The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-01-10
PENSION EXAMINERS.
GHon. Elijah A. Morse, M. C., on the Con-
 duct of the Pension Rureau.


 duct of the Pension Rureau.
 The national house recently had un- .der consideration bill making an ap- propriation for pension examiners. Congressman Morse, of Massachusetts, addressed the house on the subject, as follows. He said:
 'I desire, Mir. 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, Mir. 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 man or to 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-
 
 employees in the pension office, instead of attending to their legitimate du- ties of adjudicating cases of appli- scants for pension under the law, are at present turned into a smelling com '1nittec, looking all over the country for fraud, or pretended fraud, in the granting and payment of pensions; and such examinations as they mako are, or seem to be, inspired by the principle how not to do it. judged by progress and results.
 "I want here and now to call atten- tion of congress and the country to another fact, e., that the postmas- ters throughout the country-and I want to know by what authority of law the commissioner of pensions is authorized to do such 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 town in my dis trict the postmaster called my atten- tion to communication received from the pension office asking him to look after pensioners, to see if the pension CTS were worthy,of pensions, etc. An other point: All applicants for in- crease of pension in my district re- cei7e 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 repeat that instead of at tending to their legitimate business they are largely turned from them in the manner l have indicated, to the great injury of the pensioners.
 Fl desire to call attention to one more unjust decision of the commis- sioner of pensions, which does 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 decision of that department of the government have been dropped from the pension rolls.
 "Mr. Chairman, l am neither a prophet nor the son of prophet, but more than year ago l stood in this place, where I now stand, and said that when the people were again heard from in a congressional or national election, they would rebuke the ad- ministration fot it's unjust and unpa- triotic 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 adminis- tra.ion and Commissioner Lochren to. ward these wards of the nation.
 'I 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 government"
 pOi ITIHAi nRIET