The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-09-07
PENSIONS FOR REAL SOLDIERS.


which meets there the coming week,
TO express It's disapproval of the course
of Commissioner LOchren In institut-
ing rigid examination into the affa rs
OF the Pension Office and In suspending
the pensions of peneficlaries under the
Dependent Pension act. The Journal
maintains that Juoge Lochren has no
legal right TO suspend, or Withdraw q
pension, granted under prior admin
istratioD, except in the case of alleged
fraud, III which case this burueu of
proof should lie with the government.
Now, unless the Grand Army is
wholly given over to partisan bigots
and hundred day men, instead of un-
biased patriots and real veterans, who
fought the battles of their country, the
coming National Encampment will do
no such thing Judge Lochren is q
soldier with magnificent record. His
appointment was urged by Minnesota
veterans of all parties, He Is in
fraternal sympathy with the men who
stood in the forefront of the battle and
and defended their homes and firesides
in the trying times that threatened the
disruption of the Union. There is not
one single soldier, In all the long rolls,
whose record is properly established.
who has had his pension touched and
there never will be-
1t has been the loose, extrava-
giant, partisan system Of pension
donations, instituted by the Harrison
administration, to make campaign
capital and bag campaign votes, that
has came under the wise and patriotic
scrutiny of Judge Lochren. In the
suspensions which followed, there have,
doubtless, been some here and there
who we're deserving of all they got and
such cases are readily adjusted.
On the other hand vast numbers, as
in the cases railroaded through by the
fraudulent pension attorneys in Iowa,
have been placed on the pension
rolls, at high rating, for
recent trivial disabilities, who
have no right, legal or moral, to war
rant their being there; men who per
formed no service and never saw bat
tie; men who have usurped the long
withheld rights of the soldiers, who
sustained injuries in the service, from
which they are still suffering and who
thirty years after the war are denied
the ust claims they have upon their
country's bounty.
Think of 100000 real soldiers, whose
applications for pensions are pending
In the pension office for disabilities in
CURED in the service, from thirty-two
to twenty eight years ago, crowded
back from the rewards grateful coun-
try has prepared, by a scrambling mob
of greedy nondescripts, who we're Sleep
ing in feather beds and eating butter
on sausages, when these men were
storming the sleeps of Resaca and bat
tering at the gates of Richmond and
turning the hosts of Lee from Wash
ington and Gettysburgl
And yet 1t Is just this state Of things
that Judge Lochren, the Gettysburg
veteran, ferreted out and for which he
deserves the grateful thanks of his
comrades in National Encampment as
sembled, instead of rebukes and curses.
The country will be very rnuch disap-
pointed IN The Grand Army of the Re-
public II II yields TO the pressure OF par
tisan Republican organs and places
itself in false position in the present
pension crisis.
The National! Tribune, the great SOL
dier'S paper of Washington, which
supported Harrison for president,
although . n)n-partisan news syaper,
and which has criticized judge Loch-
rem sharply, III his course heretofore,
has this TO say OF his recent announce
ment and certainly the soldier who
would t4ll TO commend an action so
manifestly just to the real soldiers of
the war, is u soldier in name only:
A report from the pension bureau,
said to come from the commissioned
himself, will be received by the com.
rades with glad interest.
1t Is to the effect that the commits
sioner has discovered that his prede.
cessor gave an unfair preference to
claims under the act of June q, 1890,
and allowed them to such an extent as
to "sidetrack" some 100000 cases under
the old law for disabilities originating
in the service.
An examination of a block of 2OOJ
such cases, 1t is said, revealed the fact
that about 20 per cent. of them were
complete, but their issuance had been
delayed because the bureau was 30
busy allowing claims under the act of
June q, 1890.
1t is further said that, "With a view
to correcting this injustice Commits
sioner Lochren has directed the chiefs
of the several divisions to maks a
thorough search of the files of the old
cases, and where they are found COM
plete to promptly forward them for
allowance, and if found incomplete to
to make the necessary calls for addi-
tional proof"
AS we used to say in war times about
news, "This Is highly important if
true"
If the percentage of completed cases
found In the first block is maintained
throughout, it will mean chat about
10000 old comrades and their widows
are to be made happy In a reasonable
short time by the allowance of their
claims.
We sincerely hope that the Commits
sioner has really found such number
of complete cases, and that he will lose
no time in repairing the alleged fault
Of his predecessor.
Nothing would rebound more to the
credit of his administration, no act of
justice is more imperatively demanded,
aud nothing would do more to aid the
country out of the financial morass.
The Commissioners predecessor al
lowed cases at a rate approaching
1000 day. AS these cases are said to
be virtually completed, the Penalon
Bureau ought to be able to raise this
rate very much, and allow, say, 10000
Of them month for several months in
succession. The amount of money that
this would distribute through the
country would Immediately break up
the financial stringency and revive bus
mess everywhere.
Mr. Commissioner, 60 ahead and do
this and merit and racaiya fha an