St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-15
FRIEND OF THE VETERANS.
What the Grand Army Gazette
Thinks of Com missioner Loeb =

Thinks of Commissioners Loeb.
rem.
Under the heading commissioner
Lochren Needs No Apologist" the
Grand Army Gazette and National
Guardsman pays the folio wing tribute
to the character of Minnesota's brave
soldier:
Certain partisan congressman and
hidebound journals are porting vialS of
lInpotent wrath OH the head of Pension
Commissioner Lochren, on trumped up
charges of unfair" treatment of yeter-
ans who are OH the pension roll.
Commissioner Lochren is himself a
veteran. having served as private, a
non-commiSSioned and commissioned
officer in the First Minnesota infantry
regiment during the War of the REBEL
ion. At Gettysburg he was one of the
immortal 262 that at Hancock's order
charged the rebel lines advancing OH
Cemetery hill, and snatched victory
from defeat. On forty battlefields he
proved himself worthy and heroic SOL
der. aid no stain rests upon his record
made during the war and since. He
certainly needs 10 apologist either
among his comrades or the honorable
men of the nation.
was likewise made the target of veno-
nous shafts from bitter partsans dur
Ing the preceding presidential term of
Cleveland. Both Commissioners Loeb
rem and Black, by valiant service in
the war, earned the right to be fairly
criticised by their fellow citizens. They
have right to be Democrats if their
political predictions are that way.
Both have aimed to be just in admins
tering the great trust repoSed in them,
of being stewards of the nalion's bounty
to worthy veterans.
Unfortunately. some Of their Repub-
lican predecessors and successors have
been inclined the other way. The Tan
ners and the Raums have been smirched
by their misconduct of the pension
bureau, as is abundantly proven by the
extracts from official government docu-
mentS published in the January num-
Der of the Gazette.
Commissioners Black and Lochren
having taken an oath to fulfill their
duties as pension commissioner. obeyed
the dictates of their conscience. With
what result? This: During sixteen
years of Democratic rule the house of
representatives has sent to the senate
bills approprlatlng $751; 600. 600 IN pen
slons. while i'll the previous eighteen
years of Republican rule the house had
appropriated only S676, 1000, 900.
The TACT of the matter is that under
the administration of Commissioner
Lochren the pension bureau has been
run OIL strictly business principles while
under his predecessors, Tanner and
Raum, the bureau was nothing but a
huge mill for the grinding out of pen.
sion claims. Under that unfair conduct
of its affairs, 1t is credibly asserted that
I
issued. one clerk being promoted be-
cause Of the fact that he turned out
cases at the rate of one in every four
minutes, Or 2, 400 cases month.
The result is, such unearthing of
frauds as at Norfolk, New Orleans and
Chattanooga, in New Mexico, Iowa and
Minnesota. in Buffalo, n. Y, and in
Hudson County, n. j., whereby honest
Commissioner Lochren has vindicated
himself, with the result. since Deem
Der % of last year, of IS arrests, 81 in
dictments and 81 convictions OF fraud
uleDt pensioners, and many other cases
which would astonish some if made
public.
What the Gazette has claimed all
is thus proven beyond dispute-that
one of the great parties in its greed for
power has leaned so far over toward the
veterans that it either could not or
would not see the frauds being per-
petrated.
The other party, on the other hand,
has faithfully administered the law,
believing that if the law were unjust,
as Gen. Grant once said, the quickest
way to force its repeal was by enforc-
ing it.
Not one scandal has arisen under the
Black and Lochren administration of
the pension bureau. and under them
the roll is one that our war crippled
heroes deem it great honor to have
their names upon.
All honorable and true veterans BID
you godspeed, brave Commissioner
Lochren, in your efforts to purity the
pay no heed to the unworthy ours who
are barking at your heels.