The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-10
THE RETIREGENT or EVANS.

THE RETIREMENT OF EVANS. The Portland Oregonian is very slow t, censure the present administration ol | the Republican Party, as general thing but it refuses to look on with patienc, l while Pension Commissioner Evans is be ing sacrificed, and in recent strong editorial on the subject closes with thes, l words:
 President Roosevelt cannot afford to le Mir. Evans go unless he is able to replace him with a man as fearless. as honest and as implacable in his hostility to thu nefarious tribe of professional claim agents as was Mir. Evans. No honors paid Evans in shape of promotion will
 save the administration from the mora
 effect of his retirement unless he is re-
 placed by man who will be equall,
 conspicuous a champion of pension re.
 form. Perhaps the President knows oi
 such a man, but 1t will be difficult tc
 find hIm There is great danger tha,
 when Mir. Evans goes there will be q
 free and easy administration of the
 bureau, and that the country will lose all the ground 1t has gained under Com missioner Eyans's pension administra- ton.
 For the good of the country we earnest
 ly hope that the President may find
 such a man as Evans to take the latter $
 place, but we have little faith that he
 will do so. From partisan stand-
 point we oculd wish that the new man
 may prove to be the willing tool and coadjutor of all that class of treasury looters who could make no headway against Evans. 4 man who would ad- wise and join in with the corrupt pension attorneys, and who would approve and pass all the swindling claims that would be presented would prove a strong card for the Democracy and would do much to disgust the honest men of the North with the administration.
 But does the President want a man like Evans, fearles. honest and patriotic? If that is the kind of man he wants. he should have sustained the present in- cumbent, as President Mckinley did. The Commissioner would not have retired. if the President had shown that he wanted him to remain, or, rather, if he had not let 1t be known that he wanted him to resign The President may be able to find worthy successor to Evans, and he may be willing to appoint such a man, but we confess to a feeling of doubt on both points. There is too much politics in it. but it may be politics that will upset the Republican machine. Finally, in corroboration of our doubts, read this from The Leavenworth Times, d Repub- lican newspaper, which is usually on the side of the pension chalmers:
 President Roosevelt has assured Con- gressman Curtis that the successor of Pension Commissioner Evans Will be in structed to construe the pension laws liberally. This will be good news to the thousands of veterans who are watching closely everything connected with the de- partment. There has been no intimation on the part of the President previous to this time, as to the policy of Evans's successor, other than that he has said the laws should be lived up to- This can be done without abridging in any way the rights of the old soldiers. and this evidently will be the policy of the President.
 A Commissioner who will ''construe the pension laws liberally' is obviously one who will be inclined to endorse all claims presented to him. We all know what iberal construction of any statute means. Under 1t any law can be made to mean pretty well anything that the man who construes it wishes. In this case such a Comu,issioner will have no hesitation about passing favorably upon applica- tions, and we can well believe that the made above will not only be good news to the pensioners, but to the sharks who make their living by dishonest claims.