The National tribune., 1909-05-13

convicted of pension fraud, fined $1,000
and sent to the wOrkhOuse in default
of payment. He had represented him
self as being totally blind and upon
that supposition had drawn over $17,-
900. When brought up with a round
turn he confessed the crime. He was
not blind, but the officials were.
I'm the very nature of the gratuity
there is in the pension business more
opportunity for fraud than in perhaps
any other part of the public service and
public expenditure. A man with easy
conscience can readily persuade himself
that he has some one of the many all
ments emitting him to reach the Treas
ury thru the Pension Office, and, work
ing in conjunction with professional
| pension lawyer he can make a case
which will pass muster before a too
'areless official. 1t has been done in
hundreds of thousands of cases, and
but few were ever caught or refunded
by reason of remorse. 1t is safe to say
that more perjury has been committed
to obtain pensions in the United States
than for all other legal purposes COM
bined. And in majority the applicant
swears he is totally disabled, and it
came from causes brought on by and
while in the line of duty.
"a few years ago Missouri's largest
newspaper began the publication of the
aiSt VI pcitSloutTS III HeT tOWUS Oh 5,uUU
and over, and the causes for which the
recipients drew the same. After two
or three lists had been made public
, there was such tremendous influence
brought to bear upon the paper that it
ceased the exposure. 1t was found that
over half were for total disability and
most of the others for purely imaginary
causes, SO far as their neighbors could
tell. 1t revealed the most startling and
astounding perjury, and threw all the
pensioners in a perfect panic"
1t seems impossible that asman could
cram more absolute falsehoods into one
paragraph than the writer of the above
has done. They are falsehoods which
any tolerably weil-informed man should
know were falsehoods when he wrote
them. In the first place there is not
more opportunity for fraud" Inf the
pension business than any other, but
less. 1t has been repeatedly demonstrate
ed by the most crucial tests that the pen
sion roll is subjected to a servere scru-
tiny than any other department of pub
lie expenditure. To make these severe
tests Grover Cleveland expended alto
gether several million dollars. He got
$o"o'"VV year specldl appropriation
from Congress to fill the country with
sleuths seeking evidence against the
pensioners, and beside this he turned the
other Departments, Post Office, Attor-
ney-GeneraPs and others, into the work
with the result of discovering some 80
or 40 more frauds in the course of
year than had been detected in the or
dinary routine Of pension business.
There is no such a. arthing as too care
less" official in the Pension Bureau, be-
cause Of the rigidity of the administra-
tion OF that Bureau and the fearful
penalty which is visited upon frauds
when they are discovered. Except for
counterfeiting. nowhere else are the
laws of the United States so severe
upon malefactors, and where discovery
and punishment are SO certain. When
a man asserts that there has been
perjury committed in Hundreds of
thousands of cases. he simply states a
deliberate untruth. man who COM
mits perjury in pension case does it
with the almost certainty that he will
be detected and remorsely put to hard
work in the penitentiary