The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-01-11
"a SMELLING COMMITTEE"
Hon. Elijah A. Morse. NJ. C., on the Com
duct of the Pension bureau.


duct of the Pension bureau.
The national house recently had un-
der consideration bill making an ap-
preparation for pension examiners.
Congressman Morse, of Massachusetts,,
addressed the house on the subject, as
| follows. He said:
81 desire, Mr.. Chairman, in the
three minutes yielded to me, merely to
say that indorse all that has been so
well said by the distinguished gentle
man from New York, Mr.. Daniels,
about his experience in connection
with the pension department in his
district. Mine has been exactly the
same. All of the pensioners in my
district who make application to the
pension Office either for an increase of
pension or for an original pension, un-
der one pretext or another, almost to
a man or to a woman, are sent back for
additional evidence.
Last evening l saw the great army
of employees of that office coming out
of that establishment at four o'clock,
and wondered to myself what they
had been doing, for my own expe-
rience induces me to think that the
employees in the pension office, instead
of attending to their legitimate du-
ties of adjudicating cases of appli
cants for pension under the law, are
at present turned into a smelling COM
mittee, looking all over the country
for fraud, or pretended fraud, in the
granting and payment of pensions;
and such examinations as they make
are, or seem to be. inspired by the
principle how not to do it, judged by
progress and results.
Il want here and now to call atten-
tion of congress and the country to
another fact, l. e., that the postmas-
tiers throughout the country-and l
want to know by what authority of
law the commissioner of pensions is
authorized to do such a thing-I say,
the pOstmasters of the country have
also been turned into a smelling COM
mittee to hunt for frauds in connection
with pensions. In a town in my dis
trict the postmaster called my atten-
tion to communication received from
the pension office asking him to look
ers were worthy.of pensions, etc. An
other point: All applicants for in
crease of pension in my district re-
ceiye prompt attention, and have an
order promptly to be examined by a
medical board, and this arrangement
generally results in what? An in
crease, as the poor pensioner expects?
Oh, no; but in reducing or taking away
the little pension altogether.
The employees of the pension office
should be confined to their legitimate
duties; and i repeat that instead of at
tending to their Legitimate business
they are largely turned from them in
the manner | have indicated, to the
great injury of the pensioners.
Il desire to call attention to one
more unjust decision of the commits
sioner of pensions, which does a great
wrong to brave men who in the war
stood by the suffering, the wounded
and the dying, and rendered patriotic
service to the country. l refer to the
fact that the acting assistant surgeons,
who were pensioned under the act of
1890, by a decision of that department
of the government have been dropped
from the pension rolls.
"Mr. Chairman, l am neither
prophet nor the son of a prophet, but
more than year ago l stood in this
place, where l now stand, and said
that when the people were again heard
from in a congressional or national
election, they woGld rebuke the ad-
ministratiou foI: its unjust and unpa-
triotio- conduct toward the union sol
diers. That prophecy has been more |
than fulfilled, and prominent among
the causes of the recent overwhelm- |
ing defeat of the democratic party in
the northern states, in the states that |
poured out their blood and treasure |
like water to save US, a nation among
the nations of the earth, was the un-
friendly hostile action of this admins
tration and Commissioner LOchren to-
ward these wards of the nation
Il bid my suffering comrades be of
good cheer, the present injustice is |
not to continue, the republicans will |
surely elect loyal and patriotic man |
as our next president. The secretary |
of the interior and the commissioner |
of pensions will be changed, and with |
them the hostile and unfriendly atti-
tude of that great department. of the |