The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-13
AT THE CAPITAL.
How Eugene Il. Ware Has
Siienced Criticism.
Has Also Attracted Attention by
Reforms.
SHAKES UP DRY BONES.
People Appeared Surprised at
Commissioners Activity.
His Prnuarol IN D0 Awov With
SHAKES UP DRY BONES.
His Proposal to Do Away With
Local Examining Boards.


United States pension Office is not an
office in which a man is likely to make
a reputation under ordinary circum-
stances, yet it is pretty safe to predict
that Eugene Ware, the new commits
sioner, is going to distinguish himself
in the administration of the bureau be-
fore he gets through. One thing he has
done already-he has silenced the adj
verse criticism which was heaped upon
the bureau during the Evans adminis-
tration-which is in itself a remarkable
thing to do-and he has attracted con-
siderable attention by one or TWO i'm
portant reforms wuich he has inaugu-
rated. The chances are that he will go
out of the office the best remembered
of all the commissioners who have ad-
ministered the affairs of the bureau
since it was established nearly fifty
years ago. At any rate that is tho
opinion of observers here who have
watched his progress since he took
charge of the pension office seven
The pension office is peculiarly a bu-
reau in which there is little opportunity
for playing to the grand stand. 1t is a
good deal of grind, first and last. 1t
is not an exaggeratiOn to say that the
commissioner of pensions is the hardest
worked official in the government SER
vice. In addition to administering the
affairs of an office which employs seven
teen hundred clerks, and handles on an
average OF half million dollars a day,
the commissioner has other arduous and
eXacting duties. Every day he is called
upon to decide knOtty points in law
dozens of them, and he has got to be a
good lawyer if he makes no mistakes.
But Mr.. Ware is that. He probably is
the best lawyer who has ever been COM
missioner of pensions and his knowi-
edge stands him in good stead A man
who was not good lawyer would be
all at sea in the office of commissioner
of pensions. He would have to depend
largely upon his subordfnates, or things
would be in an endless muddle. Mr..
Ware does not depend upon his SubOrdi-
mates. He doesn't have to. He is not
only good lawyer, but he is an ex-
traordinary good one, and he finds play
for his abilities. There are no finer
points in law than some which arise in
Connection with the adjudication of
cases in the bureau of pensions. Besides
deciding dozens of cases involving
points of law every day, the commits
sioner has to receive from fifty to sew
etsty-five and d hundred visitors, among
whom are a large number of Sena tors
and representatives who want impossi-
BILE things accomplished, and who are
insistent, some of them, beyond all rea-
son. This is raeking, and it requires
all of the commissioners patience and
diplomacy to get through the morning
without making 6CIDeOOUN iIaQ OF get
ting mad himself. But Mr.. Ware is able
to do this, too.
1t was to isa expected, of course. that
a man from the west would shake up the
dry bones upon taking charge OF
musty government bureau. Mr.. Ware
has ideas, and he does not hesitate to
express them and carry them into force
and effect wherever it is practicable to
do so. The Virgins incident is an ex-
ample of one of the ideas which Mr..
Ware brought with him from out of thu
west. There is nothing new about the
idea, but there doubtless is considerable
that is new about it in it's application
to the government service. For deplor-
able as the fact may be. yet it is fact
that for the most part promotions are
made, not on merit, but because of the
opportunities of sen2t tors and reDreSen-
tativeS in congress He steered no
statesmen up against the commissioner,
said Mr. Ware in issuing his bulletin
telling of the promotion of Virgins. Mr..
Ware was grateful to him for that, for
he had been in Office long enough to
know what it meant to have statesmen
steered up against him, and he realized
the utter unfairness of promotions based
on such system. The Virgins promo
ton stirred up things in the pension
office, and its influence will be felt in tE.
years to come large number of the
clerks felt aggrieved and injured be-
cause Mr.. Ware should make a promo
ton for such a cause, but he didn't care
for that The country apDlauded his
action, and he has the atissa elton bf
knowing that he is right. It is not the
government clerks he is working for.
Mr.. Ware makes one rather radical
recommendation in his annual report.
which has just been issued. but the sec
rotary of the interior in his report gives
it the stamp of his approval and says
that it ought to be adopted. And care
full consideration of Mr.. Wares recon-
mcndation will show that it is based OF
common sense. It is in reference to
local examining boards. He proposes
to do away with them altogether. d.
Viding the United States into a humble.
of districts. presided over by boards of
be to travel from place to place making
the examinations of the bureau. This
suggestion is prompted by the unsatis-
factory results which are obtained from
local boards. 1t is argued that as Z
rule the local physicians who are mem
berS of the pension examining boards
are inclined to be influenced by personal
considerations and their reports arc
likely to be more or less biased, In adj
dition to this objection. it is argued by
the commissioner that these physicians
are usually men of moderate education.
and no special training, hence their
findings lack the degree of accuracy
which would attend the findings Of men
specially trained and fitted for the work
The other day Mr.. Ware said something
about displacing large number of super
animated employees of the pension bureau
with young men, and this surprised them
some He thinks he can save the govern
ment money by devising some scheme by
which the superannuated clerks of the