The National tribune., 1899-08-03
/" 4 SAMPLER

ptApVi> VI tie CouHIly. IL has beeiI IeSdiuet
as particularly choice morsel by those il
the South, and has appeared in most of tin
countrypapers in that section, to the effect
of making the people there believe that i:
the way the pension roll has been LOADED
down, before Mr. Evans began his brilli
antly able work of publication. The clip
ping which We reproduce was taken from
the Little Rock (Ari) Gazette:
Mr.. Evans has been trying very faith
fuIIy to perform his duties i'll a fearless and
| lolest manner. He has not pleased the
-poiIsmen of his party and they are al
| alter his scalp. The committee TO inVcsti.
| gate Mr. EEans'S conduct OF the Pension
Bureau will meet in Washington on Mon.
| lay. The following is given rs Il sample
| i oieof the cases 10 beinVestigated by tins
committee:
Rose Hooper, Il Tennessee negress, was
| claimant for Il wiiOW' $ pension, with back
| allowances. OF account Of the death of her
| husband, who sic claimed was killed in
| a battle. The soldiers name was found on
the records of the War Department. He
lai been recorded missing after one of the
| aattleS Of the Western campaIEu, and Was
supposed to have been killed. The Wo-
! lal'S marria"a TO the sol ier was sworn 70
| W her brother, WHO claimed 10 have wit
leSS9d the marriage. This is all the evi-
| ience of the marriage there was. Upon
mis- evidence aud some testimony a.S 10
character the woman'S claim was recon-
| nended for approval by the Pension Elk
anincr at Memphis"
Under the Iaw this woman would have
| received over 5000 in back pension to start
with. Commissioner Evans rcjscted the
claim on the ground OF insufficient evidence
As to the marriage between the woman and
Hooper The Board of Pension Appeals
reversed the ruling and ordered the case re
opened for further evidence. COmm!S-
SO1er Evans put one Of the best Examin-
ers upon it, The examination was an ad-
mission upon tho part of the brother that he
had not Witnessed the marriage between
his sister and Hooper, the positive state
nent of Dir. Spearmen. of Arkansas, whose
father had owned the woman, that she had
never been married TO the soldier, and
finally the admission of the woman herself
that she had never been married TO the SOL
iier, had never lived with him as his wife,
and that her whole course of conduct in
applying for a pension had been inspired
by pension attorneys.
In no department of the Government has
there been so many frauds practlced as IN
the one over which Mr.. Evans presdes.
For the most of the crooked work the PEN
sion attorneys are responsible. The pen
sion appropriations this year aggregate
about Sal ,000,0 900. Commissioner Evans
has investigated many of the cases brought
before him the past year, and found a great
number Of them to be irregular and fraudu-
lent. He has rendered good service in his
department, and by refusing payment of
claims that were shady has already saved
the Government about S2,000,000.
Now, what are the apparent facts in the
case? Simply, that, at the very worst, it is
merely one of the relatively small number
Of cases which come up from the South, in
which negro soldiers or their widows are
involved. Owing TO the peculiar circum-
stances the difficulties of proof in these
cases are sometimes very great, and the
proper adjudication of them has been a
serious annoyance to all Pension Com
missioners. The uncertainty and the
opportunities for fraud have been much
greater than among the white soldiers of the
North, and every Commissioner has, very
properly, been quite rigorous in his ex-
animation of them. II the facts are as Mr..
Evans states, he has done no more than his
plain duty, and no more than previous
Commissioners have done, with no thought
of doing otherwise. He has not, as he
would have people believe, invented this
method of dealing with these cases. 1t was
originally instituted by Commissioner Bar
rett. during the war, while Mr. Evans was
as yet clerk In the Quartermaster's
branch.
The complaint that the veterans have
against Mr.. Evans is that he will persist
emily work the newspapers with single
case like this as justification for his reiec-
ton OF tens Of thousands Of widows claims
that bear no moro resemblance to it than a
genuine promissory note does to a "Bo-
oats" swindle.
II some rascal has been using Rose
Hooper to defraud the Government, Com
missioner Evans has his name and the
names of every one of his accomplices before
him, with all the evidence in black and
white. He can railroad the rascal and his
whole gang into the penitentiary inside of
a week. The law gives him the most
stringent and absolute powers. Let him
20 lIJ anu tlc NHOlt pIdIu army OF TIE he
public Will approve his action.
But he must stop making this colored
volunteer who was missing in battle, this
Tennessee negress who may or may not be
his widow, this mythical pension attorney
who should be in the penitentiary, cover
behind which 10 deny pensions to tens of
thousands of aged white women who are
the undoubted widows Of men who did
service to the country in its
time Of necd-to women who, as girls of
spotless character, married these men when |
they returned from the army, who lived
with them as faithful, devoted wives, who
bore and reared their children, who nursed |
their husbands with loving, tender con-
stancy when the hurts and strains Of army |
life began to tell upon their aging bodies, !
and whose hearts broke in anguish by their |
when their eyes finally closed to
earth TO reopen only in the Beyond
The Tennessee negress may so COM
pletely fill Henry Clay Evans's vision that
he can see no other veterans widow in the |
land. He may industriously try to per-
suade the people that she is a fair type Of the |
widows claims that he has to contend with. |
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