The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-17
Al rYPrcAL INsrANcE.


 A TYPICAL INSTANCE. Even our strict Republican contempo-
 rary. The Kansas City Journal, is getting disgusted with pension legislation. In a recent issue it refers to a special bill re-
 gently introduced in Congress to allow amount of $72 per month. A few days ago the Department of the Interior re- ceived a letter from an old soldier who
 indignantly writes:
 This applicant for Congressional pen- | sion is a clerk in the Treasury Depart ment al a salary of $1,2o0 a year. In the | first session of the present Congress he was given a pension of $50 a month. He | month for blindness. This blind clerk has l eyesight enough to i'll a clerical position under the government. Congress 1t is that is blind-blind as a bat-and the
 fraud is not oConnor's but the Senators | and Representatives. who enact such l thieving legislation.
 Investigation showed that all these all legations were strictly true. This man
 who is so blind that a special pension bill is introduced for his relief, has good enough eyesight to draw a monthly sal- ary of s1oo for clerical work Not being fully posted in all the intricacies and re- ouirements of the government service we may be pardoned for ignorance if we are unaware of any clerical work which can be done by blind man, but we claim to be not entirely ignorant of the rules and requirements of common honesty, and there is a total absence of 1t in this instance. This man is a fraud as a pen sioner or as a government employe, and the chances are that he is both.
 The fact of the matter is that this en- tire system of special pension legisia- ton is an outrage on the government and a travesty on justice. There are two conditions under which these bills are introduced and passed. It occasionally is honest enough and bold enough to re- fuse the application of a man who has no right to pension, and 1t also hap pens that a pension lawyer has a "claim" which he knows is wholly without merit,
 and which he has no hope of getting through the pension offlce.
 In either of these cases the claimant
 finds super-serviceable Congressman to
 introduce and push his ciaim-probably for q consideration. It may be asked. why do other Congressmen vote for such
 fraudulent bills? They do it solely be- | cause they are ticklish. They know that | most of these pension bills are outrages. | but each one has some matter of his
 own, or something for an influential con-
 stituent to push through, and he is afraid
 to antagonize anything that another | member wants. That is the explanation | of so many special pension laws.
 If we could always have a Pension Commissioner with the courage and hon.
 esty to turn down all fraudulent claims,
 and President with the courage and l honesty to veto special bills, as MT. Cleveland did, it would save some mil-
 lions of dollars to the government each
 year, and. what is Of equal importance,
 would prevent many of the scandals now
 connected with the pension business But | we have neither. The general pension laws are liberal l enough, in all conscience, to satisfy hon.
 est men. Under those laws, with com plaisant Commissioner, almost any man
 who served in the Union army can get a l pension, but even this Is not enough to
 satisfy the greed of the pension sharks.
 At each session a long string of special pension bills are introduced and passed without opposition, at the rate of one in l two minutes or whereabouts, and nobody objects or makes any investigation. Then they are signed by an equally complais-
 ant President who probably never hears
 them read. nor takes any trouble to in ] quire into them.
 l The Congressman and other politicians
 in the North are afraid to offend the old
 soldier sentiment. They know that the l camps and veterans associations are a
 power in politics, and as each veteran is
 either on the pension list or expects to
 be on 1t, the natural consequence is that
 politicians will not antagonize a power
 which can at any time relegate them to
 private life. Thus 1t is that special leg
 islation as vicious as the case alluded to
 above can be carried through each ses-
 sion of Congress without difficulty. If it
 were known that the President would
 veto every private bill unless he was sat-
 isned of its equity 1t would prevent some
 of it, at least. but that is not to be ex- pected at present.
 THE STATES REVENUE.