The Butler weekly times., 1892-03-09
LIEUTENANT FOOTE'S SCHEME.
a Movement Against Pensions.

ranks OF the pensioners and thous
ands of friends of Lieut.. Foote, of
the new Society Of Loyal Volunteers
as published in the Post Friday
morning, has created as much talk
perhaps among Grand Army men as
anything that has occurred in a long
time Numerous letters are being
received by pension attorneys, and
the protest that goes up seems to
be quite unanimous The Grand
Army men do not favor the scheme,
and say that it will not be received
with favor by the vast majority of
old soldiers throughout the states.
A reporter of the Post called on
Hon. james Tanner, ex-commission
er of pensions, yesterday, asked him
what he thought Of the scheme pub
lished in the Post.
II have read something about it,
he said, "and I am frank to say that
considering it in it's entirety, it seems
to me to be an organization in the
air; impracticable, and proceeding
from the start on assumptions which
make it necessary to consider it from
various stsndpoints. If its object
be to deal with frauds that may ex-
list, then it is in itself an indictment
of the efficiency of the present ad.
ministration. If it is operating or
proposes to operate on the basis that
there are a very considerable nam
Der of men who feel that they are
receiving pensions that they ought
not to get for any reason whatever
tien / answer that the one practical
thing for these men to do is to sur
render their pensions. l DO not be-
lieve there will be much of a line
formed at the commissioners Office
OF those who may turn in their cer-
tifcates, and l think if you could
contrast figures, one column to con-
sist of the amount fraudulently
drawn in pensions, and the other
column to consist of the just amounts
due to claimants, and to those al
ready on the pension rolls, amounts
which they are prevented from re-
ceiving by the unlawful and the un-
just acts of the government, the lat
ter column would foot up very much
larger than the former.
l am not acquainted with the gen
tlemen who are the moving spirits in
this organization. I do happen to
have some knowledge of one who is
soliciting subscriptions for the pur
poses of this society. 1 refer to
Major Daniel O'Driscoll. He was
undoubtedly a gallant soldier in the
war, and lost leg at the battle of
the wilderness while serving as a
corporal, but I am inclined to think
that his leg was not amputated until
all the good blood in his body had
settled in that member, and he then
and there buried that leg and good
blood forever. 1 knew him when 1
was commissioner of pensions as a
suspended attorney. He had been
suspended on the charge of having
goobled about S7O0 out of sum
total amount of $1,ln0 pension
granted to widow who was his eli.
ent. He had an office then in Cleve
land or Columbus, l forget which
and he was in Jail under the charge
He got out on bail, aad came te
Washington and interviewed me al
the pension office, demanding to bt
relieved from his suspension in or
der that he might collect the fees
due him. I refused to relieve him
told him frankly that l belieyed h'
was the meanest kind of a robber
and that if he had his just desert
should be. at the outcome of thi
matter, in the penitentiary. He wa
tried. convicted. and sentenced to
term of imprisonment, and mus
have either served his term out o
been pardened; for, as l said before
he is now operating IN New 1orl
and Brooklyn as the angel of reform
in this movement to purify the pen
sion roll.
There is great misapprehensio1