Evening star., 1895-06-18
PENSION DISMISSALS
Records Of the Ex-Clerks Being
Looked Into.
EFFICIENT CLERKS DISMISSED
The List May Be Given Out After
All.
NO REINSTATEMENTS YET

1t keeps a clerk busy most of the time. to
| look into the records of the pension office
| dismisees who make complaints to Secre-
| tary Smith. The number of clerks who
| make complaint Is considerable, and every
case is looked up carefully by a clerk desig-
| mated by the Secretary. and a full report
| made to him at once. None of the cases
SO far, he says, have led to any action or
promises of action toward the reinState-
| ment of those dismissed.
Several of those whose complaints were
| received directly by Secretary Smith were
found by the inquiry made by his represen-
tative to have very poor records, notwith-
standing they insisted that they had main
tained high standing for years.
This is the version of the Secretary's Of
flee. That Of the dismissed clerks Is quite
different.
Old Soldiers with Good Records.
An old clerk speaking Of the efficiency
line. which is said to have cut a figure in
the selection of the clerks to be dismissed,
said tc Star reporter:
"The public would be led to believe that
inefficiency cTt an important figure in the
question as to who should be dropped. 1
know of several v no were retired whose
efficiency record, like my own, was above
ninety, and. like myself. were also old SOL
dfers. and had no other relatives In gov
ernment office.
II know also that many clerks were re-
tanned whose records bad, both inside
and outside of the bureau. A number of
this class are young men with no RESPONSE
bilities-frequenters Of Jackson City, the
pool rooms, &C., and always behind fnan
cially. l think it unfair to withhold the
names of the discharged employees and
then comment adversely upon them Give
their names and their standing as kept in
the several divisions where they worked.
Mention was made of an old soldier who
was dropped who received salary of $500
and his daughter $1,000. I know of three
just such cases. only that one of them has
three relatives on Uncle Sans pay roll,
and not old soldiers, either. /, for one, am
doing no kicking. I know of no proposed
being kicked when 1 am down and out
in order to cover up a wrong that has been
done me-"
Alleged Violation of Law.
II will say" said another ex-clerk, that
what The Star said Saturday, relative to
pension Office dismissals, was not only true,
but much more can be said on this subject.
l know that the Revised Statutes and civil
service rules in favor of the Union soldiers
have been not only ignored in many bu-
reaus of the government service, but
pecially defied in the pension office. 1 am
sorry to say that under the present admin
stration there is no remedy or redress for
a Union soldier, and the only way 1 see
for the future is to elect only patriotic,
honest men as Representatives. who dare
TO force the heads of bureaus to do justice
and execute the law. 1, for my part, can
not understand why the American people
tolerate such inhuman, unchristian and in
consistent treatment toward the defenders
of the Union. Anarchism, riot, socialism
and other ismS will increase on account
of such actions of the servants of the peo-
ple who are put in power to see that the
laws of the country are enforced but on
the contrary, defy the law retain unscrupu-
lous chiefs of divisions who, perhaps. in
turn for drink of whisky, protect and up
hold worthless and inefficient clerks and
cause the dismissal of many ex-soldiers
who are known to be efficient and in every
respect entitled by law to hold their po-
sitions."
What the Commissioncr Says.
I Commissioner Lochren, when seen by
Star reporter in regard to the complaint
that good clerks had been discharged, said:
TT is true that some clerks had to go
whose efficiency was not questioned. In
making those selections we took those to
whom dismissals would not be SO great
hardship, as it would be to others, who
perhaps did not stand so high as clerks.
But these cases were in the minority. In
making UP the list of those who We're to
go out we were governed by the desire to
keep our best clerks in the Office. AS to
publishing the list, it was on my Judgment
that 1t was not given out. And my reason
for not doing so was that we did not wish
to cast a stigma on any who We're thus
legislated out of Office. 1t is not against
many of these clerks that they were not
as efficient as other clerks. and it should
not prevent them from getting employment
elsewhere. 1t may be that We should pub
lish the list, and will consider the matter
and have a talk with the Secretary about
it."
The report that the granddaughter of
Francis Scott Key has been reinstated or
promised a reinstatement by Secretary
Smith is denied by him.