The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-04-08
PENSION AGENTS BLAMED
Commissioner Evans on Claims of
District Soldiers.

ReaSOHs Why So Many Applications
Were FIIed-A Careful InvestiGa-
tion by bureau Physicians in All
CaseS-aIen with Many Ailments.
It WAS quite natural to expect that
there would be great increase in the
pension rolls on account of the war with
Spain, and it looked At one tine as if
nearly the entire number Of enlisted men
would apply for pensions. Rumor had 1t
At one time that fully two-thirds OF the
regiment furnished by the District ap-
piled for pensions. The report was pub
Iished and created much comment.
Il. Clay Evans. Commissioner of Pen
sions. speaking of the matter. said:
About half tie number of enlisted men
filed their applications in this Office. but
really the men themselves were not to
blame. 1t was the pension agents. They
were a little too eager 70 get business
The regiment contained many soldiers
who had sustained more or less serious
injuries due to exposure 10 an unhealthful
climate. A good many Of them came
home sick with malaria and other as
eases. They were tireC and in a state Of
mind most favorable for the purposes of
the eVer-actiVe pension agent L the boys
had been let alone there would probably
have been but d few applications for pen
sions- But the Onnipresent pension agent
just mobbed the soldiers whenever they
were seen and easily pursualed them that
they were entitled to . pension; that the
money was in the Treasury, and that
they were entitled to a share in it This
accounts for the number of applications.
Many of these applications come in
what we call duplicates that is to say,
a pension agent gets the ear of a soldier
and Pursuades him that he is sick and
entitled TO pension. He informs the
man that he IS suffering from some ma
lady and induces the soldier to file his
application. Then another agent runs
across him and soIicits his business.
When told by the soldier that he has al
ready made his application. he informs
the man that he can do better than the
first agent did; that he has friend in
the Pension Office who looks after his
business carefully, in short, that he has
a pull with The Office and can get the
advantage Of special attention This gen
orally lands the soldier and the result is
q duplicate application with a new set Of
dIsablements attached to it. There may
lie d number OF these duplicates sent in
for the same man.
Sometimes they come in the form of
blanket applications wherein every all
mcnt TO which human flesh is heir viii
be inserted as the reasons why the apEli-
cant should have a pension II the appli-
cant was really suffering from all the
troubles mentioned in some of these ap-
pIications his blanket would be his
shcoud- He would surely be a dead man
The Imagination of the pension agent is
very acute and he viii insert in the ap-
plicatiGn \ number Of ailments from
nh Fhl colder moi CnffPTiVR and
which, ON enquiry the applicant indig-
HGuJly TeDudiaUeS. OF course in such
cases it only means more work for our
doctors They examine the man ana IN
many instances find little or none of the
disablements alleged by the agent
why Goes the aseht do that2' the
Commissioner was asked
oh" was the reply. 1T IS a sort Of
drag-net policy They know. of course,
that The bureau viii send its own doctors
70 examine the applican: and they hope
that some of the numerous disabIementS
viii be corroborated- By enumeraTinS all
the ailments they have on tap. they hope
70 lend a rev and thus secure pension
AS a rule. the soldier himself never
knows what is in his application papers
He leaves IL to the pension agent &c at
tend to Not q few OF these blanket
aDDlicants re-eniiSted and when examined
by the army surgeons were found IN sound
physical condition. This has been true
with mauy of the enlisted men from the
Is not to blame. He may be i'll and play
ed out when he arrives home. but few
weeks Of careful nursing ana plenty or
good wholesome food StTaighten him out
gain and he IS st 10 re-enlist- Such pen
sion agent methods as ] have mentioned,
Of course. are not right, but are more the
fault OF the SySte OF pension soliciting
than that of the agent They are evils
which cannot be avoided. but their effects
can be and are. in almost every instance.
made imperative. The department IS
friend Of the upright agent. but when we
get suspicious of any agents and we ind
that they are not honest in their dealings
with rs ar the applicant they wake up 10
find that they are not happy and life is
not as rosy as they thought IL was.
Commissioner Evans was asked Wfs- It
was that the number Of names on the
pension list YVES increasing each year,
when It would be fair TO assume that af-
ter the expiration OF forty years the num-
Der Of civil war veterans would be de-
creased by death TO which he replied
There are IJ5, go civil war veterans who
have not Yet applied for pensions The
pension laws recognize two classes Of
old soldiers who are eligible TO pensions
those who are disabled as the result of
active service and those who may become
disabled at any time during their life af-
ter they were mustered out. The major
ity of names on our pension rolls are of
the latter class The Government intends
to take care of the Old soldier always
Up TO date there are about II 900 appii-
cations from the Spanish war veterans
placed on file. Very few Of these have
as yet come from soldiers who have re-
turned from the Philippines