The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-07
INVITATION TO FRAUD
EVANS, ,ARRAIoNs THE PENSION
 SYSTEM.
She Commissioner Cites Many In stances Where the Treasury of the United States is Being
 Systematically Looted.

washington. Nov. 6-In his annual re- rert the Commissioner of Pensions dis cusses at length the faults of the present system of pensioning and the difficulties In the way of determining the merits or claims for pension and increase.
 Attention Is invited again to the neces- sity of repeating the aot of June {, lsSS. which swept away all Limitations as to the filing of widows claims under the general law and brought about conditions which are stated to be standing invita- tiou to file fraudulent claims. the arrear- ages being so large and the chances or detection so small
 Referring to slave marriages, the Commissioner says that with shrewd and competent attorney, backed by will ing witnesses, the Government has no chance. and if the special examiners Of the bureau endeavor to ascertain the facts, the interested parties at once cry aloud that 'the spies of the bureau are prosecuting the poor widows" The Com missioner declares that the law is an open invitation to fraud, perjury and mis- representation.
 In January. 1900, a rule was adopted res quiring guardians of pensioners to render to the bureau annual accounts of their receipts and expenditures of pension mon- ey. The rule was followed by disclosures, which, in some instances, were of a start ling nature. Guardians were found to be drawing pensions long after the death of their wards. Many cases were found where insane pensioners had been placed In asylums and other public institutions as indigent persons, while the guardians had drawn the pension during the whole period, and either diverted 1t for other purposes. or allowed 1t to accumulate for the benefit of the pensioners legal rep resentatives.
 Improper, exorbitant and extravagant items of expenditure were shown which had been authorized and approved by the courts. Other cases were revealed in which tn guardians were appropriating the pension to their own use. while the wards were being maintained at public expense.
 In many cases pension moneys were shown to have accumulated in the hands of guardians in sums ranging from $1, ,0O( to over $26,0oo. while the intended bene' ficiaries of the bounty of the government were being cared for in public institu tons at the expense again of the public
 The commissioner called the attention of the Secretary of the Interior to thes' abuses and in an opinion dated May p. 1901. the secretary decided that the guardian of a pensioner is the agent oi he United States for the proper expendi' .ure of pension in his hands and that guardians drawing pension 1uIluS are SUD- ect to the direction of the Commissioner If Pensions both before and after the ieath of their wards.
 The report shows that the soldiers oi the war with Spain and the insurrectior In the Philippine islands enjoy much greater benefits than were accorded tc the soldiers of the civil war in the amount of pensions granted.
 While the civil war lasted for four years and the casualties were enormous. and the Spanish-American war lasted only about four months with comparatively few casualties, 1t is shown that three years after the close of the Spanish American war. claims for pension: amounting to about 20 per cent of th' number of soldiers engaged in that wal had been filed, while in 1872 and sever years after the close of the civil war only about per cent of the soldiers engaged in that war had filed claims.
 The Commissioner says in his opinior this disparity is tho fault of the sys tenn of pensioning, with an active army O attorneys. etc., who are pracucall! licensed by the government with tn promise of $25 for each claim allowed.