Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-01

made no Qtuerence IN GoAARA~Nt"A -At~ ~'-AAN'
by the widow, under the act OF March 2
1906, she being entitled to complete as he
would have been If alive. This latter
change had been made Dec. IS, 1898, in
Hughes 9 P. d. Is2, cited in the Hudson
claim above.
The Hudson claim represents a class
covering at least $4,000 rejected claims
knocked out by Lochren and Evans.
mere statement Of the arbitrary rules of
rejecting on the two points, convict the
bureau of a system of arbitrary rules de-
vised for the purpose of illegally rejecting
claims by bold frauds, where the points
made against the claim involved nothing
of the merits Of the cases, but avoided the
merits for the sham purpose Of rejecting
1t is identical with the point Evans tried to
get started against filing applications with
out full proof of identity of claimant. The
point made Of reversing the order of proof,
requiring it to precede the filing Of the claim
and to accompany it to the bureau, is nom
essential point not in the least involving
the merits, and of no particle Of benefit TO
the claim except to delay the claim and
perplex and defraud the veteran, and put
him to heavy unnecessary expense. Not
one veteran in thousand could know what
would be required in proof of identity in
advance of calls from the bureau. So with
these thousands and thousands Of cases of
mistaken diseases and omitted diseases the
scheme by which those claims were re-
jected by wholesale, was a gigantic fraud
of no benefit to the bureau, except as a
fraudulent rejection. Evans is continuing
it today, or was at removal, in certain
classes. One of his shibboleths has been,
that the attorneys wanted claims enter
tanned "on any kind of an application" F"
The application is a mere asking for PEN
sion; everything depends on proof as far as
merits go. (See GLOBE May 25.)
In Evans annual report Of 1898 will be
found bold lie as to the holding of the In
terror Department on limiting minors
claims to date of filing. It will be remem-
bered, from former articles in the GLOBE,
that the Interior Department since the pas
sage of the act Of March 3, 1879 (the present
law passed over 23 years ago., has uni
formly held that minors were not required
to file claim while under I6 but that the
short accrued pension from death of soldier
until the child became 10 can be claimed,
for the first time, after child becomes 10
years old. Commissioner Lochren tried to
hold otherwise as TO those who became 10
before the July /, 1880. but the Interior De-
partment oveTruled him. (Baugher p. d.
433 A. GLOBE Dec. 22.) Evans purposely
falsifying and ignoring the decisions of the
Interior Department, tried to defend his
action in holding up minors claims by
boldly and falsely stating in said annual
report. THE practice has been changed
from time to time in the past, Commis-
sioners having held that minors pension
must be claimed during the period of its
minority. This has been Sustained By The
Secretary Of Interior, then again reversed,
and so on until the practice has been irregu-
lar" (See report, page IT. That state
ment by Evans in said official report as TO
the Interior Department was knowingly
made as a bold falsehood for the purpose Of
influencing the Interior Department to
illegally hold up the 1000 claims Of minors
as has been done for past tive years under
pretense of awaiting a legal construction.
The decisions Of the Interior Department
at that time had uniformly held that the
date of making claim has no effect. A child
IS could at any time apply and get the ac-
crued pension due him at the time he be-
came 10 years old.
The GLOBE has already shown that Evans
controlled the leading decisions Of the board
of appeals on large blocks of claims. Evans
was preparing for tn decision later. The
object in putting that bold falsehood in the
report bore fruit in the decision of the Sec
retary of the Interior two years later where
Secretary of the Interior said: The question
about which the officers charged with the
administration and execution of the pension
laws have differed in opinion consider a
difficult and important one" (''Instruc-
tons" 10 P. d. 1917 Hitchcock ordered
the cases to be continued on the hold-up
files That work was all blocked out in adj
vance by the Hanna anti G-pension syndicate.
You will notice that the printed decision
varies the language from Evans Secretary
of Interior, to the phrase Officers charged
with the execution" etc. This difference
to the general reader would not be noticed,
while Secretary Hitchcock, if taken to task
/ for putting a Eein his decision could readily
say, That refers to Lochren and Evans as
against all former Commissioners of Pen
sions not to any decision of the Secretary
of the Interior, all of which have, until
mine been uniformly in support of the
law" The whole thing was for three years
a bold fraud against 20, 600 claims, and a
continuing fraud, for now five years, against
/ a block of 6,ooo claims which cannot be re-
| jected by any scheme yet devised. (See
/ GLOBE Dec 22.) Evans cares no more for
a lie than he does for an ex-slave voter. His
purpose is to use each for given ends.