Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-18
ATTORNEYS ARE HOT
But Commissioner Warner Isn't
Doing Any Worrying.
STATEMENT OF STEVENS
Disclaims Any Intention of Defraud.
ing Clients
AND MONEY WAS RETURNED
Pathetic Incidents That Came to Light
During Investigation Of the
Irregularities.

Although Commissioner Of Pensions
Warner has made himself unpopular with
a number of pension firms by his stand on
bounty script speculation. whereby many
firms have been cut out of a large and
lucrative business before the department.
the disbarment mill Is still grinding and
| there is no indication that 1t will stop till
the grist is exhausted.
Commissioner Warner himself has not
much to say on the subject. 1t came to his
notice about six months ago that there was
regular business going on in applications
for land warrants that were turned over
through the clients power Of attorney to
his lawyer Many Of these warrants were
very old claims and there was no way for
the attorneys to dig them up except by ac-
cess to special Information somewhere IN
the land office. He began investigating
and found the situation just as stated in
The Star some days ago. The attorneys
would dragnet the old files and find cases
OF suspended warrants and warrants that
had never been applied for. They would
then work up the case and instead Of &C
cepting the $25 fee for their service, which
Is all that under the law they are entitled
to, they would get their client to execute
power Of attorney, get the warrant them
selves, and paying the warrantee as little
as they could get it for, would sell the war
rant for as much as they could get. There
was a regular market for the warrants.
the principal purchasers being the big tim
Der and coal companies. and the land
script was just as good and salable as
government bonds.
When a few Of the cases were worked up
1t was seen how extensive the business was
Commissioner Warner says that he has sim
ply forwarded the cases. with his recon-
Iax;o - 80 Tr-
terror, and the disbarments that have
been made already have been the result.
The commissioner says that IL lie had stood
still and allowed the business to go on after
he once discovered the facts he would have
been as guilty the offending attorneys.
That Is all he has to say on the subject.
Has Been Going on for Years.
It Is stated at the pension office that In
vestigation shows that the speculation in
land warrants has been going on for years.
and one firm, now disbarred, has made over
100000 out of it.
One virtue Of the present discussion, from
the point of view of the pension office. is
that the publication of the facts will stir
I'D the people all over the country who have
been swindled on bounties, and while many
Of them will not be able to recover any
thing. they will at least be in a position to
give the bureau information as to the firms
that have been INDUCING in the practice, so
that additional disbarment proceedings may
be undertaken when warranted.
There have been a number OF interesting
and pathetic cases turned up in the course
of the investigation. In one Of them an
old Mexican war pensioner. seventy-eight
years old. who has been totally blind for
sixteen years, and is almost totally deaf
had q warrant made out to him. The old
man. who was as poor and helpless as
could be- was induced to sell the attorney
his warrant for $135. 1t passed through
several hands and was finally sold to the
500 ~ ' ~
One of the earlier cases that came to the
attention Of the Office was through a re-
fund that was offered to an old lady down
in the lower end Of Maryland. Some OF
the pension firms became frightened when
they found out that the investigation was
afoot and wrote letters to all Of their
clients. inciosing a certified check for. the
difference between what they had paid the
warrantee for the warrant and what they
had sold 1t for. In the case Of the old lady
she was sent a check for about $3.50. She
wrote to the pension Office and explained
the case. saying that she did not know
whether or not she was entitled to the
money and asking what she ought to do.
An examiner was at once sent to her and
he. found her sweet-faced. gentle OLD
lady, poor as ice and living in a little four
roomed house with nothing but her bit OF
pension money to keep body and soul to-
gether on. She was assured that she was
entitled to Just as much as she could get
out OF the warrant, ana tnereupOn accept
ed the check. The amount of $3.50 was
more real money than she had handled in
ten years, and all the neighbors who knew
her well were almost as much pleased
over her good fortune as though 1t had
happened to them.
A Scheme That Failed.
There was another case in Philadelphia
in which. by dragnetting the suspended file.
one pension firm against whom dlsbarment
proceedings are now pending found an old
Suspended warrant that had been made out
to a sailor in the Mexican war. The man
had drifted into the government hospital at
Philadelphia and died there. leaving neither
widow nor child nor relatives nor debts, so
far as could be discovered. The pension
firm got young law student, who was
perfectly innocent tool, to apply for letters
of administration on the dead sailors
tate. They were granted. but the warrant
never reached the firm, the fraud being dis
covered and the case held up.
Some time before the crash In the land
bounty business came the pension office had
ceased sending warrants to the lawyers
who applied for them on power OF attorney.
They were sent direct to the warrantee by
registered mail, and in this way q good
many of the pensioners were saved.
But the bottom has been knocked out OF
the land script business. The old law has
been enforced, in virtue Of which the war
rants are good only for location In Mis-
souri,, and as apparently nobody wants to
live in Missouri the market price for war
rants has fallen from the high point of 81
to less than 81 per acre.
Mr.. Stevens Statement.
Eugene E. Stevens of the firm of Milo B.
Stevens & Co, one of the pension firms now
being investigated by the pension bureau,
speaking of the proceedings against his
Arm, declares that "the reported statement
of the commissioner Of pensions that at
torneys before the bureau have been the
illegitimate benefciaries Of leak in the
general land office. has no application what
ever to my firm Our practice has been
open and above board to a degree that has
rendered us easy subjects for official in
vestigation. and our relations with the pen
sion bureau have been SO free from the
personal element to afford some expla-
nation Of the evident absence Of standing
yIth officials who so readily attribute to US
a.. that is bad and reprehensible.
1.-THE speculation in bounty-land warrants
was created by an official decision Of the
JDforyor Department March 1909 apJ