The National tribune., 1906-10-18
PENSION BUREAU CLERKS.

in regard to pensions and to the wal
of the rebellion generally, is well illus.
trated by the following special dispatch
to the Galveston News:
The Government has given offfcia
recognition to the fact that the clerks
| in the Pension Office are in reality pen
sioners upon the Governments bounty
and when one of them dies there is nc
| appointment made to fill the vacancy
| thus created.
| There are about 100 clerks in the
| Office. The vast majority Of these are
| old soldiers, who saw more or less ser
| wee in the Union army during the wal
| between the States. The overwhclm-
| ing majority of them also draw pen
sions, some of them receiving more
than the $1,000 or s1,400 they receive
| from the Government for services sup
posed to be rendered.
Since the celebrated Executive or
| der issued by the President a short time
| before the Presidential election in 1904,
placing On the pension list at Sc y
month every old soldier who had reach
| ed the age of 62 years, and graduating
the pay so that when the age of 6S
was reached the soldier would be re-
ceiving $12, has greatly increased the
number of pensioners in the Office. One
veteran of my acquaintance, Il fine-
| looking. hearty, robust citizen. reached
the age of g. a few days ago. On the
anniversary IF his birth he filed his
papers for a pension. He will soon be
drawing his Sc month. in addition to
the 800 he receives every 80 days for
services supposed to be rendered in the
Pension Bureau. altho the rules of the
Office are so administered as to allow
a great deal of loafing in the seven
hours Government clerks are supposed
to be at their desks.
THE fact that Congress. in the ap-
preparations for last year. failed to pro-
vide for appointments to places in the
Pension Bureau made vacant by death
is not generally known. Such acti IN
was due to the recognition of the fact
that the clerks in the office We're not
really needed to discharge the duties
supposed to be assigned them. They
are pensioners in two respects in nearly
every case-because they are on the
pension rolls and because they receive
good salaries from the Government
without rendering fair return"
This is simply a string of fragrant un-
truths. and so palpable that it would
appear the writer was striving to lie.
He did not want facts, because any
examination of the official records
would have instantly contradicted every
material statement that he makes The
fabrication is so systematic that it
shows that he was trying to work up
standard of misrepresentation set for
him by people who wanted ISLANDERS
and not the truth. In the first place
Far from there being a vast major
ity" of civil war veterans on the cler-
ical roll of the Bureau, less than one
third Of those employed in the Bureau
can by any stretch be connected with
the army or navy during the war. I'm
der Pension Commissioner Evans, who
made a great claim of the number of
veterans and veterans widows employ
ed in the Bureau. there We're only 526
who could be put in this class in a total
roll of 1,751. The number and the pro-
portion has not increased, but rather
decreased since.
In the next place. a comparison of
the work done by the Pension Bureau
done by any similar number of en-
ployes in any Department of the Gov
ernment. The clerks in the Pension
Bureau are worked absolutely as hard
and they produce quite as much fin
ished work of the best class as any
similar number of Government en-
ployees. no matter in what other De-
partment. The business efficiency of
the Bureau has been much increased
since Commissioner Warner entered
upon the Office, and last years work
shows an efficiency which may well
cause emulation by any other Bureau
of the Government Civil Service
The last statement about the eff
cheney of the older clerks was thoroly
thrashed out last Winter to the entire
advantage of the older and more ex-
perienced employees of the Government.
The clamor against old, superannuated
men being borne on the rolls IF the
Government reached such hight that
Congress took action and thoro in
vestigation was made. The investiga-
ton was made by men who We're
strongly prejudiced against the value
of clerks beyond the age of so. There
was bill pending in Congress at that
time-introduced by the Committee on
Appropriations-to reduce the pay of
clerks after passing 65 and to perma-
nently separate them from the service
at 10. a rigid examination was made
of 1926 employees in Washington over
65 years old. OF these 934 We're vet
Grams and 692 civilians. OF these the
work of so only was rated as poor,
while that of PSI was fair, 229 was
average, 6S2 did unusually good work
and 374 did excellent WORK OF the
374 employees whose work received the
highest praise 253 We're veterans This
was a triumphant vindication of the
veterans. and it showed that as they
had proved themselves of better stuff
than civilians by going into the army,
this superi Ority had continued through
life. and in their advanced years they
ians. OF these veterans 102 were 70
years or older. 1t seems waste Of
time to recite these facts, since they
should be well known to everyone, and
yet the Texas paper assumes that the
people are ignorant of even such recent
public events, or it would not venture
TO publish such obvi ous falsehoods
Washington is favored with another
daily paper, and from the first issues
it would seem that the city is particu-
larlv favored in bright handsome