Washington sentinel., 1899-07-08
To Abolish Alto rneys

The system of prosecution of claims
before the Pension Office is one
which has long been the subject OF much
unfavorable criticism and is productive
of a great amount Of unnecessary annoy
ance. The present Commissioner of
Pensions is opposed to the sy stem and
has put himself on record as favoring
the abolition OF pension attorneys. In
doing this he feels that he has the
interest Of the soldier at heart. for he is
convinced that there is no real necessity
sor an attorney 20 prosecute a claim
which has any merit to 1t.
Where a soldier has been unable to
furnish the necessary proof to establish
his claim for pension, the department is
not only willing, but anxious, to give
the soldier the services or a special
examiner, whose entire time may be
spent in hunting up the necessary evi.
dence. It has been one OF the cherished
plans of the present commissioner to so
amend the law that there could be APP
pointed a travelling board. which would
sit at different points throughout the
United States and hear testimony for
and against claims This board would
weigh carefully the testimo onY. and, un.
prejudiced and unbiased. would render
an honest opinion. This would save the
applicant the Zee which the law pro-
vldes shall 60 to the attorney. There is
no doubt that there are some attorneys
who are OF considerable benefit to an
applicant for pension, but it cannot be
denied that this same benefit could and
would be given by the pension office il
the soldier only knew how to go about
il.
II has been said that an unprincipled
pension attorney can do more harm than
100 dishonest applicants A pension
attorney who has no interest at heart
but the fee from an applicant is not slow
in criticisIng those who are responsible
for just administration of the law, il
such administration knocks them out of
a fee. Congress itself recognizes that
there are dishonest pension attorneys
and has passed a law to regulate the
practice before the department The
act itself was the outcome oil impositions,
irregular practice and gross perpetra.
tions OF fraud upon the soldiers aud
children OF soldiers by INSCRIPTIONS and
designing persons.
In the city Of Buffalo 100 claims were
filed by former employe ofthe Pension
Office acting as an attorney. Thls man
paid no attention to law, rules or regu-
lations, and compelled the young ladies
IN his office to administer oaths when
they had no right to do so. and to sign
papers attesting the signatures Of claim.
ants that they had never seen or had
never known. It does not tax very
vivid imagination to appreciate the
amount Of injury such a man does This
class OF attorneys are the bitterest
enemies Of the old soldiers,
In the State of Iowa, according to the
records OF the law department. an
unscrupulous pension attorney corrupted
the examining physicians, with the
result that thousands Of claims were
foisted upon the government that the
claimants themselves utterly repudlated
when their attention was called to them.
There is record OF the case oi a pension
attorney in Rhode Island who for years
drew eighteen illegal pensions, and some
$4,000 was pocketed by this man, who
posed as the soldiers friend. The
records furnish hundreds Of other such
cases, OF course il is not contended,
because there are many dishonest
pension attorneys, that the whole class
is Corrupt. There .are a great many
men in the practice of pension law
claims who are honest and reputable.