The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-08
A Sample Pension Fraud.

How easy it was to obtain a pension
fraudulently under republican admins
trations is pretty well illustrated in the
case Of woman named Diederich, in St.
Louis. 1t was believed that she had no
just claim upon the pension office, and
that the allowance she had been receiv-
ing was not lawfully given. An investi-
CATION was, therefore, set on foot. Last
week the woman made confession of the
facts as they are. The man for whose
death she has been drawing a pension
was at one time her husband, but that
time was previous to the war She was
divorced from him at the time he went
into the army, and when he died she was
the wife of another man. The war had
been ended about five years when she got
a divorce from her second husband and
married third. Four years later, having
grown tired Of No. 3, she secured a di-
vorce from him. Then, when the back
pension bill was passed, she returned to
her old home in Illinois and stayed there
long enough to get two or three of her
old acquaintance to swear she was the
widow Of her first husband. Upon these
atfdavits, and without making any invest
igation of its own worthy Of the name
otherwise the facts would have come out
the pension bureau promptly handed
over TO her IS, s2l of back pension money,
and put her on the rolls at s. per month.
She drew that sum until her case was in
vestigated by Commissioner Lochren.
This case, however, is not exceptional.
1t is only one of hundreds of its kind that
have been discovered by the democratic
administration Of the bureau, and there
are probably hundreds of similar cases
yet to be brought to light. Since Com
missioner Lochren has been in Office the
pension sharks and fraudulent pensioners
have been having a hard time. They
were in clover under Raum, but they are
getting their deserts now. Meanwhile no
deserving pensioner has found ground for
complaint against the bureau as it is now
administered.
1t is the opinion in certain circles in
Washington that Senator Jones' leaving
the Republican party and joining the pop
ulists is part of the plan of the free sill
yer politicians for the building up of
distinctive silver party in the west, to be
made upof the dissatisfied clements Of the
two old parties. Senator Jones, il is IN
derstood, is at the head of the movement,
and his plans include the election of free
silver legislatures in Washington, Mon
tana, California and Wyoming In Montana
two senators will be elected by the next
legislature In Washington one senator
viii be elected. In Wyoming two sena-
tors will be elected In California one
senator will be elected. Senator Jones
calculates that if these senatorships can
be captured, and South Carolina sends
Tillman to the Senate, the populists will
hold the balance Of power and dictate
monetary legislation
If the populists are not smart the re-
publicaus viii steal their l6 to / free sill
yer issue from them. The New York
Press Is trying to turn the Republican
party in that direction. The New York
Recorder, another republican paper, is
free silver organ. The Montana
republicans have declared themselves to
be Is to ! free silverites Senator Dubois
Of Idaho says he means to preach that
doctrine to the republicans of his state
The way things are going the populists
and the l6 to free silver editors who
call themselves democrats will soon want
the services of detective to assist them
in finding out where they are 'at"
The other evening in London Mr.
Chauncey NJ. Depew entertained at din
ner select company of friends, including
two dukes, one count, one knight, two
ladies and Mr. Spoopendyke II would
be interesting to know if this is the same
Mr. Spoopendyke about whom we have
read in the funny papers.