The National tribune., 1901-05-02
the PENSION CoMMIssIoNERsHIp.

The Washington papers had story
last week that the President would ap-
point Judge S. +. Peters, of Kansas, Com
missioner of Pensions before he started
| for the Pacific.
| But when Representative Curtis called
! upon him, in reference to a Kansas con.
| stituent and told him incidentally that
| Kansas stood ready TO furnish an accept
able Commissioner of Pensions, the Presi-
dent replied that he was not then ready
| to take that matter up. 1t is understood
that the Kansas delegation has indorsed
both Judge Peters and Col. r. W. Blue,
to GLOW the President to make his choice
The difficulty probably now arises out
Of the in0rdinate vanity and self-seeking
of Evans. He is playing for all that he
knows how the card that he has been
simply carrying out the Presidents pol
icy, and taking the blame that properly
belonged to the President, and that he
should therefore be rewarded by q much
more lucrative and honorable appointment
than the President cares to give him.
This is the meaning of the recent out
break in the papers of the country of the
silly chatter about pension sharks"
Treasury looters," etc, which was in-
spired by Evans. 1t is as absurd buga-
boo as was ever dangled before the eyes
of the people. If there is such a thing
as a pension shark he is some small-po>
tato rascal, who aims at nothing bigger
than getting two or three $S-a-month PEN
sions through illegitimately, and Evans
has the fullest power to railroad him into
tho nnnItaOtinry q a iS
worth the pow-wow that Evans contin-
ually keeps up about him than is the oc-
casional scoundrel in various parts of the
country who steals 4 horse or robs a
smoke-house.
The Commissioner of Customs, for ex-
ample, is not forever blaring the trumpet
Of his own honesty and smartness because
some woman has been caught smuggling
in few yards of lace, or a man has been
found with diamonds sewed up in his
clothes. The Commissioner of Internal
Revenue does not fill the country with
trumpetings of his phenomenal integrity
and cunning every time it is found that
some rascally cigar dealer has been using
his boxes over again, or a man has made
an illicit still out of his wife's wash-boiIer
Yet each of these officials has a thousand
fold more cunning and audacious yillainy
TO deal with than the Commissioner OF
Pensions. They quietly assume that it is
their business to be honest and Jealous.
That is what is expected of them. Their
predecessors have been so; their success
sOrs will be. Evans constantly assumes
that there never was 4 really honest and |
capable Commissioner of Pensions till he
entered the office. When the Commits |
sioner OF Customs or the Commissioner |
of Internal Revenue finds a lawbreaker !
he lands him in jail with as much expe- |
ditiou as possible, and says no more about |
him. Evans, on the other hand, runs a |
serial story through the press about every |
small-fry offender he can discover, walls |
aloud and without ceasing about the num-
the loud clarion about his own remarkable
probity, and demands that the President
shall bestow signal reward for such un-
heard-Of devotion to the interests of the |
Treasury.
By the exercise of the vigilance and
fidelity which they were expected to have
the Commissioners of Customs and In
ternaI Revenue have probably each saved
Tie Treasury $lOO,OOO,0O0 during the past
four years over what might have been
brought in by slack or incompetent admin
stration. Yet neither of them is demand
ing foreign mission as reward for hav-
ing done their ample duty.