The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-06-02
AN OPEN LETTER.
To the Hon. Henry Clay Ecaas, Com

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missioner Of Pensions.
Sir: 1t has been our unpleasant but
still very necessary duty to point out to
you number of mistakes that you have
made since you entered your present
office.
Probably you may think that this was
actuated by spirit of carping criticism.
We say probably" because you have
peculiar and most astonishing ways of
looking at most things. But if you will
reflect you will at once remember that
prior to your entrance into your present
position no paper in the country did
more for you than THE NATIONAL TRIB-
the 1t supported you strongly in all
your political aspirations to be Repre-
sentative in Congress and Governor of
Tennessee, and welcomed you as Com
missioner of Pensions, because, coming
from part Of Tennessee which made
more sacrifices for the Union than any
other section of the country, we felt that
you were probably deeply imbued with
a sense of the services Of the men who
saved the Nation, and eager to DO justice
to them. If we criticize you now, it is
far more in sorrow than in anger, and
accompanied with the humiliation of
acute disappointment in man from
whom we had expected much.
The mistake TO which we would now
call your attention is the evident belief
on your part that the Pension Bureau
is still under the domination of Grover
Cleveland, and that the only change the
people wanted made in 1886 was that
Henry Clay Evans should receive the
salary of Commissioner of Pensions, in
stead of VIM. Lochren. While it is
fattering to your self-esteem to think
that the people of the United States
went through great election merely to
secure a proper provision for you, We
can assure you that you never made
greater error in your life than to assume
that the intense dissatisfaction OF the
people all over the country was with
Commissioner Lochren personally, and
that it could be entirely remedied by
substituting the personality of Henry
Clay Evans. The intense feeling was
against the ideas and methods which
Commissioner Lochren introduced into
the administration of the Pension Bureau,
and which you have continued without
sensible change. Rather you have in
tensifed them, and made it if ANYTHING
more difficult for a long-suffering, long
waiting Union veteran to obtain his
rights than it was under Lochren. This
is the more cruel, since several years
have elapsed, all the veterans are older
and far more needy, and hope long de-
ferred is weighing their hearts down to
the death of despair.
There is yet time for change if you
choose to change. You have been long
enough in office to have forced upon
you the knowledge that the Lochren
ideas and methods radically and cruelty
unjust. You know how obnoxious his
memory is, and you must know how the
people regard your travelling undeviat-
ingly the path which he trod, to the
great political detriment of the Presi-
dent who appointed him. Lay these
things to heart, with them gain clearer
perception of your duty toward the
men to whom the Nation owes every
thing, and pleasantly startle the country
by a radical departure from Lochrenism
in the administration of the Pension
Bureau.
Yours, in admonition,
The NATIONAL TRIBUNE.
COMMERCE follows the Flag" Al