The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-02-22
Hon. HIM. Lochren.

almost desperate, men and women, anxious
letters from their friends and neighbors,
crisp, curt notes from Senators and Repre-
sentatives food your office by every mail and
augment the pigeon-holed wilderness of
papers that gather the dust of years and
take on the yellow hue of age, while those
to whom they refer pass from weakness to
decrepitude, and from decrepitude to death,
| in bitterness of heart at the Nations in
gratitude.
Is it possible that, in the face of all this
in the midst of documentary evidence more
voluminous than would be necessary to prove
the title to every acre of land in the United
States-you propose to save" $l5,0000O0
by Withholding it from the men and women
who are the rightful owners of it?
1t is simply incredible that you should do
SO. 1t is Numerically opposed to the hopes
| inspired when yOu were selected for your
place, and the representations made on your
behalf by your friends Then, we were as
sured with TaOnotOnous reiteration that no
honest veteran need fear" and that the APP
pointment of so genuinely representative
a veteran as yourself was in itself an assur-
ance of justly liberal policy toward the
veterans.
| But what possible agreement can there be
| hot
and the return 10 the Treasury of an unex-
pended balance of $15,000000, while, ac-
July Z, 1893, over 100000 pending cases
in your Bureau How does it appear in
connection with your statement few
months ago that you had discovered 100000
cases under the old laws which had been
completed under Gen. Raum's administra-
ton and side-tracked by him in order to
give precedence to cases arising under the
Act of June q, 1890?
What worse calamity could the deserving
veteran have to fear than that, with his
claim proved up long ago. perhaps years
since, after having labOriousIy hunted up
officers and comrades to the ends of the
country; having incurred great expense in
furnishing proof; having undergone re-
peated examinstions-medical, legal and
extra legal; after having endured the mis-
cries of suspense and delay, aud knowing
that death is constantly driving his dread
approaches nearer the citadel of his heart;
after all this to have it announced that the
money which Congress has placed in the
hands of the Commissioner of Pensions to
pay his claim has been turned back, unex-
pended, into the Treasury.
Could there be anything more terrible to
the poor, broken-down men and women than
thisf
Is not this a heartless mockery of the con-
stantly reiterated promise in the platforms
of every party, and by their papers and
speakers, that just and liberal pensions
should be given to all deserving veterans?
!
policy of all the parties, without exception,
with what everyone has recognized to be the
set purpose of the American people, and
with which purpose you and your party
associates have never lost an opportunity TO
strongly assert your entire sympathy?
1t is simply impossible that you do not
. know that there are in your Bureau tens
! yes, hundreds-of thousands of claims which
have been carefully, painfully perfected by
years of labOrious and costly effort on the
part of the claimants. Every mail which
reaches you teens with evidence of the dire
need of these long waiting people for the
: meager stipend which they earned more thar
2 quarter of century ago by the hardest
2 and most dangerous service ever performed
: by men. You cannot help knowing thai
4 every one of these men and women must b,
; near the verge of the grave, and that thei
5 condition must be pitable in the extreme
: and that every dollar paid them would brin.
. greater blessings than hundred times th,
s amount in the days when they were younl
. and strong, and able to fight the battle O
life without assistance
Itseems vain for US to remind you of wha
= an infnity Of good this vast sum would d.
E if paid to its rightful owners There ar
4, probably carload of appealing letters il
n your Bureau at this moment, telling il
d plain, homely, but most convincing, langusg
d of the miseries of poverty, destitution an,
20 sUffsrinp resulting from the non-navnent n