Sunday Washington globe., 1902-01-19

control pay and pensions. This is well
settled law and practice, (Code Sec.
47oi.)
The reason why Section 46o3 waived
muster Is because the War Department has
a different law which fixes date Of muster
in as the starting point but this has for its
object different considerations and different
purposes The War Department has moth
ing to do with pay or pensions and uses
the date of muster in to informally reject
recruits before mustered without the formal.
ity Of a certificate Of discharge and for other
purposes necessary in the laws relating TO
the army Evans proposes to have the War
Department hereafter give only date of
muster in.
Evans blows hot and cold He now wants
to go by the laws Of the War Department
where such course win cause rejection; but
in other cases where that departments
rules would give pension, as where il holds
that re-eulisted deserter is lawfully in the
service in his second service, Evans won't
hear 10 it, not even where the soldier
served two years, and was killed. The War
Department follows the rule of the common
law as to re-enlisted deserters, which is the
law in all the states as to yoidable contracts
namely, if not disafirmed by the govern.
ment, and faithfully performed to the end
it is and was valid all the time The re-
enlisted deserter in the Civil War was
chiefly, only technically deserter, having
overstayed his leave and re enlisted in an
other command through fear Of punishment
He acted inconsiderately, but is entitled to
great sympathy and to the full protection
of law. y rem a man who deceives another
into may .g second contract, is not with
out his rights if he keeps the second con-
tract.
The majority OF re-enlisted deserters re-
enlisted within short time, and were
really only absent without leave, not hav-
ing the intention Of abandoning the United
States service. It is towards this class that
Evans is the most venomous The deserter
who 'hid out" for three years and then re-
enlisted, is all right with Evans The rea-
son for this is that such deserters were very
few in the Civil War He goes by his
ledger entirely, not by the principles of the
law. (See Norton 9, p D., $50, and Burns 2,
p D., 332)
Congress should request guardians
throughout the country to write the Con
gressional Pension Committee the amount
Of unlawful expense to which Evans has
put them and the estates Of their wards in
making financial reports to him of the wards
estates and proving dependence of the
wards. There are at least 25, 600 guardians on
the pension rolls. Evans last report (Dage
y gives 4o,3o4 minors, 10 say nothing of
the insane. Most of them had to travel
from 10 to 20 miles. At SIS per guardianship
Ia low estimate) Evans has put these es-
tates to SI2S,ooo unlawful expense. (See
GLOBE January 5th and I2th) To this is TO
be added the expense of stationery and ten
clerks for one year, in the bureau, In es-
tablishing Evans unlawful probate court
for the whole United States To average
the clerks at 81, ZOO this item alone would
make SI2,oo unlawfulIy diverted from pen
sion appropriat one in an unlawful effort to
establish paternaiism Evans is still un-
lawfully Withholding pension from guard
ians, on the illegal ground that the wards
are rich
AS a pretended defense against the frauds
Evans and the anti-pension junto are pub
fishing statements of the number of pen
sions which other commissioners have al
lowed. There were not too many soldiers
during the Civil War; but, in the opinion Of
the iunto, too many have lived until the
present day, or IL dead, left widows OF
minors surviving them. Evans record in
the Pension Bureau is the most daprant that
ever existed in any government in the
world, not even excepting the rotten effete
Spanish government. The danger is that
he stands protected by the President and
Congress in overthrowing the laws of Con-
gress. II endangers the foundations Of a re-
public by undermining the supremacy of
law and depriving the citizen of his legal
rights under the law