Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-29

lates to result on the treasury for q large
majority of the claims which Commissioner
Evans rejected illegally still remain on the
rejected files. Take the 5000 claims OF old
mothers, which Evans unlawfully rejected;
not mole than one hundred Of that lot were
re-opened. The bureau never notified
single claimant, except the one in which the
decision reversing Evans was rendered.
Occasionally, yet, one of those old mothers
still living, reapplies upon finding out that
Evans was reversed; but almost all of those
old claimants passed over Jordan without
learning that Evans was reversed. Unless
the Bureau notifies, it takes years to learn
it, That feature is why Evans singled out
that class of claimants for rejection. He
knew that il would be impossible for them
to learn Of reversal in time for & sm to COM
plete their claims before death would call
them. That law was as well settled in their
class Of claims as in any claims in the
Bureau. 1t was a bold fraud on Evans part
for the very purpose of defeating the most
helpless class Of claimants, Evans had be-
fore him, at the time, ruling 2l2 by Commits
sioner Raum and the decisions of the In
terror Department under both the Harrison
and the last Cleveland administrations al
lowing these claims and sustaining the law
On Lue VI Alle NIiAluAlaHAIANlas ADGI
Communication, P. D., 43I; Kille, P.
D., $50; GLOBE, December 8, 1901; Darling
10 P. D., 244)
You may turn TO any class, which Evans
has defrauded, and you will find the same
feature, namely, that all those illegal rejec.
tions are to stand like a sealed book, and
the money to be held in the treasury, The
only way that claimant thus defrauded can
get reversal of his or her rejected claim is
by applying for re-opening, and then if
denied by appealing to the Interior Depart
ment and waiting the slow process Of that
machinery there which is purposely kept
three years behind as a part of this plan to
wear out claimants who cannot outlive the
government
This dearth of information about pension
practice is not strange when you consider
that much secrecy is maintained by the pen
sion department about its practices and
methods and everything is mystihed as far
as the officials can do so. Claimants resid-
ing in various parts of the country can have
no means of keeping track of these tricks
for defeating the pension laws and defraud-
ing meritorious claimants out Of their legal
rights. Claimants generally are needy peo-
pie who have a great struggle for mere ex-
istence and no facilities for watching Wash
ington Even widows and children, whose
husbands and fathers were killed in battle
during the civil war; did not learn of their
pensionable rights for thirty years. These
widows we're eking out miserable exist
ence over the washtub, and the children Of
the dead martyr were growing up to sign
their names by mark. 1t is this class that
Evans was particularly savage against. He
was not "a friend that would keep them to
the end" He was a Hanna anti-pension
cuckoo selected to defraud them out of their
legal rights which the laws Of Congress
gives them in express language as plain as
the English language is capable Of using,
and which the Interior Department never
before had denied them. Congressman Ray,
of New York, with a bold lie stood sponsor
in Congress for this fraud; and after seeing
his speech in the advance sheets Of the Con-
greSsioRaI Record, remodeled it., and cut
out the most Objectionable parts before the
pages for the bound volume we're printed.
(See GLOBE, December %, I9oI)
Claimants being scattered ali over the
United States do not know.wbat course to
take when their claims are rejected; and
the plan of not notifying them of the re-
versal Of Evans in these large classes. is a
shrewd scheme for delay. Where a change
has been made in the practice since re.
lection, and the claimant files a new claim
without knowing Of the change, the bureau
will not reopen the rejection Of claim, be-
cause not specifically asked by claimant to
do so. The bureau, in such cases, allows
the new claim from only the date of fling
it, thus defrauding claimant out of several
years back pension which the bureau ad-
mits to be due the claimant Take Evans
ruling in widows claims under the act Of
May g. 1900, after Congress made him raise
the widows exemption of income to the
amount allowed by Harrison's administra.
tion. Congress, dominated by the Hanna
anti pension syndicate, expressly limited
that act to May 9, 1900 but said nothing
about Evans rule previously made forced
from Evansl for allowing exempt 500 net
income from properly to widow without
minors, and s. additional income from
property exempt per month for each minor
child This rule for increasing the exemp-
tion Of income to widows s. per month for
each child was made in 1899, after Evans
had been rejecting these claims for two
years on only total net income of $50 per
year whether widow had no minor child, or
had many minor children to support. The
new rule was retroactive and applied to all
AREA ages. Take a widow with four minor
IuIlNA IN. Que uuAeA AAbAn5 new Iule IN
1860 ould be allowed a net income for
herself Of So6 and an additional So net in
come from her property exempt for each
child per month, making $50 plus $50 per
year, OF a total net income OF $To2 per year
from date of filing her claim, say Ia 1906.
Say her claim had been rejected in 1893
because she had so6 income net from prop
erty. In 1900, after passage Of act May q
she reapplied without having learned Of the
previous change IN practice, II was a
secret change and not given out publicly
Evans would and did merely allow her new
cla'- 4om date Of fling after May 9, 1900
although the evidence already in the papers
and the law, and the ruling Of the bureau
entitled her to a pension from date Of filing
her first claim, say four years previously.
Had she learned about the secret ruling and
asked 10 have her original claim ieopened,