims and to such
wanton waste of their money for the
most corrupt purposes under the .direc-
ton of a branded and tattooed official.
krhe presence of Green B. Raum in the
pension bureau is an insult to every
American worthy of the name. But he
is the pet -protege of Harrison, and he
win remain as the dispenser Of one
hundred and thirty million dollars an
nually while Harrison can keep him
there. The billion dollar congress has
given him, at the eleventh hour, So
called certificate of good conduct by
liberal coat of whitewash. The next
democratic congress cannot do agreater
service to the country than by ordering
a prompt investigation of Green b.
Raum, and another one of John Wanna
maker, If only to show the country the
inherent rottel1ness of the Harrison
administration. Albany Argus.