The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-24

The zeal Of the Sentinel as a champion OF
pensions. like the zeal Of all fresh con-
verts after years Of marked sinfulness. is
so rampant as TO cause 1t is not
proposed to express any doubt as to the
genuineness of it's conversion. but rather to
show what a radical change of sentiment it
has experienced.
1t will he m that when Mr..
Cleveland came into office i'm March. 1898.
he instituted a raid upon the pension roll.
AS to the extent Of that raid. let the Wash
ington correspondent of the Sentinel be
quoted:
The administrati ton has put 10 work a
board of revision 10 sift out the pensions
that appear TO be unlawful. and has SuS-
pended 5000 of the 37. 203 pensions allowed
by Raum. in accordance with the Judgment
questions the law as administered, 1t can
test IL in the courts.
Many people and all veterans will re-
member the Indignation and CONSERVATION
this plan of the Cleveland administration
caused. Thousands of pensioners were
notified of suspension for sixty days. at the
end of which time they were to be dropped
from the roll If they did not furnish adj
ditional evidence that they were entitled
to a penson under the act of June q. 1890.
The board of revision. specially selected
for the purpose. went to the slaughter Of
pensioners with "ghoulish glee." 1t was
currently reported at the time that the
members of this board We'd with each other
in this slaughter. TO an extent that a single
member suspended more than two hundred
rop-;oOa,c In, n 1ox- Nor di1 fhnca jealous
officials halt with the victims of the law of
1890: they went after men who had been
granted pensions under the general law.
one of the first suspended i'm this State be-
ing a Democrat pensioned for disabilities
arising from wounds. The Sentinel made no
protest; but i'm an editorial criticising the
resolutions of the National -Encanpment of
the Grand Army. held here. sustained the
work of the Pension Bureau. About this
time it declared that a pension is not a
vested right thus sustaining the theory
that a pension is a bounty which govern
ment may withhold at any time.
The Democratic Congress met in Deem
Der, 1898. In it's m on Mr.. Cleve-
lands message the Sentinel quoted with
emphatic approval what the President said
regarding pensions. including the following
declaration:
Thousands of neighborhoods nave their
well-known fraudulent pensioners. and re-
cent developments by the bureau establish
appalling conspiracies to accomplish pen
sion frauds.
''On the pension question" said the Sen
tinel in its comments, "Mr. Cleveland takes
no step backward. but stands with the
commissioner, stating. however. that the
commissioner has so modified his rule with
regard to cases not apparently altogether
void" The quotation from the message. a
few lines OF which is given above, the Sen
tinel followed with these words:
This will probably call forth renewed
clamor from the pension agents and the
politicians who make a speciality of patriot
ism in its political phases, but 1t is right:
There Is no more reason why a fraudulent
pension claim should stand than a fraudu-
lent land claim. and we are glad that the
administration does not propose 10 abandon
it's efforts TO correct the scandalous pro-
ceedings of the late administration in this
matter. Notwithstanding the clamor that
has been raised. Ii Is q relief 10 nave men
who have the backbone 10 do what they
think right. even if they should lose the
votes of interested parties.
Thus in 1893. when pensioners were being
suspended by thousands without warning,
the Sentinel boldly applauded. Most OF
these names were restored TO the list. with
lower rates in many cases-thus showing
that the raid had no basis in fact. The
Sentinel approved of the charge that
thousands of neighborhoods have their
%well-known fraudulent pensioners yet the
Cleveland administration did not expose
them. and the ccnspiracies which were
appalling were under investigation when
the Cleveland adm'nistration came into Of
flee. and were confined 10 a few score cases
in charge of rascally claim agents.
But all this is of the past. The Sentinel
has learned that IL and Mr.. Cleveland were
mistaken about the thousands and tens OF
thousands of fraudulent pensioners" and,
doubtless in the spirit of conscience-smitten
contrition. it is now assailing COMMISSIONS
Evans. not because he has suspended a
pensioner or reduced a pension, but because
the bureau is not increasing the pensions
of all who apply. Let no hippant scoffer
jeer at the remarkable conversion of the
Sentinel.