Sunday Washington globe., 1902-01-05


Ia 10 Aid this fiction Evans could re-
,,;re The pensioner to render reports to the
,nreau. showing receipts for all ex-
,erditures. and description of real estate
purchased, etc
vVhv was this guardian question, so novel
and far reaching, not referred to the Court
M Claims or to the Attorney. General2 1t
denies title permanently TO the insane, and
until Fl years of age to minors. 1t sets
aside and annuls sections 47oa of the pension
code. the act Of June 27, 1890, and all other
pension laws on the subject Evans and
Hitchcock got "a-plenty" of the Attorney
General in the Pennsylvania Emergency
Militia cases. They want nothing to do
with courts. See GLOBE of December 9Th
and 22d last)
There was one element in this scheme
which Evans overlooked He had become
so accustomed to lookingat Bliss and later
Hitchcock, as the final one-man-power be-
vond which there was no appeal, that he
forgot the Comptroller Of the Treasury who
must sanction the deal before the money |
could be covered into the treasury. Evans |
expected It to run several years before |
Hitchcock could be made to reverse him
self Evans scheme was in the teeth OF a
positive law Of Congress which provides
that the mailing of the United States pen
sion agents check shall be full and hnal
payment to the beneficiary. There are at
least fifty published decisions OF state
courts. which hold that the money becomes
as absolutely the property of the pensioner
as IL it had been inherited or earned The
guardian holds the legal title of his wards.
Payment to the guardian Is payment to the
ward A minor or insane person takes title
| the same as any other person. The guardian
is his agent, and can't act in any other ca
pacitv in relation to the wards rights. The
Hitchcock decision is fanciful
The pension check is usually deposited
in bank and cashed and becomes the abso-
lute property Of the bank or other person,
such bank or other person becoming a mere
debtor to the guardian or children. Upon
death Of the ward or the resignation of the
guardian the private debt from the bank
accrues by operation of law to the insane
person. to his estate or the minors or TO
their estate.
The ownership is in the estate from the
date the pension check was mailed, not in
the United States, and title has passed
through many hands. Evans new scheme
ia merely to identity the debt or property "a
debit IA property which arose from the use
of the money.
We copy the following from the Wash
ington Star of December "a, which shows
how Evans late coup on the insane and
minors came to grief
''The Comptroller Of the Treasury has de
cided that the payment of pension money
m Guardian Of minor children or persons
1aborinq under disabilities is a good anS
valid pavment and discharges all pecuniar,
obliqations of the United States to sucl
peusioners. He decides that money, whei
90 Maid. cannot be recovered by the com
missioner Of pensions and covered into tn
: treasury as public funds so as to form tn
i basis of future accounting between tn
: government and the guardian of children.
y "This decision was rendered on the clair
2 of DIR. d. H. Lewis as guardian Of tn
:, minor children of Moses a. Bill, a decease
pensioner Another man was orr -inali
guardian of the children, but he was di
Z charged from the trust and the pensio
:. money in his hands was paid to the con
A. missioner of pensions, who deposited
with the treasurer of the United States"
Probably it will take an act OF Congre
y, 10 repav the large aggregate sum of none
which Evans has extorted from the
guardians in violation OF law,
Could such a man, If not protected by Il
~ full power and prestige of the President
~ the United States, hold his place five yea
'le with the history exposed as Evans b
s beeu2
- The Republicans 6nd themselves in
~ box. They want to steal the legal rights
~ the veteran his widow and orphan, to a
~ in subiuqating the Filipino and for shi
oI subsidy schenies, and the like; but tn
Ne have not the courage and honesty to ame
~ the pension laws in a legal way to m'
~ their demands. This creature Evans
~ been selected as a fit tool to accomplish
~, lob bv pretended constructions OF laws q
~ have stood sixty years without question.
~ II is high time the c. A. X. commit
ns- we're getting in their work on the Pens
-, ,,1 Court hill in Congress; but as Evans, in
feet advertised Torrance as a junto mem
.iii favoring the present pension administrati
we can expect Evans knows what he
talking about and was notifying other m'
- hers not to be alarmed. The delay OF Ia
- months in making appointment OF .. A.
~ pension committee and the athiation kno
80, of some of the appointees, warrant the
80 lief that no step will be taken, except
mere screen and perfun ctorily. (See GL'
the of December 2o
80, We wish 10 call attention to the fact
W II il not a question of which is the be-
| Dlau--ENdub VI lAlhA " NSA1ANN-
e., question of Judge not executing the
- passed by Congress. Many OF Ev'
schemes and hundreds of others VIC
work out. if Congress we're to pass Il
~ ai.1 into laws. but there is always much al
- nent to get laws, and two sides work
.,,at pro and con Take the Black-Evans i
,as tation which Evans has engrafted on
A. a. old law limiting pension to diseases OF wi
~. there exists an army record at this day
take Blacks limitation on that law limi
Il,s Il 10 soldiers who incurred the disease
- the theater of war, not on detached ser
\" ~ y during the civil war Those we're abso
limitations which only Congress could
rress graft on the law. II Is the same as the
such recurring that deed or conveyance OF
Com must be in writing. The Legislature al
dred not the court, can engraft such limitat
mass. on the law. One Congress did engraft
pen. record limitation on the pension laws II
the wears ago, but Congress was run by the
rains goes, and the next Congress repealed
,oard Limitation. It was the law while it
+ for there. (See GLOBE of Dec. 2oth.)
when "
pass An UTuhsaaad UFae