The National tribune., 1893-04-13
TIE NEW REGIME.

THE NEW REGIME.
President Cleveland has at last completed
| his staff for the administration of the Pen
sion Bureau, and his selections give general
satisfaction.
Hon. VIM. Lochren, of Minnesota who has
been appointed Pension Commissioner, was
superb duty-soldier," belonged to regi-
ment than which no better ever stood on
| the field of BATTLE and he saw about as
much hard, downright fighting as fell to
the lot of anyone during the war of the
rebellion. In addition to these requisites
for Commissioner of Pensions he has also
the great y-needed3 ones of high judiciel
abilities and training. He is lawyer by
| profession, and his many years On the bench
have developed and strengthened the judi
cial habits Of thought necessary for proper
| discharge of the functions of his office.
| Judge Lochren has kept in touch with his
old comrades of the battlefield, and has just
| finished term as e-Advocate-Gener
of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Dominick I. Murphy, the First Deputy
Commissioner. was too young to enter the
army during the war, but he has literally
grown up in the Pension Bureau, having
entered it when boy in very subordinate
capacity, and risen through all the grades to
Chief Clerk. No one in the country is
better acquainted with all the manifold
ramifcations and workings of the great in
| stitution than he, and he has the disposition
as we'll as the knowledge to make radical re-
forms in it's administration.
H. G. Bell, the Second Deputy Commits
sioner, is man of ability and force of charac-
ter. He was soldier during the war, and
has been in the Pension Bureau for num-
Der of years, where he has shown much
capacity for it's business, and has held very
responsible positions.
The men who have been put at the head
Of the Bureau are thus seen to be all right.
Now the important question is whether
they will be given the authority and means
to conduct the Bureau as they undoubtedly
feel that it should be. The duty before
them, and one which they would much like
to do, is to infuse the greatest energy into
the transaction of its business, and dispose
of its vast accumulation of cases with such
rapidity as will bring them the grateful
admiration of the comrades and a country
wide reputation for business efficiency. Be-
yond doubt they view the soul-wearing,
unnecessary delays in the adjudication Of
claims with the same sentiments that all
who know anything about the pension bust
ness do, and their strongest desire is to at
once attack the volume of business before
the Bureau as they would enter upon any
other great task set for jealous, capable
men, bring every means to bear to dispose
of it properly in the shortest possible time,
and so fulfill the expectations entertained
of them, satisfy their own sense Of duty,
and win that reputation which all men
covet of marked ability and efficiency.
1t rests with the President and Congress
to say whether they shall be allowed to do
this. If given the power and the means
they will settle every one of the hundreds
of thousands of cases now on file in the
Pension Bureasl by the last day of December,
1894. Justice, humanity, mercy, public
honor and the principles of good Govern
ment imperatirely demand that they should
do this 1t will be grlevous mistake, in
every way, to, allow these cases to drag
along, year after year, in the way in which
they have been dragging since the close of
the war. The prematurely old and broken
down men who are applicants for the Ma
TONS justics should no longer be denied
that which they have earned with their
ample to settle all these claims, and the
only question is whether the Government
shall be allowed to do it. II viii! be great
feather in the cap of President Cleveland's
Administration if all these cases can be
settled within the coming year. It will
rebound more to his credit than any other
act that he can do. He has appointed men
who are entirely capable Of ending this
great scandal On our Governmental methods,
and will close up the pension business ex-
peditiously and satisfactorily. Now we
shall wait anxiously to see whether he and
Congress will give these officials the means
and power to do as they want to do and the
country wants them to do.
OUR CARTOON.
Our cartoon expresses the general senti-