Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-02


We shall also call the attention of Con-
gress to one Of Evans fraudulent schemes
for defeating pension claims. There is no
time limit against veteran in completing
his claim Congress alone has the power
to enact limitations to the pension laws
{ Hughes O P. D. 1s2 Ellis p D. 223; Hird |
o p d. 263; Rohn 10 P. ID. 73; Heinrich 10
P. d. 32I); but Evans has revived one of
Blacks illegal time
limitations against the completion of meri-
torious claims. Black rejected claims be-
cause not completed within the time he
thought the claimants could complete
them, or rather sooner" than claimants
could complete them He rejected them
on the simple ground Of not being com
pleted All those reflections were reopened
by Harrison's, and next, Cleveland's ad-
ministrations. Thus Cleveland admitted
that Black S action was unlawful. Thous-
ands of those claims were completed and
allowed during Cleveland's last admins
tration which had been on the rejected files
for six or eight years 1t is an irreparable
injustice to unlawfully reject a claim. The
Bureau can't place itself in the position of
400 900 claimants and decide what delays
the claim. The whole country is aware of
throws it back from two to eight years.
That is why Evans has revived Blacks
scheme; but Evans, instead of rejecting
them, has adopted more effective plan of
delay, the sneak-thief plan of illegally
throwing them on what he is pleased to
call his abandoned" files, without giving
the claimant any notice Of his action, and
often while claimant is awaiting information
from the Office why his last evidence is not
sufficient to complete the case. The office
rules ostensibly require every communica-
ton to be fully, intelhgently and respect
fully answered. Evans has adopted the
plan of throwing all claims on the "aband-
oned files" which have not had evidence
fled in them for three years. Evans has
put 3oo, 900 claims on the abandoned files.
In most of these claims there are from two
to twenty Gallup letters from attorneys and
claimants asking why the evidence fled is
not sufficient or letters explaining why the
delay is unavoidable. When once a claim
gets on the abandoned or hold-up files, il is
almost impossible to get it back on che
active files. Claimant is compelled to get
his Member of Congress to call for status.
That is why the claim is placed on the
abandoned files before It is complete. One
Of Evans chief schemes is to delay the COM
pletion of meritorious claims A claim
which is three years idle is likely to be
rushed along to completion, if claimant can
find out the exact point Of trouble in the
Office. Many claims are ten or fifteen
years in being completed where the soldier
was killed in action, and where Il is per
fecuy clear to the Office that the claim is
one of merit The whole system Of adiudi-
cation of pensions is by mail, and while
this is often tedious process in the meri-
torious claims, it is the best that can reach
widely scattered claimants who have not
the means or time TO come to Washington
and await around the pension Office for their
cases to be called from the front porch. To
have 400, 1000 claimants waiting here would
be impracticable, and would beat Coxey's
army or the National encampment all hol
low. Claimants must work on. their claims
as they can at home, and must be given
time and full explanations
Often an easy case under the new law is
ten years in completing. The clerks, under
a man Of Evans known hostility TO PEN
sions, give the least possible information to
claimants, and that in the most ambiguous
and enigmatical language. They are afraid
of losing their positions otherwise. The
Civil Service force is naturally conservative
in favor of the Government, and, by law,
the clerks speak in the name of the Com
missioner only Everything is signed by
the COMMISSIONER stamp, and the clerk is
not known outside of the Office. The clerks
are not responsible, except to Evans, and,
chameleon like, must take on Evans color,
choler and spleen against pensions, and do,
as nearly as they can, just what he would
do were he to supervise the letters which
they write to claimants. This is one of
Evans most potent evils against claimants,
because it is insidious and enters every
meritorious claim.
II can readily be seen what difficulty a
claimant must be under whose claim is
secretly thrown on the abandoned files with
out his knowledge oraaesire. and with no
opportunity Of getting II off within from
two to five years at least. Many veterans
die while looking for their pensions to be
allowed, whereas the claim is thus secretly
held up and later the widow completes the
claim This is 50 with both new law and
old law claims. 1t is part Of Evans scheme
to make illegal savings for the surplus from
year to year Where claimant left no
/ widow or minor, the savings thus illegally
made are permanent. It is like the case Of
Evans holding up for six months illegally
the order of medical examination in increase
cases where the veteran is so bad off that
he dies before the order Of medical examiu-
alton reached him. In our estimate of
S. ,44o stolen by Evans from this illegal
Withholding the medical order, we did not
include any estimate for those who die
while the order is illegally withheld, nor
for the high rate above 81 that this class Of
sick veterans would necessarily be entitled
TO- GLOBE, Feb. ?, 1902. The number of
/ this class is astonishingly large, as an in
/ vestigation will show. These old men are
/ dying off at the rate of $1,000 every six
months, while Evans is unlawfully with
holding the order for the medical examin-
alton. Yet Evans has the boldness to
charge these veterans with unnecessarily
and fraudulently fling claims for increase
and repeating their claims where he has re-
! iected them in toto. Frequently veteran
dies with all his new law claims rejected,
and dies of the diseases for which he
claimed pension aud which the medical
| evidence shows he had for many years and
was totally disabled for manual labor.
This is one reason why Congress refuses to
/ permit a Congressional investigation of
/ Evans frauds against the pension laws.
Many OF these increase claims in which