The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1892-03-03
@<vo<-'' -
The Proposed Pension Bureau
Investigation

investigation
| Is in line with public sentiment. There
was no mistake In creating special com.
mittee Tor this purpose, with DUNCAN to
represent Ohio.
The reported sale OF offices by a son of
the Commissioned OF Pensions, II true, Is
not proof of very exalted virtue OIL the part
OF Bureau officers charged with dispensing
lie funds yearly.
| But 1t is not sign OF either more exalted
| virtue, o. II virtue be not wanting, tits not
| n certificate of capacity in the administra-
ton of the pension laws, to find the claims
OF poor and dependent widows and moth
ers. pending for years, rejected or postpon-
ed on the one hard, and big pensions
granted to able bodied men and these
again IScRE AsED upon the other. write
as a soldier proud of his record, not as
simulacrum fearful of uttering the truth.
The law creating boards of enrolment
passed March. 3rd 1868, for enrolling and
calling out the militia, Is the act the faith
ful enforcement of which, that broke the
back bone of the rebellion, and yet mem-
bers of these boards by n ruling OF the Pen
sion Bureau, are not recognized as being
In the MILITARY SERVICE on the one hand
while Others who simply enlisted, never
got farther from home than the point of
rendezvous in their own state, NEVER
PERFORMED ANY SERVICE AT ALL, are hon
ored with big pensions upon the other
hand.
The veteran Boards OF Enrolment, Re-
cruiting and nraft that poured a half mil
lion of reinforcements to the army OF the
Potomac sent staggering back in disaster
under McClelland, Burnside and 4 ooker, |
and enabled Meade, Reynolds and Han
cock to repulse Lee nj Gettysburg and fol- |
low him to Appomattox ara mot in it,
have had NOTHING to DO with it, but the !
dauntless soldier who got rs far as the state |
line took the belly ache and was hOnora-
bly, discharged is til savior OF his country
and its gratitude must be expressed by a
monthly stipend extracted by tariff tax
on widows and orphans, for Mr.. Raum
says "he WAS in it," had som ETHrNG to do
with it, aud must be rewarded!
Mr. Raum saws the substantials Of the
Boa rtis of Enrolment and Draft "were In
it," but members OF the boards who com.
manded them "were not In lt.'' He says
an "enroIling officer" if he wrote only so
names on paper sent to him by the supe-
rior in inmand, "was in It" but the Com
of ENROLMENT to whom he ie-
ported and from whom he received COM
mands, Twas not in it," The subaltern, is
therefore pensioned, the superior Is locked
out.
II Mr.. Raum Is right, then President Lin
,oln, his Secretary of war, and his Provost
Marshal General were wrong. These EN-
nent officials recognized each and all the
ne embers of the boards of enrolment as
sin the military service" and O. mmanded
hem to strike their names from the rolls
liable to draft while serving in said boards.
1fMr. Raum is right then thos eminent
officials were not only wrong b ut particips
.rimlnls in dra.t SGeakery by the false
,retense that the men were "in" the mill
AIRY service who were mot" In it. MIR.
1aum may be wiser and greater and more
'atriotic than Lincon. Stanton and Fry
,ut his fame is not so we'll established.
Gentlemen of the Investigating commit
ee, we are waiting for your report, and
lope you will find Raum to be more q
ool than a rascal, and may trace the in
ustice of his administration to incompo-
ency and not dishonesty, and If you would
rotect the rights OF the soldier, his widow
nd |. Is mother, as we. as the treasury
gainst unfitness linked with honor or dis
ouor-seaing you have no power to re-
move the cause by substituting an abler
nd better man for commissioner, let US
AVE the protection of a non partisan
'oard of appeals ana revision, independ-
nj OF the pension bureau with power to
syerse, revise, increase or dimin nish upon'l
violence a nd according to law, and allow
is findings 10 be flnal Then we will havo
tensions equalized, expenditures reduced
nd justice administered to all.