Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-23

the sophistical imagination or pretense
that the law means something entirely diff
gerent from what il speaks in plain Eng
lish; that when the law provides for pen
siouing partial inability to perform manual
labor at SI2. It means a total inability TO
perform any manual labor whatever; and
Evans has written this out in his schedule
in his annual reports. The pretended con-
structiOn is a gigantic fraud, and was so in
tended for the illegal purpose of reducing
the pension laws by pretended construction.
(See GLOBE, Nov. "a Dec /, jan 10, Feb.
%, March 10 J
Another Of Evans sham pretenses is that
he is doing more work with less force
than was done by his predecessors, and he
cites the number Of certificates issued as
evidence of his executive ability" Evans
is acting lie ia that attitude. Almost all
the claims have been pending, in one form
OF another, in the Bureau for over ten years
and have been thoroughly worked up, many
having been on the roll and dropped of
under the above fraudulent ruling which
required $50 disability for sI2rate. Very
few claims are purely original, although
numbered as original. Evans has come in
merely in time to delay the issuing of Ger
tihcates. Many of them have been re-
jected several times by him. He often re-
jects a claim six months before the veteran
dies of the same disease rejected, although
the testimony shows that the veteran has
been seriously afflicted with that disease
for fifteen years. Frequently the veteran
relies his application just before he dies,
and the widow is allowed SO accrued rate
from the last filing. This outrageous course
is accounted for by the fact that his med
cal division Is instructed to guess at the
rates or disability and disregard the
ratings of the county boards who saw the
man and repeatedly rated him. The in
structiOn really requires a total helpless
condition, to draw a SI2 rate. There
are two grades above $50 degrees; (I) $50,
(2) @72. The practical rating Of the medical
division is to require S72 degree for a SI2
rate, and $50 degree of disability for an S8
rate and $50 degree Of disability for a 50
rate under the new law. This is one reason
that the leaders in Congress will not per-
NIT Congressional investigation.
Evans has had the G.. A. r. committee
making a pretended investigation for a few
days IF the investigation were ever so
honest, what could three or four strangers
do among 100000 rejected and partially
allowed claims in three or four days2 They
could not learn the simplest trick in that
time. An expert examiner can handle only
Eve or six claims per day. A legal reviewer
who has everything prepared for him.
handles only about fifteen claims per day
A stranger in the Office could not learn the
system in two weeks. He could not learn
the laws in a month. He could not properly
investigate two claims per day. He could
not depend on a single clerk in the office
for anything. It would be silly to suppose
that clerk would risk his head by betray
ing Evans tricks. Necessarily, only a
Congressional investigation which could be
aided by a large force of outside expert
clerks familiar with the pension laws and
practice, could amount TO an efficient ex.
animation. To take a list of claims fur
nished by the claimants would be of
practically no value, because it would not
be a regular test The Investigation should
be to test Evans regular systems by taking
the allowed and rejected files in regular
order The completed work only can fur
nish a test for the bending claims are open
and have not been yet stided. Evans at
one time took $50, 900 claims from the pend
ing files and stored them away in the loft of
the Pension Building against the rafters
and stamped them abandoned because no
evidence had been 6led in them for three
years. (See his last annual report.) He
pretends that they are just as handy there
as if in the divisions. It is plain he did it
to delay them. Each division has file cases
in its own rooms, and the claims are handy
for applying the letters and evidence to the
cases. Those three rooms next to the
rafters where these so-called abandoned"
claims have been stored awav without the
knowledge of the claimants, are dimly
lighted by only small skylight and a gas
jet
There is where the papers of allowed
claims are permanently stored away. The
illegal plan of transferring all those now
800, 900 claims from the several adj Indicating
divisions to the loft and stamping them
abandoned" was clearly for delaying their
final completion. (GLoBE, March ?, 1907 }
The claims were much handler in the diyis-
ions and would cause much less work.
Every letter that comes into the bureau in
quiring about those claims could be put
away at the time of looking in the drawer to
find the card OF condition Of the claim. If
the claim had been left in the drawer in
stead Of making a card for il as a substitute,
the letter OF evidence would have been at
once applied to it; but now the work is
doubted because the cleIks, alteI uOluB as
much work as would have filed the paper,
have to make out slip and send the paper
to the top loft to have the paper hled with
the case. These inquiries now are never
answered The time and expense Of select
ing out those cases and taking them to the
loft cost at least $1,000, which could have
been put in on other claims ready for allow
ance. In addition to this Evans now keeps
two men in those rooms to file these papers
with the abandoned" claims as they come
in, at an expense of 81, 600 per year, which
would have been unnecessary had he left
the claims where they belonged-in the
divisions You will find that everything
which Evans does goes to defraud claimants.