The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-11-02
che PENSION COMMISrONE r
ON PENSION FRAUDS.
JUDGE LONGS CASE REVIEWED.
Declares He Has Obtained $40 90 to
Which He Was Never E~ntitled-Dis-
honest Pension Attorneys and
Claim Agents Severely De-
n~ounced-The Suspending
of Suspicious Pensions.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 Commits
%5ioner Lochren of the pension bureau,
n his annual report, reviews the case
If Judge Long of the Michigan
supreme court at some length, saying:
This case has ATTRACTED wide at
tention because of the fact that the
pensioner is one of the judges of the
supreme court of Michigan and has
upon the rostrum and through the
press unstintingly denounced the
bureau and myself for alleged arbi-
trary and illegal proceedings in the
reduction of his pension. and because
of the suit instigated by him in this
district against myself to prevent
such reductions.
ut is quite clear that under an
honest but mistaken Interpretation of
the pension laws by prior commits
sioners this pensioner has obtained
from the treasury more han 81, 600 to
which he was never lawfully entitled.
Should he make good his assertions
hat he will take this case for decision
to the supreme court of the United
States he may, when it shall be final
ly decided, consider the propriety of
returning this money to the treasury"
The commissioner discusses the
work of special examiners which have
been criticised in congress and else
where, saying.
THE report of the chief of division
exhibits the character of its work.
Cases which have merit but in which
the claimant has not been able to OBJ
tain essential evidence, with such in
formation in respect to witnesses as
the bureau can obtain, nave been
placed in the hands of special exam
liners, who are often able to discover
and obtain the evidence necessary to
prove the claims. The larger part of
the force is always kept employed in
this class of work. But the special
examination division, aided, as it is,
by the law division, constitutes the
main protection which the gov
eminent? has against fraud and
imposition. Most of the pension at
torneys and claim agents are capa-
BILE and honorable, but some among
them are the most dishonest and I'M
scrupulous of men, dealing habitually
in perjury, forgery and every specie
of fraud. Without special examiners
the villany of such men would oper-
ate without check or fear of detec-
ton and be generally successful.
And it is too often now in spite of all
safeguards. Such men attract the
unworthy as clients-the bounty
jumpers, towards and ~deserters, and
the fraudulent maligners.
"As many of their crimes are discov-
cred, their fraudulent cases over
thrown and themselves and their
guilty confederates brought to pun
ishment by the work Of special eX-
aminers There were 1914 convictions
for pension frauds last year,, it is but
natural that such men and their
clients should be loud and ~unceasing
in decrying special examiners as
spies, and seeking with the aid of un-
scrupulous partisan newspapers and
politicians to create a prejudice
against special examiners in the minds
of deserving pensioners and others.
The worthy and deserving soldiers
who are still modest in the race for
pensions are. elbowed to the rear by
the unworthy in their continued strug5
gle for pensions and increases as
when operating for bounties. They
crowd themselves to the front at all
soldiers gatherings with resolutions
Tor more pensions, and d~enunciatious
of every regulation tending to I'M
mask dishonesty and fraud as 'un-
friendly to the soldier" Their insat-
liable greed and detestation of all
resolutions made to insure honesty
and restrain OF discover fraud, shame
lessly proclaimed, has done much to
lower the regard which would other
wise be universally manifested for
| the deserving soldier. 1t has been
reported that the attempt to discover
frauds is a new movement and credit
been given me in that direction to
which 1 am not fairly entitled"
The provision placed on the PEN
sion appropriation bill December p,
1893, preventing the commissioner
from suspending pensions until
fraud had actually beer established,
the commissioner says, has been car
ried out, but with no advantage to
the bureau. He continues:
1.-THE effect of this provision is to
take from the officers of this burea u
the power to interfere where they
plainly see the treasury being plum
worthy. could cite numberless in
stances of pensioners having no title,
pensioners drawing more than one
pension, widows, who have remarked,
continued to draw pensions, and all
manner of fraudulent and illegal
pensions, where the treasury would
continue to be plundered for a time
with the knowledge of the officers of
this bureau. who, because of that
provision, were rendered powerless
to prevent it."
Drought in West Virginia.
PARKERsBURG. w. Va, Oct. 30.-The
long drought. has caused great dis