The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-12-28
saying with regard to Secretary Hoke Smiths

| saying with regard to Secretary HoKe Smiths
| arbitrary action:
81 have no hesitation in saying that such a
| proceeding has warrant in law, is contrary
to the well-established usages of the Govern.
ment, and is gross usurpaton of authority"
Under the decision of the former Commits
sioner of Pensions. when the list of pensions
granted was furnished to the press, the resi-
dence OF the pensoner was withheld, for the
very good reason that it let loose him q
horde of pension claim agents, many of whom
| are thoroughly honest and reliable men, some
of them unfortunately are not, and the latter
wrote the soldier in way to make him dis
satisfied with the bounty of the Government.
This rule of Commissioner Raum has been
abrogated by the present Commissioner. and he
goes one better, and he gives not only the
State, town, or city, but he gives tho county as
weli-WOrcester, Mass. for instance, city OF
$4,000, has added to it Worcester County; Low
ell, Middlesex County; BrocktoD, Plymouth
County; Boston, Suffolk County.
am at a loss to understand what this addi-
tion is for. The only explanation that can
possibly see is that the list of pensions granted
is so ridicu!ously small that it is necessary to
somehow other pad the list especially since
the whole force of the Pension Bureau has
been turned from the legitimate business of
examining claims to that of unearthing frauds
and reviewing the decisions of the former
Commissioner
Mr.. Cooper. of Indiana. I will ask IL you
do not know the reason given by Commissioner
Raum for not giving the residence of the PEN
sioner. when applied TO by newspaper reporters
for the information was that it was for the
protection of the Washington claim agents;
for as soon as the pensioners name was given
other claim agents at once wrote him for his
business, and that the agents here complained
that 1T was troublesome to them to have their
business thus interfered with.
hat tta rr,r
to me for the action of Commissioner Raum,
and, as he IS a gentleman of honor and in
tegrity, do not believe it. / would like TO
ask what earthly use it would be to give Wor-
cester, Worcester County. when that is city
of $4,000 innabitants2
Mr.. Cooper, of Indiana. There is no occasion
for publishing the list of allowances if you do
not give the State. County, aud postotfice of the
claimant whose claim is allowed. If it is bit
OF news, it is of interest to tho pensioner to
know whether he is the John Smith whose
claim is allowed or it is some other John
Smith.
Mr. Morse. In further reply to the gentle.
man from Indiana say the evident reason for
adding the County" in the case of large cities
such as have given is to pad the list, as not
unfrequently the published list of pensions
granted gives only two, three, or six in great
State like Massachusetts,. and without the wad-
ding of Counties it looks very small
The following clipping cut from THE Ma
TIONAL TRIBUNE, paper published in this
city, is pertinent and germane to this dis
cussion. The penson-r roll is large, but the war
was the greatest war of ell history:
"THEY FORGET.
THE people who express surprise at the size
of the pension roll forget the immense magni-
tude of the struggle for National salvation.
They forget that it represents the bodily
disabilities incurred in the longest the greatest
and the bloodiest war in modern history.
They forget that over 1900 900 men fought
for four long years, during which time the rifle
and cannon were not silent for single day:
that more than 1000 battles took place, many
of them the bloodiest ever known; that
l25.000 men were actually shot dead on the
field; that 100000 died from disease produced
by the hardsbips of soldiers life. and nearly
100000 were more or less severely wounded by
the missiles of the enemy.
They forget that this means more hard
fighting was done and more lives lost than in
all of the armies of Europe put together in the
last rs years.
If they would remember these things they
would be astonished that the pension-roll is not
much larger than it is.
Proportioned to the number of men, and
the amount Of fighting done by them the PEN
on-roll Of the United States is really much
smaller than that of any Nation in Europe"