The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-06
THE PAYING OF PENSIONS
SOME DEFECTS AND INEQUALITIES
OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM.
Fields for Troublesome Recent Dis
Ows-Bureau's ROgues' Gallery.
W. B. s., in St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

| iSyo AOA lHCAI SClN1CSS III SSltliiS pcilSIOlS
| allowed a sum in excess of $500, OOO And
! yet the laws are so framed and the ma
| chinery of the bureau so arranged as to
spare the claimant all need of legal services
beyond an occasional acknowledgment be-
fore notary. Some of the greatest for
tunes in Washington have been built up
| through the gratuities paid to the pension
attorneys by the government and the pen
| sioners jointly. This is not all of bad sit
| uation. The attorneys, with their wits
sharpened by long practice in the pension
business and with their industry promoted
by the court returns, are constantly devils
ing new schemes to add to their revenues.
| Three years ago, through their lobby, one
of the most influential elements in the
| third house, these attorneys slipped into
| an appropriation bill during it's last stages
a rider which did not reveal it's possibilities
on its face. This apparently harmless
| clause simply provided that the reports of
| examining surgeons sent to the Office should
be accessible to pension claimants or their
attorneys. In the Pension Office are several
large offices known as attorneys rooms
These are furnished by the government and
set apart for the use of pension attorneys,
where they may at their leisure consult pa
| pers from the files. Under the clause added
| to the appropriation bill just before final
action certain attorneys have been calling
for the reports of examiners by the thou
| sands, copying them and selling them to
| pensioners all over the country. The at
| torneyS rooms have been occupied all day
| long by girl typewriters hired by the at
| torneys for S. week to make these copies
| Lists of pensioners are held by the attor-
| neys. and the copies of the medical reports
| in their cases are offered to them at so
| much for copying"
In every town of any Importance there is
| an examining board composed of local
physicians and surgeons. Pensioners and
claimants for pensions are ordered before
| these boards for examination. The reports
of the boards are forwarded to the bureau
| for guidance upon applications for new pen
s1ons or for increases of old ones. These
reports are supposed to be the truthful
opinions of the doctors. They were con-
Sldered confidential until the rider got
through. Now they are being sent back to
are causing all manner of trouble. Doctors
who have reported honestly on unjust
claims find themselves called to personal
account by dissatisfied claimants, and in
| many cases have been boycotted in private
practice because of unfavorable reports.
The Pension Office cannot violate the law
and refuse access to these papers. 1t can
put stop to the wholesale traffic in them
and to the trouble which has been caused
has been DONE Commissioner Evans has
decided that the law only requires the re-
ports to be accessible to claimants or their
attorneys of record in person. This has
brought to a sudden end the employment
OF a large corps of typewriterS and has put
q check upon what was growing to be a
source of much revenue to enterprising in
dlviduals The pension attorneys are pro-
testing nightly against curtailment of
their rights"
The system of local examiners paid by
fees is at the bottom of many inequalities.
These boards are composed of doctors resi-
dent in their respective localities. 1t is not
in human nature to have uniformity from
such examinations. 1t is not to be expected
that the same board thus constituted will
act with complete impartiality in all cases.
Doctors disagree as widely as other people.
They are susceptible to influences of ac-
quaintanceship. So it happens that one old
soldier draws certain sum for his disa-
bility, while his neighbor or some other old
soldier in an adjoining town with less dis
ability draws twice as much. The bust
neSS-ltke way of doing it would be to have
salaried examiners who would act as part
of the official force of the office in Wash
ington, and who would be detailed as trav-
cling examiners to visit every county seat
or city or considerable town on days to be
announced in advance for the purpose of
conducting examinations of pensioners. In
this way there would be uniformity in the
reports on the claims. The reports would
come to the department in such shape that
one-third of the present clerical force could
handle them. The local examiners drew in
fees last year nearly $1,OOO,OOO. The gov
WOulQ save money ana do Justice
to the pensioners if this plan could be. sub
stitued for the present system of local ex-
aminAtions. 1t will not be done, however
Congress will not disposses the local doc
tors of the pension examining business
Reforms of the system which will tend to
diminish the: patronage are not popular
with the legislative branch.
ABUSES OF THE LAWS
1t is not necessary to go to Congress to
reach some of the abuses of the pension
Tn ho nd fha
larly, there has grown into astonishing pro-
portions species of fraud which the bu-
reau is now running down relentlessIy
There are lawyers who make a speciality
Of hunting up soldiers widows who have
neglected to make claims to pensions and
of taking their cases. This is legitimate to
the limit that the evidence is truthful and
the claim just. The Pension Office allows
such claims, and if the money reaches the
widow the case is closed, but some law
yers, tempted by the opportunity have re-
serted to questionable methods When such
claim is allowed it carries with it the
back pension money from the time the
widow was first entitled to it. A lump sum
of several thousand dollars may be award
ed. Only few days ago a widow in Mis-
sisSippi was granted back pension money to
the amount of between $1,000 and So, 000 The
money was paid to her attorney. There the
matter might have rested. But the COM
missioner, made wary by experience, in
structed an agent in the field to investigate
He found that the widow had received only
$50. The lawyer was called on for an ex-
PLANTATION. He said he had borrowed the
money from the widow. The latter had re-
ceived no evidence of the indebtedness.
Then the lawyer set up the eleventh hour
defense that he had given the notes to his
wife to hold for the widow.
1t would seem that with the publicity CIV
en- to the pension system, widows of old
soldiers would need prompting to cIa!m
their rights. But these ATTORNEYS who make
speciality of such cases find enough claim
ants to make a good thing of it, Usually
these widows are ignorant or have drifted
away from former homes or have been SEN
arated from pensioners before death The
propriety of ScrutiniZing such cases is inn
pressed upon the bureau daily. Within a
week a southeastern Kansas claim which
carried $1,000 arrears, has been disallowed
1t was worked up by western Missouri
up unpensiOned widows of soldiers In this
case the veteran, who had been dead a
number OF years, was a negro. The bureau
found upon investigation, the evidence that
the veteran had died of disease resultant
from the war services was not sufficient
Inquiry also cast a cloud upon the mar
riage relation. There was too much widow
Two women had lived with the man. and ii
was not proved that the marriage cere-
mony had been performed.
In the eastern part of the country the
legal rights of pensioners widows seem to
be matter of too much notoriety There
has developed the custom of marrying old
pensioners under such circumstances as TO
admit of no other Interpretation than that
the motive is to inherit the quarterly check
The extent to which this custom is prac-
ticed is amazing. Recently 1t was brought
to the attention of the bureau that fhe
rft1rr old cold