The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-10
ACTIVITY OF PENSION SHARKS.

ACTIVITY OF PENSION SHARKS.
Applications for pensions on account OF
| the war with Spain are pouring Into the
bureau at Washington. According 10 a
/ statement made by the Commissioner of
| Pensions a few days ago, at least 80 per
! cent. of the membership Of some of the
| volunteer regiments nave already filed ap-
plcations for government bounty; and q
number Of such regiments were never in
action, or even outside of the borders of
the United States during the war The
services Of the soldiers were performed
wholly ia the camps of organization and
instruction; nevertheless one out of every
two soldiers in the regiments in question
claim to have sustained pensionable dis
abilities in the service of the government.
The understanding is that the most hun
CRY claimants of pensions are the negro
volunteers. Three men out of every five
in one regiment, It is said. have asked for
pensions. and in one company of that reg
iment 30 per cent. of the men have filed
claims. And this regiment was never in
action.
Commissioner of Pensions Evans says
this food of claims is due to the activity
of pension attorneys. The attorneys, it
seems. began to work upon some Of the
volunteers as soon as they entered the
service. Their fees depend upon the new
business they get. They care nothing about
the real merits of d case which they may
handle. 1t is their game to mulct the gov
orr In In
many instances they have had pension
claims completed and ready for fling long
before the soldier claimant was mustered
out of the service. The alleged disabled
soldier was on daily duty. but the papers
alleging his disability were already pre-
pared and sworn to, setting forth that he
had suffered disabling injuries or illness
in consequence of his patriotic service TO
the government
Should matters go on as they are now
going, the probabilities are that we would
have a pension scandal of large proper
lions in a short while as one consequence
of The war with Spain. And it would be
due to the avericious, INSCRIPTIONS pen
sion attorneys. There is no doubt that the
vast majority of those who volunteered
for the war did so with pure motives; but
when the dulcet-voiced pension attorneys
come around them, with pretty stories of
how easy it is to get nice monthly sum
settled upon them for life from the ma
tional treasury, 1t is hard for a great
many of them to resist the temptation to
make application for pension. And that
is where the pension attorneys opportun-
ity begins. The government permits the
attorney to charge a fee for the filing of
applications, and certain other fees at
subsequent stages of working the case
through In many instances the attorney
gets almost as much out of the case as
the pensioner. Commissioner Evans be-
lieves that the majority of the scandaous
cases of fraudulent pensions of veterans
OF the civil war can be traced to the at
torneys. Ii is a notorious fact that sew
eraI pension attorneys in Washington have
become very wealthy from their activity
in filing and pressing claims. One of them,
indeed, became more than a millionaire.
II is Commissioner Evans idea-a good
one unquestiona bly-that the pension at
torney ought to be eliminated. The laws
should be revised so as to cut off his legal
fees. 1t ought not to require the services
of lawyer to secure for any deserving
veteran the recognition from the govern
ment to which his services and his dis
abilities entitle him. However, the pen
sion attorneys have always been liberal
contributors to Republican campaign
funds. In return they have demanded that
they should be taken care of in the pen
sion legislation; and up TO this time they
have succeeded in getting what they
wanted