New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-09-28
JUST A CAMPAIGN DODGE.
SUDDEN FRIENDLINESS FOR PENSION
CLAIMANTS MAY SOON BE EXPECTED.
ONLY UNTIL ELECTION AND IN pEMOCfAllO
CONGRESS DISTRICTS. HowEvER-IN RE-
GARD TO FRAUDS. 1T MAKES 4 DIFF
FERENCE WHOSE OK is GORED

GARD TO FRAUDS. 1T MAKES DIFF
FERENCE WHOSE OK is GORED.
lBY TELEGRAPH THE TRIBUNE
Washington Sept 27.-"Just walt a week or two
and watch carefully and you will see an astonishing
increase in the number of pension certificates granted
for the benefit Of applicants IN Democratic Congress
districts said a prominent; Republican VINO is A
careful and intelligent political observer. to Trib-
une correspondent yesterday he continued:
The work has Already begun but 1t is gong on 50
s,ealthiy tina. It VII, not be likely to attract pubic
attention under ten days fortnight The new
viii continue un,n Election Day, and no longer and
It's results VIII be IN constant daily lncreaSs
CO is The motive Tor this sudden cn4nse poc
and increase n ofic.a activity ana enlc.ency III me
move as lar as PCS s5i6ats for congress labor on
the Pension Bureau during the last eighteen months;
A ;be go; am 30 1 06e s as enaS the da6d
Grams OF the war who Sill survive. and the WIDOWS
benefits Of even brief respite from the hostile ana
eras no 92HI, 81 he Pension Bureau
since the offic.ai advent OF Secretary Hoke Smith
and Commissioner Lochren and his worthy lac'o PUN
Deputy Commissioner Bell. few hun1red app ni
cants Will receive justice within the next SIX weeks
and that will be so much Gear gam
This statement suggested an inquiry OF CHAIRMAN
Babcock Of the Republican Congressional Commit
tee as to his own experience with the PENSION
Bureau. Mr. Babcock replied that WITHIN the pFeseh'
week he had received notice OF the granting OF
pensions to five or six applicants in MS District
which was a wholly new and most satisfactory eX-
perience. But" he continued. there is another as
nee, of the case that is far less satisfactory so far
as my experience is concerned II has been virtually
impossible for me to OBTAIN from the Pension Bureau
any Of apncants Who reside in my district In
cures 10 the number of several huhdfed mace oy
to-day If the applicants knew wnat is required 10
compete their claims they could OBTAIN the nete ices
80, could AZ some indefinite time IN the future.
When it might be required Of them IN case they
The Tribune correspondent has heard the same
from REPRESENTATIVES in Congress. Democrats as
well as Republicans. Respectns pension iraudS
mis- beneficent Administration whose OK is gored
Attention was recently called TO a case whlch, II
tbst minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church
south who resided in Tennessee curing the Mar;
was the owner OF number OF slaves VINO received ,
the benefits of the Emancipation PROCLAMATION.
Under his advice one of them enlisted in the GnGn
Army as cook. After several years ne aed ieaV,
ing widow, who was found TO be entitled 70 az, a
pension and the me master s eve nef 70 e
II was granted and certificate was issued and sent
aprearages amounting to several hundred dollars. of
which she received the municent sum OF So which
Wa regularly paid The actual pensioner died some
time afterward but the pension survived; and was
BENEFICIARY About two years the suspicious OF
an official of the Pension Bureau became aroused
suited in showing that the ex-slaveholding minister
hen euiltv during long series of years not only
of fraud upon the Government, but Of forgery. ne
was arrested tried and convicted. The only pea
that his counsel could offer in his clients behalf
was that he justified in using any means MS, IN
had Internationally deprived him OF ms slaVe
property in 1863 The case was too plain however,
and even Texas jury felt obliged 10 convict the
reverend criminal The sentence imposed was i'm
prjsonment for eighteen months and ilne OF SJO OF
Sifn fmore fragrant case of fraud was never
known and the penalty imposed so light as TO
amount almost TO verdict of acquittal;
The facts brought out on the trial were pup
lished in the Texas newspapers Dd me EDITORS
On the contrary they remained dscreetly silent
Whether or not they did so out OF sympathy ior an
ex-slaveholder who was only trying TO get even
with the Government which had deprived him o, ms
human chattels thirty years before Is imrnaterid!
But lust think how the changes on pension frauds
would have been rung in the Democratic newspapers
n a case only 1.-THE fragrant had been dlscoN-
cred in the North. 1t may be as we'll TO add tnal
while the Investigation of the case was begun unoer
Presdent Harrison's Administration. the prosecu-
ton had under the present one.