Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-09

ARnh0BN the ItnSAOn
Pension Commissioner Evans does not
confne himself to his annual reports in
spreading his calumnies and libels against
the veterans, their attorneys, witnesses and
examining surgeons. One of his plans is to
have his law division and a set Of clerks in
his Office often at work garbling extracts
from the bureau records to give out in long
and short articles to the anti-pension news
papers for the false purpose Of scandaliziug
pensions and pension claimants aud help
ing the Southern schoolbook propaganda, at
Uncle Sans expense, while withholding
volumes of faithful records which give his
tories Of deserving claims illegally rejected;
histories of his own unlawful orders and in
structions overruled by his superior officers;
coucealing the diseases ignored by his order
through his medical division even conceal
ing from the veterans under the new law
the diseases which he pensions by putting
in the certificates only the words 'for par
tial inability to earn support by manual
labor" and at the same time refusing to
give the veteran notice of what diseases are
allowed or rejected This scheme for con
cealing from claimants the diseases both
ignored aud those allowed, is one Of the
most insufferable frauds and disgraces in
Evans pension practice, under a Repub-
lican form of government It is an instru-
ment of fraud equal to the forms in the old
inquisiton in medieval Spain, or the Star
Chamber practice where the defendant was
mot permitted to know the crime with which
he was charged, and torture, fine, imprison-
ment and mutilatiOn were inflicted on a mere
oral proceeding without hearing the accused,
by a court consisting of the immediate rep
resentatives Of the kings prerOgative.
This infamy and bold fraud in Evans
pension practice consists in his arbitrarily
rejecting parts of the claim, and coucealing
the fact from the veterans so that they can
never know what step to take to correct it.
The veteran is required to state specifically
each disease; and no disease will be pen
stoned under the new law which he cannot
describe, although he describes others
which the doctors call by a name unknown
to him The clerks ia the bureau are re
quired to specify on the sheets each dis
ease, and state whether proved or not
proved under the new law. The local
boards Of examining surgeons are required
to specify and describe each disability
found to exist; the legal reviewers on the
board of review in the bureau are required
to name each disease claimed for by
claimant, and to state whether such disease
has been proved to exist or not, and legally
established under the June law, and the
medical referee is required to name each
disease allowed, but TO omit those not al
lowed After all the above details for
knocking out as many diseases as possible,
the certificate division leaves ont all dis
eases, and the soldier is treated with con-
At @ II.
as totally unworthy of the confidence of the
Government he helped to save from dis
membermeut by Southern rebels as insig
ni6cant, without rights and as not worthy
to be trusted with knowledge of the facts
on which the bureau has based his pension
He is treated as moral wreck" no more
to be entrusted with knowledge Of the
facts in his case than a low thief or other
seouudrel is to be entrusted with Commits.
siouer Evans wel-flled pocKetbook after
pay day. Under this practice we need not
be told what fraud is to be concealed
Every man and woman knows it can be for
no other purpose than concealiug from the
veteran the fraud of the Pension Bureau in
ignoring and refusing to rate parts Of his
disabilities. GLOBE, Jan. 20, 1909
This scheme of hiding from the soldier
what diseases were pensioned was invented
after it had been determined to reduce the
new law by illegal and pretended reconstruc-
tion similar to many of Evans recent pre-
tended reconstructions Of old and well-estab-
lshed laws. Commissioner Raum wrote in
the certificate the diseases accepted as
Tatable, thus giving the veteran, for perma-
nent use, record of his case, similar to the
unifOrmpractice under order 70 of August
%, 1873. Dig. 1885, page 374
Evans has prevented the board Of appeals
in the Office Of the Secretary of the Interior
from overruling this barbarous practice,
although Evans tried to use Il as a double
instrument Of oppression (I) against the
pensioner, and (7) against the attorney.
Evans refused to allow the attorney fee
because the attorneys had not proved non
vicious habits as to the new diseases in a
claim for increase under the new law. The
attorneys declared they had no means Of
knowing what we're ne7O and what we're
byevi0N%V pensioned, aud were compelled
to await the call from the Bureau; and that
the soldier did not know, as the truth had
been concealed from him by the form Of
the pension certificate The matter, as to
this point, can be we'll expressed in The
language used in the decision Of Assistsn mt
Secretary Ryan, who decided this point
against Evans, although not permitted to
overrule the unciulized practice.
The decision reads In the report of
the Bureau (by Evans) il is argued That in
claims for increase in which additional dis
abling causes are alleged the same reason
exists for requiring attorneys to file evi
dence that such disabling causes are not the
results Of vicious habits, as exist in original
claims under said act" (Eyans' report in
the claim Formerly the diseases ap-
proved as causing the claimants disability
for performing manual labor we're enumer-
ated in the certificate issued in claims for
pension under the act of June q, 1890; for
some time there has been a change in the
practice, and causes Of disability are not
now enumerated in the pension certificates
(oniy under said act).
When such certificates lunder said act)
mentioned the causes Of disability approved
by the bureau it was possible for an attor-
ney 70 ascertain which Of the causes alleged
as the basis of the claim for increase was
newly alleged; he was thus enabled to limit
the evidence as to non-vicious habits and