Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-07-13
PENSION FRAUDS.
Evidences of the Loose Methods 0GnRe.
publican Offciais.

+! PENSION FRAUDS.
publican Oniciais.
The inquiries that have been set on
| foot with reference to the pension list
have, from the necessity of the case.
made no great progress; but they are
already bearing substantial fruit.
Nothing else was to be expected. I'm
der Tanner and Raum the bureau was
| avowedly run for the purpose of grant
ing as many pensions as possible.
From time to time boasts were pub
lished that the Office was beating all
previous records, and figures submitted
to demonstrate the correctness of the
| claim. OF course where it was well I'M
derstood that the main object was to
issue as many certificates as possible,
| there was small hope of protecting the
interests OF the government against
fraud. The ingenuity of the treasury
raiders is SO great, their number so inn
mense and their industry SO untiring
that the utmost vigilance on the part
of officials is not always sufficient to
head them off. What, then, must be
the condition of affairs when the Off
Gals themselves are virtually in league
with the raiders?
How easy was the task of fraudulent
pensioners and their aiders and abettors
was well illustrated by the result of the
inquiry as to the pensionfrauds at Nor
folk. Va, of which some account re-
Gently appeared in the dispatches. w.
r. Drury was a pension claim agent,
and had an office specially constructed
to oyro1i<a I,,1o al fvur,
sons occupied the office with him, and
were convenient for use as witnesses,
as was also one Cherry, who was man
of all work in the office. Drury's
nephew, Richardson, a notary public.
also had desk in the Office. He signed
declarations in blank. which Drury
used whenever they We're needed. Even
this did not satisfy Drury. for he often
forged Richardson's name, as he did
that of witnesses. This sort of thing
has been going on since 1890, but it was
not discovered until this year. The
government has paid one hundred and
fifty million dollars in cases in which
Drury has figured, and but for the dis
covery would ultimately have paid, &C.
cording to the estimates, some six hum
dred and fifty thousand dollars more.
1t is argued, of course, that the PEN
sion Office was not responsible for
Drury's frauds, which may be technical
ly true, though it is false in substance
and effect. The free and easy manner
in which the Office was conducted, the
avowed eagerness to grant pensions to
every body who applied, if any pretext
for it could be found, were so many in
vitationS to claimants and claim agents
to try their skill in inventing false pre-
lenses. Drury had runners out scour-
ing the country for fraudulent appli-
cants. The same names constantly re-
CURED as witnesses, and were often
signed by Drury himself. The papers
were suspicious on their face, and if the
Office had been conducted with ordinary
care to prevent fraud detection would
have come much sooner than it did.
The case of Drury is valuable as
showing what was possible under such
an administration of the pension Office
as that of Raum. OF course, there is
every reason to believe that his case is
only one of many. His method may
have been more daring than those of
most of the others, but they tended to
the same end. The number of unde-
served pensions obtained by him is
trifiing compared with the grand total
of fraudulent cases. And yet there is
already an cutlery that these investiga-
tons are intended to rob the pension
ers of money which rightfully belongs
to them.
The position of the pension bureau,
under its present management. is inn
pregnable, and must command the APP
prevail of every honest man not blinded
by prejudice or misled by misinforma-
ton. 1t is simply that every man en-
titled to pension under the laws shall
have one, and that those who do not
deserve them shall be stricken from the
roll as fast as they can be discovered.
This is the dictate Of simple honesty and
sense. The pretense that
there is any patriotism in promoting
fraud is too absurd for serious consid
Grafton. Courier-Jo urnal