The Washington times., 1901-06-30
NOT SCARED BY SICKLES.
Administration Now Determined to
stand by Evans.

NEW YORK, June 29-The Evening
Post prints the following from it's Wash
ington correspondent:
e The Sickles outbreak has made 1t alb
solutely impossible for the President TO
make any change in the office of Com
missioner of Pensions, said a prominent
public man here today in summarizing
the developments of the last few days
This is doubtless true. After what has
taken place the President could not make
Mr.. Evans his Ambassador to Great Brit
ain, nor could Mr.. Evans, for the most
pressing of personal or business reasons,
retire from his post without fixing in the
popular mind the charge that there was a
bargain for his place. just as General
Sickles has alleged. Some months ago
he might have been promo sel'-now that
pretence would be laughed at.
Some difference of opiaioa exists as to
the extent to which Senator SSott's let
ter to General Sickles. made public this
morning. constitutes a promise. 1t is an
axiom of national campaigning that those
in charge have to avoid direct promises,
especially on paper They let their pur-
poses be known by inference and implica-
ton. Particularly would this have been
true of Senator Scott, who is very close
to Mr.. Hanna, and in 1900 was largely
responsible for the conduct of the cam
paign in the East. He also had charge Of
the speakers bureau. 1t is doubtful
whether, among the 1900 letters which
Mr.. Scott says he dictated during the
campaign. he ever gave a more explicit
promise concerning any great national
policy than when he wrote in his letter
to General Sickles than he could safely
say that he hardly thought that Mr.
Commissioner, adding: L think this is all
/ can say on this subject without en-
barrassing the President and possibly the
committee; but 1 think that you can take
it for granted that things will be on the
line that you suggest
This comes pretty near being a prom
ise, under all the circumstances and,
aside from Senator Hanna himself, no
man had more authority to speak for the
committee
There had been for several months no
real reason to doubt that the powers that
be- intended to make a change in the Pen
sion Commissionership. They probably in
tended to make the change a promotion
for Mr.. Evans, and also tc see to Ii that
his successor was nearly as conservative:
but that they proposed TO quiet the un-
ceasing clamor by removing the object of
Grand Army complaints cannot be ques-
toned. it comes from so many sources.
Too many Senators have come away from
the White House with this impression:
the quieting OF Grand Army hostility at
the encampment of 1860 was too sudden to
have been entirely spontaneous. Mr.. Scott
admits that he wrote TO old soldiers rather
freely that they might expect change in
the office, and his view was the general
one. But for once delay has proved dan
gerous. The President cannot now carry
out that expectation of his party man
ayers.
'One confusing feature of the situation
has been the two-sidedness of General
Sickles and his associates toward Mr.
Evans. At one moment they will tell him
privately that they We're entirely salts
fed with his conduct of the Office while
on public occasions assaiIing ii bitterly
This seems to be characteristic OF the
pension business. One of the most vo-
ciferous champions of the old soldier
Grand Army. once told your correspond
ent that President Cleveland's private
pension VetoeS were in the main all
right. But he added that of course, in
his position. he had 10 take Just the op-
pOsite view.
uonal Commander-in-Ch hief of the Grand
Army, and so the views which he has ex-
pressed TO Commissioner Evans in pri-
Yate correspondence would never do for
public utteranceS. Meanwhile Represeu-
tative Gibsons remark remains true that
the difference between Mr.. Evans admin
istration of the Pension Office and a popu-
lar one would be only about S5000,OO0 a
year. and. of course. although he does not
add IL, the moral effect upon the country
of that much money fraudulently dis
tributed."