Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-04-06

wrprNe oUa pKSsiSN FRAUDS
Scarcely a day goes By that some new
pension fraud Is not discoversd and,
though in the first year d the Demo-
cratic administration enouEh abuses Of
the law have been discoveredand abated
TO warrant a reduction in his years
pension appropriation Of ovr fourteen
millions Of dollars, comparatively few
OF the fraudulent pensions Lave been
stopped.
One Of the boldest Of all tn, frauds
against the government is penetrated
by those pensioners who pass sstisfac-
tory physical examinations and carry
life Insurance, aud who at the same
time are drawing pensions for dissbill-
ty. A comparison between their alpli-
cations for pensions and insurance
would be quite interesting. Secret'ry
MoRroN. who is taking a lively interest
in the correction OF pension abuses,
tells OF an acquaintance Of his, citizen
OF his own State who is drawing pen
sion Of SIS a month for chronic rheuma-
tism, contacted in the army, and says
Accidentally I stumbled upon the fact
that he was an insurer in the same com
paEy, in which 1 carry a policy. This
aroused my suspicious, and L took the
trouble TO find out that he had certified IN
his application for life policy, that he had
no such disease. 1 laid the matter before
the president OF the company, who at once
gave orders that the application questions
thereafter should include one whether the
applicant was drawing a pension Tor ols
ability.
Such cases are not rare, and another
instance may be cited close to home,
There is in our own State we'll known
Republican who has represented III;
county in the Legislature and is high il
the councils Of the G.. A. r., whC
draws a pension, with which he is said
10 keep paid up the premiums OF
$1,000 life policy in reputable com
pany. There are other instances Of q
similar nature in almost every town
snd many Of them are well known &c
the public.
Secretary MORTON has called atten
ton 10 another fraud perpetrated
against the government by Nebraska
company. A letter from a prominent
citizen Of Nebraska, a veteran Of The
civil war, but who is opposed to the
wholesale robbery Of the government il
the name Of pensions, contains the fol
lowing paragraph;
have a list Of sixty-one persons in ont
! Nebraska company VINO are drawing from
| 50 TO S24 DER month. Not one Of them eyel
saw an enemy or ever fired gun at al
1 enemy or contracted any disability during
| the eleven months they served.
Here is a single company, not one o.
whom, it is said, ever saw an enemy, OF
is in any way disabled, which is draw
ing from the government annually
nearly ten thousand dollars. Perhaps
no other single company draws as much
from the government as this one anc
yet there are thousands OF cases il
which the applicants are no more en-
titled TO a pension than those above
referred to, who are receiving large
sums every year from the public
treasury.
The country is being robbed, the
treasury looted by persons who have
no more claim to pensions from this
government than have the heather il
Africa, yet who in the name of patriot
ism are demanding charity which the!
neither have need Of nor deserve. Tn,
honest pensionsr, who is worthy Of TIT
assistance Of the country for which h,
fought, can find no stauncher frienC
than the REGISTER, but the thousand
who are degrading the fair name o
every true soldier, are a disgrace to TIT
country and cannot be weeded out TOT
soon.