St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-04
L0CHREN'S LETTER.
DOCUMENT or REMARKABLE INTEREST
TO ALL OLD VETERANS.
NO WORTHY ONE IS TO SUFFER-

The Kind of an Investigation He
Will Not Aliow-Where Frauds
Have Been Perpetrated = He
Assures His Army Comrades
That the Law Will Be Obeyed-
Republican Board of Revision.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3.-Commissioner
Lochren addressed the following letter
to the editor of the National Tribune:
Department of the Interior, Bureau
of Pensions, Washington, d. c., Aug.
l, 1S93-(Ofice Of the Commissioner.-
Sir: L have not complied with your
repeated request that l should cause a
test to be made to show the number of
fraudulent pensions by having LOCO
cases drawn from the admitted files and
examined. l have not done this for
several reasons.
Flrst-Fraudulent cases, if any exist,
cannot be discovered in that way.
fraudulent pensions must ordinarily
have been obtained on false or forged
testimony. On the face of the papers
such a case would probably appear to be
Well Established and Incontest-
able.
Second-No one whose opinion is
entitled to consideration has, as | think,
had the hardih0od to claim that the
great mass of adjudcated pension cases
Is permeated with fraud. open and plain,
on the papers, so that the examination
OF 1000 cases would disclose an in
stance. And l certainly have too high
an opinion of my old comrades to be-
lieye that any large number of them
are scOundrelS, who have sought and
obtained pensions dishonesty. Espe-'
cially l believe that the pensions grant
ed to soldiers who did actual service in
the field on account of disabilities of
service origin are usually honest and
we'll deserved. No doubt rests OH this
class of cases, and no examination of
them are being made, except where
evidence is received tending to show
tnat some particular case is fraudulent.
or has been Improperly decided. Even
among the twelve apostles there was
one who was unworthy, and among the
brave and true soldiers of the u Mon
army it cannot be denied that there
were few bounty jumpers and men
who were no credit to us and undeServ-
ing; who have been, perhaps, among
the most eager for place on the pen
L
cations as TO the work of dishonest pen
sion attorneys In Norfolk, New Mexico
and Iowa show local frauds of large eX-
tent. But it would be far from fair to
conclude from such cases that pension
attorneys are generally INSCRIPTIONS
or dishonest. | think, on the contrary,
they are ordinarily honest, painstaking
and careful as other business men.
A case of alleged fraud is brought
to the notice of the bureau by in
formation from some source. If the
information is indefinite or appears to
be prompted by malice it is disregarded.
If it seems to be trustworthy the case is
investigated, the pension being sus-
pended during the investigation, ac-
cordlng to the uniform practice of the
bureau from the beginning. 1t the
pension is improper it should not be
paid: If not shown to be improper the
suspended pension is all paid, and the
suspension enliStS the active co-opera-
ton Of the pensi0ner in furnishing evil
dence and reaching speedy result.
Third The examination of the June
q, 1890, cases is made not because of
any fraud on the part of the claimants,
but because 1t was discovered that this
bureau had, by the adoption of an er-
roneouS rule for adjudication, allowed
many pension not authorized by law.
Under prior laws pensions were only
granted on account of disabilities of
service origin.
The acts of congress had in many
eases liked the specific rates of pension
for designated injuries or disabilities,
and provided generally that for inferior
disabilities of q permanent character
prOportiOnate ratings should be allowed:
and under this general provision the
commissioner, with the approval of the
secretary. had fixed schedule rates for
such inferior disabilities of service
origin.
AS | said before, all pensions granted
under these former laws are presumed
to have been properly granted, and they
are not being examined except on in
formation showing fraud in some par
tlcular case, as has always been the
practice. But the act of June 81, $780,
granted pensions to persons who had
served ninety days OF more, if suffering
from mental or physical disability Of
permanent character, not the result
of their own vicious habits, incapaci-
tating them from performance of
manual labor IN such a degree as to
rehder"them unable to earn a support
such pensions not TO exceed S12, nor be
less than So per month, proportional to
the disability to earn support by
manual labor. Under this act the dis
ability need not be of service origin,
but to be penSiOnable at all the diSabil. /
ity must incapacitate him from manual
labor, so as to render him unable to
earn support. Specific disabilities, as
such, were not pensionable at all under |
that act, nor entitled TO consideration, !
except as they might affect the capacity |
to perform manual labor. But by order |
164, issued Oct. Is. 1890, the commits |
sioner,wilh the approval of the assistant !
secretary, declared that. specific dis |
abilities should be rated under this act |
the same as they would have been rated |
under prior laws, had the disabilities |
been of service origin, up to $12 per |
month.
The effect of this order was shown in |
the Bennett case, which called atten- |
ton TO it. There the claimant, apply
ing under this act of June q, 1890. was |
allowed pension of Sl2 per month for
rl,N IL. e.