Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-15
ATTORNEYS UNDER fire.
FRAUD FOUND IN SECURING OF
PENSION CLAIMS.
Acting Secretary Of Interior Wood.
ruff Indicates Other Disbarments
Will Follow First.

One pension attorney has been disbarred
from practice before the Interior Depart
ment, and there are several others over
whose heads disbarment proceedings are
hanging as a result of crusade instituted
by Secretary Garfield and Commissioner Of
Pensions Warner.
The first of the attorneys to suffer was
w E. Moses of Washington and Denver.
Several other firms have been required to
show cause why they should not be dis
barred
The trouble is over land bounties. This
form of reward for soldiers and soldiers
families includes all the wars prior to 1855.
These are the Mexican war, the war of 1912
and the revolution. The bounty entities
the soldier to 100 acres of government land.
the h do is dead the bounty
claim is proved before the pension office
land script is issued to cover the entry,
and this can be located on any vacant por-
ton of the public domain.
Method Followed.
The pension attorneys, of whom COM
plant has been made, made a practice of
looking up soldiers and their heirs entitled
to this land bounty. When found they
were notified of their claim. which the at
torney proceeded to put through for them
and secure the scrip. This he bought OF
the owners, If they were willing to sell. and
som the scrip again at greatly enhanced
price.
Naturally, the real value of the warrant
was concealed by this method, and the
usual price paid in these transactions was
about $1.25 an acre. The warrants have
been sold for various sums up to 81 an
attention of the pension office, the attorney
paid SIS for land patent, and sold it
again for $720.
Some of the attorneys who have been
cnY1po nnd NV fhn for
practice have been Fastening to refund to
their clients the difference between the
price they paid for the land scrip and the
price they received for it. 1t is stated that
one of them has thus refunded $500.
One case that came to the commissioner
of pensions was of a Mexican war widow.
who had been offered $455 by one of the
attorneys who was busy refunding. She
refused to accept 1t till assured by Com
missioner Warner that she was justly en-
titled to the money. In her circumstances
it amounted to small fortune.
There is some question whether the
clients who have been defrauded can re-
cover at law on their claims. Some of them
have been advised that they can. But 1t Is
the courts will hold it merely business
transaction between the client and Lis at
torney. in which the client is supposed to
protect himself as in any other business
deal. OF course If absolute fraud can be |
proved it will be different matter.
The disbarment proceedings are differ |
ent matter. The Secretary of the Interior |
has right to disbar an attorney for unpro- |
be absolutely criminal. The Interior De- |
partment is more or less responsible for |
the attorneys after they have been ad- |
mtted to practice and are advertised as |
regular licensed attorneys Of the depart |
ment, and 1t is the intention OF Secretary |
Garfield to keep the standard of professional |
conduct as high as possible.
Acting Secretary's Statement.
In connection with the case a statement |
was made by Acting Secretary Of the In
terror Woodruff. He said:
wv. E. Moses Of the w. e. Moses Land |
Scrip and Realty Company was disbarred
from practice before the Department of the |
Interior and Its bureaus because while act
ing as an attorney. authenticated as such |
upon the records of the department. he !
dealt with his clients in purely business |
attitude thus securing from them their |
bounty warrants for a decidedly inadequate |
return. |
"Mr. Moses argues that the majority of |
these clients never knew they had any |
them up, drew their attention to their |
rights, and secured their authority to pro- |
cure the warrant as their attorney: fur
Their, that the maximum attorneys fee per- |
mitted-$25-is not suff1cint to recompense !
for all that work, and therefore he did the |
work with the intention Of purchasing the |
bounty warrants at such prices as the war; |
rantees might be willing to accept.
BE that as 1t may. Secretary Garfield il |
not willing to hold out to the world as |
attorneys stamped with the approval Of the |
department those who are taking advan- |
tage of their position as attorneys to get |
close to their clients and drive bargains |
exceedingly advantageous to the attorneys. /
He will disbar no practitioner before his |
department except after the most careful |
consideration. because he recognizes that |
to do so without good reason might be to
work great injury to the attorneys.
"On the other hand, Mr.. Garfield Is de-
termined that the practitioners before the |
department shall be held to proper stand
ard Of conduct, both toward the depart |
ment of which they are officers by virtue |
of their admission to practice, and toward |
the public, which must use them as agents
in dealing with the government"