Sunday morning globe., 1901-10-20

missioner II. Clay Evans IS hard prOpO-
siton. For over four years he has success
fully deied an overwhelming sentiment
among the real soldiers of the Civil and
now Of the Spanish war to secure his official
scalp. 1t was predicted that the late presi
dent would have removed him on his return
from the Buffalo Exposition, and appoint
Mr. Peters, of Kansas, but the lamentable
tragedy which occurred in that city saved
Mr. Evans and he is now again secure in his
position. AT least such is the impression he
has given out the past week, after an inter.
view with President Roosevelt accom-
panied by Gen. Eli florence Commander
n-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic
The many and ingenious schemes Of
which Mr. Evans is the author to defeatthe
benevolent purposes of Congress toward
the old soldiers, have become the campfire
talk of every Grand Army post from Maine
to California. The last Congress appro-
priated sI44ooo 900 for pensions of which
munifcent sum s35ooooo were absolScd In
the expenses Of running the department,
leaving the net sum Of $4,000, 600 10 be
applied TO the payment OF pensions due
soldiers on the pension roll. This sum, IL
will be remembered, was actually due the
pensioners as appeared from the roll The
new pensioners TO be placed upon the rolls
during the fiscal year would, IL was estimated,
balance the old soldiers who had died and
who were drawing pensions, their widows,
and minor children who became of age. vet
in the face of these facts, MI Evans re-
turned into the treasury an unexpended
balance of over s5,ooo,ooo.
The following letter by a wellknown at
svsrltf lfue ha
his life practcing in the Pension Depart
ment will explain how Mr. Evans at the ex-
pense of the widow returned a portion Of
this unexpended balance
TO the Editor of the SUNDAY GLOBE:
rejoice to see how you work for the
widows interests by attacking IL Clay
Evans, the Pension Office fraud. Your
readers doubtless generally know that pen
sion widows lose their pensions by re-mar-
riage. Perhaps that law was just, but il GER
tainly was to the discouragemeut of matri-
mony but when the remarked widow had
lost her second husband and was again
widow and more needy oittimes than before
because Of old age and its nfrmiues, She
had to live on without a pension no matter
how poor She might be. The widow who
had remarked, knowing that she forfeited
her pension, did a meritorious act. During
the life of her second husband she saved
the Government her pension. Now
perhaps il may have been TO encourage
more marriages of these pension widows.
that Congress passed, on March g. 1901 a
law to restore TO the pension rolls those who
had been dropped ON account of their re-
marriage and who hadagain become widows
This law consists of two sections, the
second one of which reads as follows:
"Section p No claim agent or other person
shall be entitled 60 receive any compensa-
ton for services in making application for
pension under this act'
The widows themselves living as most Of
them do, In distant states and knowing
nothing about the methods Of applying for
pensions. naturally write to a pension attor-
ney for advice and assistance and are quite
willing and even anxious to make a fair
compensation for the services of an attor-
ney; but Commissioner Evans, under sec
tion q refuses 10 recognize any attorney in
this class of cases, so that where attorneys
have filed cases without any reward they
are not allowed afterwards TO see the said
cases or to obtain any information concern
ing them.
] speak from experience. l filed some
papers in the Pension Office more than six
months ago and have been persistently de-
MED the opportunity see the papers since,
and all information concerning them has
been refused. Neither has the Pension
Bureau made any move in the matter, as 4
have Just received letters from two of them,
inquirng what has been done, If anything,
IN their cases, thus showing that they had
heard nothing themselves from the Pension
Bureau.
It is thus that Commissioner Evans in
Reniously devised a scheme in Section to
make nugatory the benevolent intentions Of
Congress. H. r. X.
From another source the GLOBE has been
put in possession Of the following sem-
romantic case Of the wife Of General James
X. Beecher, brothero Of Henry Ward Beecher.
who, twill be remembered, suicided some
years ago.
General Beecher at the time Of his death
was afflicted with melancholia which had
developed as the result Of suderngs and
hardships in the service Of his country. II
was while suffering from this depressing
mental disease that he took mis- own life.
His widow applied for pension based
upon the fact that the husband had con-
tracted the disease in the service, and filed
her claims through a well-known Washing
ton claim agent This attorney had com
pleteQ the case Wneu an inspector was sent
out to investigate the facts alleged in the
claim. The inspector secured memorial
pamphlet issued by the widow Of the gen
eral, in which the statement was made that
he inherited melancholy from his father.
Armed with this pamphlet the inspector re-
turned and the Pension Department
promptly rejected the claim. But the at
torney IN this case knew the law, and re-
minded the Pension Office that no tesu-
mony was legitimate m pension claims for
or against the applicant unless sworn to
before a person authorized TO administer
oaths. The testimony before the Pension
Department which was supported by
afidavits, was to the effect that General
Beecher contracted the disease in the SER
vice, while the testimony brought by the
inspector was a pamphlet which was un-
sworn to and alleged to have been written
H.. 4 Wf,s