New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-09
THE FEELING ABOUT PENSIONS.

There has been much change in public opln-
ion regarding the pension business. The great
increase in pension payments the disclosure OF
abuses or questionable acts in that branch Oh
the service, the apprehension that the rght1ul
payments to veterans have been largely In
fated BY frauds ON the part of applicants or
agents. and the extraordinary demands win
which pension agents quickly followed the
legislation of last year-demands that would
have taken thousand millions or more from
the Treasury-have combined to produce an
unfavorable impression. There are thousands
of voters who were heartily in favor year ago
of liberal measures for the benefit OF Union
veterans, but who are now inclined to look with
distrust upon measures heretofore enacted as
well as now proposed, feeling that the business
NAV have gone too far for the public good.
1t would be gratifying to be able to meet
this distrust with strong and unqualified denial
that il had any justification. But ever since
The TRIBUNE began to call attention to the
Irregularities or abuses in the ser
vice the evidence has been accommodating
that it is not in all respects what it should
be. The facts which have come to light have
nevertheless gone far to impair public colii-
dence in the care, impartiaity and efficiency
of the service, and to increase the impression
that fraudulent claims may have been granted
in many cases through the INSCRIPTIONS infu-
enoe of agents.
THE TRIBUNE has only one interest in this
matter, which is that of all honest pensioners
and of all good citizens. The public has right
to demand that its Treasury shall not DC
emptied and its taxes increased by fraudulent
claims or the devices of INSCRIPTIONS agents,
and that has also become of the first necessity
to the honest pensioners lest the public wiling
ness to meet their proper claims may be I'M
paired if not destroyed, by the feeling that the
system has become machine for the plumber
ing of the country. There has been at all
times a powerful body of voters, whose SYM
pathies were not with the Union veterans dur
ing the War, and who would be only too ready
10 seize upon any excuse for refusing the pay
ment of pensions. With them have been
Others long ago numerous, who have lett mat
the Nation had listened to the clamors OF In
terested agents rather than to the wishes OF
needs of actual veterans, and that legislation
had been contIived far too much for the adj
vantage of those who had least claim or no
claim upon the public. gratitude. II these
bodies of voters are ever reinforced by con-
siderable number who regard the system as
overloaded with fraudulent claims, and as hay
ing become in these later days an instrument
of plunder rather than of National gratitude,
the payment of pensions even to those who are
most deserving may then be no longer assured.
Vindication of the officials in charge is no
longer the question, because the puDhc asks,
and has some right to ask, how far the rolls OF
recipients of public money have been swelled,
whether of late or in years gone by, whether
by collision, by fraud, by neglect, OF by cum
ming and dishonesty which the best officials
could not detect with names which have no
right to be there. Scarcely any former officer
of the Union Army has not become cognizant
of pensions claims which he knew ought never
TO have been considered, but which have been
established through false swearing, or fraud of
some kind, and there is widespread feeling
that a thorough purging Of the rolls would
lessen materially the charges which the Gov
eminent has to meet
If the present Congress desires to do the
best thing possible for Union veterans, 1t VIII
set on foot All inquiry which shall clear the
pension rolls, DIS lar as possible, OF names
fraudulently added, and re-establlsh public con-
6dence in the fidelity of the service and in the
real merit of the great body OF pensioners. 1t
NAV be a mistaken idea, but it is nevertheless
an unfortunately common one, that mere
traction OF the sum which Is now Improperly
Maid each wear 10 those who have no rghttul
claims upon the Government would cover all
the expenses of such an inquiry il conducted
in n straightforward business way, with no aim
to attack anybody, to Smirch anybody, or to
help any party, but solely to establish as fairly
as possible the rights Of the Government and
the rights of pensioners.