Sunday Washington globe., 1901-12-29


possession of the Pension Department, and
are running it against the laws of Congress,
and manipulating c. A. r. officials (See
GLOBE Nov. ~
The following clipping from the Wash
ington Post of December IS shows conclu.
sively that the G, A. r. jury is packed
against the veteran, and that Evans cannot
remember that he is being impeached as a
judge, not as Congress- which finally Con
siders the interest of the Government and
fixes the pension policy of the laws. The
clipping, evidently written by Pension
Commissioner Evans in the bureau here al
though dated at Minneapolis, reads
MINNBAPoLIs Mimi. Dec. I7.-Ell Tor
renee, commander-in. chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic. to-day announced
the following as the committee on pen
sions: Col. Robert Beath, Philadelphia;
Col. John {. Black, Chicago; Gen. James r.
Carnahan, indianapolis; Judge Charles c.
Burton, Nevada, Mo-; ex-Gov. W. II. Up
ham, Marshheld, Wis. Henry f. Taintor,
Hartford, Conn. John {. Liuehan, Pena-
cook. NJ III.
In view of the Pension Office controversy
this committee is most important. 1t is un-
derstood that the commanders desire IN
naming this committee was to secure one
that could consider the interests of the
government equally with those of the
veterans Judge Terrence does not occupy
position of hostility toward the present
administration of the Pension Bureau, but
wishes to see that the old soldiers are pro-
tected as the law provides. The whole pen
sion question was referred by the Cleveland
encampment to the commander in-chef
and the committee named to-day.
A judge on the bench is to execute the
law, not feel the pulse Of the Treasury to de-
termine how much he should return unex-
pended at the end Of the year Congress
decided the safety of the Government in
making the appropriation and in passing
the pension laws. If more claims are al
lowed under the laws than the appropria-
tion the Treasury will report them to Con-
gress for payment and Congress can then
consider what legislation is necessary to
reduce pension laws Evans takes the
labor off the hands of Congress
by arbitrarily reducing the laws in
advance by illegal construction to save"
the Treasury. He thus returns five million
dollars each year as unexpended from each
pension appropriation. This, at the yearly
average Of pensions (say $Ioo) would have
pensioned fifty thousand of the one hum
dred and twenty thousand claims which
Evans has illegally rejected each year TO
get his savings"
During ex x-President Cleveland's first ad-
ministration, the above selected Colonel
Black was Clevelan's pension commissioner
and right bower, and rejected claims almost
as extensively, and fully as unlawfnlly, as
Pension Commissioner Evans has done dur
ing the past five years The law was boldly
ignored and prostituted The veterans
were dumfounded, and a wall went up
through the land equal to that which fol-
lowed the tactics Of Lochren, Cleveland's
pension commissioner in his second admin
istration, and equal to the weeping of
widows and orphans and the wrath of the
veterans which followed the appointment
of Evans, the prince of tyrants, oppressors
and corrupt judges. A shadow of the ex-
tent and nature of Blacks unlawful rulings
stands out in the four volumes of printed
decisions printed during the Harrison ad-
ministration, ,overrulingC gCleveland's schemes
of Saving" the surplus by defrauding the
veterrns out of their legal rights Those
schemes of Cleveland's first administration
stand admitted by his last administration
to have been illegal, because he did not re-
vive them during his second administra-
tion, and let them stand overruled, and
carried out the laws as decided by Harri-
sons administration in overruling Black
Lochren invented other unlawful schemes
for suppressing other laws which Black did
not attack. 1t was reserved for Evans dur
ing the Mckinley administration to revive
many Of Blacks unlawful schemes which
had laid dormant for eight years Is there
any wonder that Evans should demand of
the commander-in-chief of the c. A. R. that
Black be placed on the c. A. r. pension
committee in place of General Sickles7
The clipping felt called upon to offer
some apology We speak by the printed
books in stating Blacks pension record
and the subsequent course Of the depart
ment.
It was Clevelands first administration
that introduced the iuntos schemes for
violating the pension laws 1t was Cleve-
lands second administration that revived
the tactics Of his first, but in new fields the
junto having been compelled to lie-off dur
ing Harrison's administration At the be
ginning of Clevelands second adminstra-
tion the members Of the junto in Congress
were for repeating OF reducing the June
law; but the most knowing ones Of the
junto said, Leave that to Lochren, he will
fix that; and he did.
To find the bent Of Black mind on pen
sions turn to volumes to IL p D.. where
the history of Black, Lochren and Evans is
partially portrayed; but not half is there,
because most of the unlawful work was
done in the bureau, and the junto had its
members in Congress, as Evans now has, to
stiAe any attempt at Congressional investi-
cation. The mere mention of a G. A. R.
investigation is ridiculous. The Evans G. A.
r. pretended investigation spent three days
in shaking hands through the bureau, hold
ing receptions and being wined and dined
II would take a Congressional committee a
whole term of Congress, when aided by a
large force Of expert clerks, to properly ex-
anime three or four hundred thousand
medical and legal adiudications.
Evans has for the past year-and-a-half
been preparing for concealing the extent Of
his medical frauds, by his order for con-
cealing the extent of the veterans disabili-
ties, an order Of How not to do it," (See
GLOBE, November 24) An investigation
would have to reach behind June 90 1000,
for at least two years Of work, in order to
fully understand the magnitude of Evans
and Hitchcocks crimes against the soldiers
A.. ~ 80 l.