The National tribune., 1899-05-11
INTERPRETATION"

"CpSGRESsIONAL NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Some of the comrades are agitating
for Congressional Interpretation" OF
the pension laws, to ameliorate the pres
ent intolerable condition of affairs in
the Pension Bureau. Let US give them
one illustration to show how delusive
this hope is.
Commissioner Lochren invented and
put into operation the device which has
been worked mercilessly to the disad-
vantage of the veterans, and continued
in full force and cruel effect by Com
missioner Evans. \ man would make
an application under the act of June
q, 1890, and in the course of two or
three years would furnish irrefragable
proof Of the rightfulness of his claim.
But in the lapse of these years there
would pile up an accumulation of
arrears, since the law provided that the
pension, when allowed, should begin
with the filing Of the claim. The trick
was to cheat him out of this, and
save" the money to the Treasury, by
rejecting his claim, and compelling him
to file a new one, when it would be
allowed on the evidence previously
furnished, but his pension would only
begin with the date of filing the new
claim. The proceedings for claims
under the old laws were different.
There, when a claim is rejected, it is
still pending, and the claimant can
furnish additional evidence, until it is
complete. They managed that by CIV
ing him the minimum for a term of
years, and then allowing him higher
rate later. But it is with cases under
the act of June 27, 1890, that we have
TO do. The evil had grown TO such
under Lochren that the
comrades went to Congress for relief.
March 6, 1896, the following act was
That whenever claim for pension under
the act of June 81, 1890. has been, or
shall hereafter he, rejected, suspended or
and new application shall have
been, or shall hereafter be, filed, and pension
has been, or shall hereafter be, allowed in
such claim, such pen ion shall date from
the filing of the first application, provided
the evidence in the case shall show PEN
s!onable disability 10 hsve existed, or 10
exist, at the time Of filing such first applica-
tion, anything in any law or ruling of the
Department to the contrary notwithstanding
Now it would certainly look as if
such comprehensive enactment as that
would cover the case completely, and
allow the Pension Bureau no chance of
evasion. THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE
at the time that the provision was
We greatly underesti-
mated the ability of the Pension Bureau
officials to eviscerate and nullify any
law that they do not want to execute.
That law is as much of dead letter as
if it never appeared on the pages of
the United States Statutes. The Com
missioner Of Pensions then set up the
subterfuge, and Henry Clay Evans con-
tinues to set it up, that whenever any
claim carries a large amount of arrear-
ages, the "evidence in the case" failed
"to show a pensicnable disability to
have existed, or to exist at the time Of
the filing of such first application"
The new evidence may have a comma
or a period more or less i'll it, but that
will conclusively show what the former
evidence, when encountered with large
arrearages, utterly failed to show. 1t is
simply pettifogging trick to defraud
the claimant out of few hundred
dollars, which are his due, and which he
bitterly earned by hard service for his
country.
The remedy is not to have Congress
pass more laws, but to put man in The
Bureau of Pensions who will properly
execute those already ON the statute
books. The quickest and surest method
is TO put in the right kind of a Com
missioner of Pensions.
Commissioner Evans must go.
EVANS is the present business of the
comrades. He should be attended to