Sunday Washington globe., 1902-04-27

1t ~ iusuherable that the head OF the Pen.
sion Bureau should be permitted to make
the bureau an instrument OF public slander
and vituperation for furnishing the news.
papers of the country libellous matter gar.
bled from the files of the bureau by order OF
the Commissioner and sent out to the papers
for publication. Evans commenced this
unlawful work as soon as he took the Office
and has continued it ever since under the
full protection Of two Republican admins.
trations. He should have been summarily
dismissed from Office at the frst of this
fraudulent work He is to be continued in the
Office for this work Notwithstanding his res.
ignation has been in the hands Of the presi.
dent for over a month under the forced call
Of the G. A. R., which has been demanding
his removal for over four years. The Presi-
dent is voluntarily doing this as a slap in
the face Of the G. A. X. There will be some
face slapping in November on the other
side. lust you wait. Evans is dead wood
in the Office for anything but slander, libel
and pushing the Southern school book
propaganda His resignation should be
Immediately accepted and until the new
Commissioner gets here let the Office be
conducted by the deputy commissioner and
the chiefs who have furnished all the brains
that have been in the Office for FIVE years
They have had a hard time trying to hold
the wild-eyed Tennesseean down TO business
and legal principles; md all is due to them
that things have not gone wilder than they
have in the bureau.
As illustrating Pension Commissioner
Evans uncomfortable propensity for falsi.
fcation you will see in his five annual re-
ports without going into the false articles
with which for Ave years he has been and
still is flooding the newspapers North,
South, East and Vest that he tries to down
every class of persons and claims connected
with pensions by taking few real OF sup
posed cases and then falsely and boldly
imputing the same character to the million
of claims that have been tiled. He tried to
work this same scheme of fslsi6cation on
Assistant Secretary Davis in urging Davis to
sustain him in illegally refusing to permit
attorneys and claimants to inspect the
medical examination sheets and the evi.
dence taken on special examinations after
the papers reach the bureau. Evans had
prohibited this in violation of the long.
standing practice under the old order ia,
and the act Of July IS, 1894. Davis in over.
fuling Evans, said 1T was evidently the
intention Of the law making power that the
claimant or his accredited attorney should
the boards Of examining surgeons You
say the privilege is sometimes abused, and
you refer to a single instance of that char
acter." (See Kings 9, P. d. 47S; Berlin g. p.
p. 47I). Davis had even that early in Evans
wonderful career in the Office learned that
Evans word could not be trusted. Evans
had been trying to get Davis to approve vast
frauds
Take Evans similar Justification in his
last annual report as 10 claims for increase
cf pension. He says: Many cases are
found in which from ten to twenty applica-
tions for increase have been filed, and as
many medical examinations held, and yet
no increase of disability has been shown
since date of original adjudication of the
claim" (See page Io.) That paragraph of
his report if il means anything, is intended
by him to charge wholesale fraud aud is
simply a bold falsehood. A Congressional
investigation would show that on an aver
age not one like it can be found in each 500
claims of the million of claims in the
Bureau. Then again, take his further state
ment in that connection to the effect that as
fast as one claim for increase is allowed or
rejected another is Immediately fled by
the same claimant. That condition is not
,rue of one in each 500 claims taken on an
average. It does not occur as often as 1t
should, especially during Evans admins
tration. More frequently the interval is
from two to five years. Evans has caused
his medical division to ignore the disabili-
ties. (See GLOBE April and Jan 26.)
Evans admits in his report that 100 600
county medical examinations last year were
ignored. He says, in speaking of the total
expense of all medical examinations of the
year: They amounted to about $3.50 600.
over one-half of which was non-product-
i've" page 67.) By considering that
these are old men dying at the rate of 10000
yearly, you can form a good estimate of the
prodgious extent of the bold frauds in the
medical division which results in rejecting
more than one-half Of the claims and totally
ignoring over 100, 900 medical examinations
in one year, That is the logical result of
his order of June 80, 1900, so explicitly con-
demned as fraudulent by Judge Ras ssieur
before the last G.. A r. encampment. (See
GLOBE April and 49,
What shall we say of Pension Commis-
sioner who will by the form of pension
certificate sent the soldier conceal from all
pensioners under the new law the names
and character of the diseases for which pen
sion is allowed and by ignoring disabilities
shown in the application and in the medical
examination sheets rate the pensioners at
only SO or s., and then publicly and
officially in all Of his annual reports raise
the hue and CITY OF wholesale frauds and
perjury because the old soldiers re-apply
for increase2 That is just what this fake
Commissioner has been doing for Eve years,
and has been protected in it by the Repub-
lican administrations during the entire
period. Verify, the old soldier is loug-suf-
fering and patient.
What shall,we say of such Commissioner
who, in violation Of the decisions and orders
Of his supeTiors, goes further and issues
orders requiring the rejection Of claims
as not ratable under the new law,
when the medical division finds an
unalleged disease ratable at SO to sTa?
This is one of Evans new frauds
GLOBE. Apr O. last part). Under the new
law all diseases are ratable and pensionable
One application in the'same adj judication is
all thatis legally required. Everything else
desired to be known about the situation
from the beginning to the conclusion is to
be called for by the bureau and shown by
claimant by afidavits aud evidence desired.