Evening journal., 1893-03-08
NEWSPAPER OPINION.
A cure for Penslon nls.
Philadelphia Telegraph.

Philadelphia Telegraph.
The record Of the regular army In all
pecuniary matters Is not less honorable
than its courage and skill In war. Its
officers are not only. as a rule having the
very rarest exceptions, men of the
sternest personal integrity, but they
possess the executive or administrative
faculty in the highest degree. They are,
from the day they enter the Military
Academy to the day they leave the ser
vice, trained to executive duty. They
are men of discipline, system aud affairs.
It has been given out that it is the in
tention of the new Administration to
recommend to Congress the purgation
of the pension list, with the view
of lifting the burden of taxation
which It imposes, and with the view of
making something more of q roll of honor
than it now is It is understood that
the President will recommend, as the
beginning Of the proposed reform. that
the Pension Bureau shall be transferred
TO the War Department aud placed
absolutely under the control of a
Chief and a Board of Commission
ers selected from among competent
officers Of the army. No better begin.
ming could be made than that. Army
officers could be depended upon to do
their duty, and they would show no
mercy TO those pensioners whose names
are iraudulently on the list. But that
would be only the beginning of the re-
form which Is necessary and which is de
manded. The present laws should be
swept away by q single comprehensive
| pension act which would give TO every
| deserving veteran, or to his deserving
/ afr tffrsa al 10 and H.
should give to no underserving person,
veteran or survivor, one cent which was
not deserved. A Senator of the United
States, who is a millionaire, was given
! by Commissioner Tanner a re-rating as
pensioner, by reason Of which he drew
from the Treasury in bulk $5 100 for ar
rears. IL is a well known fact that there
are other millionaires upon the pension
roll, and that there are thousands of
others upon it who have the means Of
comfortable living from their incomes
Besides these there are a very large
number of pensioners who are upon the
list through fraudulent representations
Mr.. Morton, the new Secretary of Agri-
culture, related to a group OF friends in
Washington the other day the story of a
neighbor of his who has been drawing
a total disability pension for several
years, he having sworn in his appllca.
tiOn that he was disabled because of
chronic rheumatism contracted in the
military service of the country A few
months ago he took out policy of in
surance in one of the most cautious COM
panies of New York, underwent a severe
medical examination, and declared in his
statement that he had never had any
chronic disease Of any kind, he being at
the time of making the application
wholly free from i'll or injury of any and
all sorts Secretary Morton said
he had no doubt that the list
Of insured persons, If compared
with the pension list, would be found
to contain many such cases of deliberate
fraud-of fraud either upon the Pension
Bureau or upon the Insurance com
panies. The present laws or prao
tioe are not a system they are the very
reverse of a system. They are tumble
of legislative enactments made by politi
cal leaders for political purposes gener
ally and they represent neither gooC
public policy nor regard for that patriot
ism and services which carried SO many
brave men into the field They represent
chiefly the basest sort of political expe
diency, the pension system being chiefly
a wholesale brihe TO voters. The pen
sion business should be dragged neck
aud heels out of politics, and the bes
way to do that is TO put it under the con
troll of the officers of the army, who ar
both honest and competent.