The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-08

these matters, but I do say and know
that he therein absolutely misrepre-
sents them.
He further saws: The laws are
amended from time to time for the
benefit of this army of pension solicit
tors, so that they can get more fees. >
The last time the law was amended
relative to fees was when the fee in
increase cases was cut down from SO
to 81 That was, I think, seven years
ago Wise old Josh Billings once said
it was better to know a few things that
were true than to know so many things
Ihat We're not true.
SAYS WOULD BE VICTIMS OF
SHARPS.
Bar out the attorneys, permit nc
Zee, and what will be the result? In
eV1tably over the land, applicants will
be the victims of sharks, who will plaus-
IDLY claim that for the preparation of
the papers they must be paid in ad-
vance and without regard to whether
the claim is allowed or not. No friend
OF the veteran or his widow will advo-
cate such a course
Much of the plant of Commits
sloner Evans, when you analyze it,
is more against the laws which con-
gress has seen fit to enact than against
the attorneys. He cries out because
some soldiers widows who remarked
without having ever made a claim for
pension due them in the days of their
widowhood finally concluded to take
their due. Why should they not? 1t
was their due. The law gave it to
AIleIil w mere comes your title, Com
missioner Evans, to reprOach a woman
for taking a pension of So a month be-
cause of the death of her husband in
defense of the government which pays
it to her?
yet again the commissioner cries
out because some people from 20 to 40
years DID, who were soldiers orphans
for period, have applied for the pen
sion they should have had from the
date of their fathers death till the
time when they reached the age of 10
years. Why not? As minors, they
could not apply. A guardian would
nave had to do that. They may have
been ignorant of their rights under the
law. They may not have had the mon
ey TO pay the surrogate fees for the
appointment of a guardian. 1 have
known of many such cases.
Where is your warrant and who
commissioned you to publicly reproach
a dead soldiers children for taking
what a grateful people, speaking
through congress, declared they should
have?
CASE OF THE NORWEGIAN WON
within a few days have seen an
interview with the commissioner in the
press in which he mentions, stu regret
fully, the fact that very recently he
had been obliged, under the law, to
send nearly SIS, 900 to some old woman
in Norway who had just proved up her
claim. There was no Impeachment of
the justice, under the law, of The claim.
1t was stated that the hu5b and came
over here in '5S or SO. When the war
broke out he enlisted and was killed in
battle, I believe. 1t was only after
many years that this old dame learned
that this great republic had enacted
laws which would help her out in the
battle of life in recognition of the ValOT
of the husband, who had gone to death
in it's defense. 1t would have been much
better for her could she have known ner
rights, and drawn this money $50, every
three months. But is her title any the
less good now? I say, thank God, she
came to the possession of her very own,
even late. They will understand this
way than they did before, and I trust
they will never hear that the commits
siOner of pensions was sorry that the
law compelled him to allow the case.
THE outcry against the soldier is
unjust to an outrageous extent, and
will not trust myself to characterize the
support it is receiving in what the vet
Grams have so firmly considered the
house of our friends
vast as is the sum which is paid out
annually, it is not vast in proportion to
the deserving beneficiaries and in rela-
ton to our resources. These beneficiar-
les are either old and broken men or
weak women. Supplies are vitality nee
essary in peace or war. In the old
days Commissioner Evans certainly
saw enough of it in the closing year or
the war to realize that it was vitality
necessary that he and his associates in
the commissary department should
keep the bacon and bareback going to
the front if the boys at the front were
to successfully fight our battles and
now the assistance of the pension is
necessary, or the alternative to many
is the poor house"