The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-25
PREYS ON Pensioners
Genus Shark as Described by
Mr.. Mahon.
WHO PROPOSES A METHOD
To Put a Stop to Their Pecu-
liar Practices.
WHO PROPOSES A METHOD

Especial Correspondence OF the Eagle.)
Washington, Jan. 24-The house has
amended the bill making the annual ap.
preparations for pensions so that it will
practically bar the pension attorneys Of
this city who have been considered large
~ responsible for the trouble that has
occurred in connection with the admins
tration of the bureau Of pensions. The
amendment is as follows: Provided that
the commissioner of pensions shall fur
nish all necessary blanks to claimants.
and that said commissioner may, in his
discretion, refuse to pay the fee TO attor-
ney of record when he is satisfied tina,
said attorney failed to prepare the case
under his or her personal supervision and
did not discharge his full duty to claim
ant"
This amendment was agreed to without
a dissenting vote. The bill, as amended
was then passed. The bill appropriates
the sum of s144. 245, 2S0 for the year 1900
Last year it was very close to $500 .O0J
Mr.. Mahon of Pennsylvania, Republi-
can, is plain. straightforward individ-
ual, He talked on pensions during this
debate and offered this amendment. 1t is
to be understood, however, that while
pension attorneys may be barred under
this amendment, It applies almost ex-
clusively to alleged attorneys here in
Washington. Mr.. Mahon said, in part:
''Mr. ChairmanAThis pension bureau
disburses some s14O,Oco 900 annually and it
is very easy to criticise it in a few iso-
lated cases. In this opposition that has
grown up during the last year against
the commissioner Of pensions and tht pen
sion office, there is class Of gentlemen
at the bottom of It, and think the time
has now come to have something to say
in reference to those gentlemen. It is
well known that the city of Washington
is infested with what is known as pen
sion shark lawyers. They Will send their
circulars all over the country, send blank
applications and blank powers of attor-
ney and get these claimants, whether
they are entitled to a pension or not, to
sign and execute these papers and return
them.
'Then they send them few blanlo affi-
davits. and the whole outfit does not cost
them ten cents From the time these pa
pers are sent out IT is my experience,
and it is tn experience Of every man who
livs in the community where these SOL
diers live, that they must resort to a
lawyer or to the home of justice of the
peace or to a notary public or TO that
man whom we find in every village who
sort of looks after things Of that kind
for the people, and they execute the pa
pers for them.
81 will take you to the pension office
and show you that in not one case out
Of forty do these gentlemen ever put in
an affidavit in their own handwriting. I
have filed UP hundreds of these cases
and I never charged a soldier dime in
my life. When the case is made up and
the member of congress succeeds in get
ting a favorable action upon 1t, what do
the pension-shark attorneys do? They
walk up to the treasury Of the United
States and take their ten-dollar bill. or
contract for s25. from these claimants,
for which they have never rendered one
penny Of service except to send out few
blanks
Since I have been in this house I have
handled over $500 pension cases. I live
in q country where war ragged for four
long years, and in a state that furnished
49, 900 men to the Union army and in a
district that put $500 men into it.
have requested the pension commissioner
and written to him not to allow these in
famous sharks to take dollar from the
claim after 1t has been allowed.
Now, this appeal that is made 30 you
is in the interest Of these sharks who
have been robbingthe soldiers of this
country. In 1898 the present commissioner
paid out $4,000 of the money awarded
the soldiers, of which over two-thirds or
one-half went to pension sharks OF Wash
ington City. do not refer to the repu-
table lawyers. I traced a case in this
city to find a pension attorney b. the
name Of Mcbride and ] found him on
Louisiana avenue to be an Irish washer
woman. The city is infested with these
people and they have neither office Or
desk. Now. during the last year. tie
in his report under June
30, 1899. says that he paid them. instead
OF s79O0oo, only S476 81. almost 500, 00J
less than they had received heretofore,
and although more pensions had been
granted in 1899
ut was these pension sharks
that have stirred up the soldiers all over
the country, and I am one cf the men in
favor OF passing a law OF putting II into
this bill indorsing the commissioner Of
pensions and providing that these men
shall not ron the claimants Of money al
lowed them by this general government"
p II EAXOr-