The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-23
IS POOR POLICY.
Says Kansas Delegation of PEN
sion Office Combine.
Campbell Makes Vigorous Fight
Against Adjustment.
AN ALLEGED ECONOMY
Are Paying Too Much Rent in
Washington Now.
Places for Offices.
AN ALLEGED ECONOMY

Washington, Jan. 23-The house of
representatives has again voted to
abolish the II pension agencies and
consolidate them into one general Of
flee at Washington. 1t is one of the
annual fiascos of congress to knock
out the agencies in one house and re-
store them in the bill in the other.
When vthe bill goes to the senate the
usual effort will succeed in restoring
the agencies as was the case last win
ter when Senators Curtis and Long and
other western senators aided in con-
tinuing the agencies.
When the pension appropriation bill
was being considered in the house, Phil
P. Campbell was the only member of
the Kansas delegation who made a
speech on the subject. He said:
Il am in favor of the amendment I'M
der consideration to restore the PEN
sion agencies in the bill, because I be-
heve it is in the interest of both econ
omy and administration. No man in
this house ever heard of anything be-
ing done cheaper or quicker in Wash
iDgton than it is done elsewhere in the
country. 1t will take as many men to
do the work i'm Washington as are en-
ployed in the payment of these pen
Sfons in the country today.
"On the question of economy, where
will you put the pension clerks if you
bring them here to this city? You can
not put them in the pension office, for
the space there is occupied today. We
are now paying almost a half million
dollars a year for rent in Washington.
If you bring all the clerks here that
are necessary to pay the pensions, you
will fill up many of the vacant houses
in Washington at a large rental with
these additional pension clerks. Today
they are occupying buildings that are
owned by the government without rent.
day in Washington 81, $50 per clerk to
the clerks engaged in the payment of
these pensions, and outside of Wash
ington we are paying $3.50 per clerk.
They have not presented a state
ment of facts here to show that there
will be any economy in paying these
pensions in Washington. But am OPP
posed to centralizing these agencies
will result in the delay of paying the
pensions to the old soldiers. 1t will also
result in many instances of the old
soldiers who are today employed in the
agencies outside of Washington at 5000
a year in having to stay at home with
out a job and giving place to clerks
here who are rated at $1,2S0 a year.
because they can not come here and live
on the $500 year they are living on
at home.
mo man who is employed at Topeka |
or Columbus or any other great agency |
can leave home and come here and live |
on a salary such as he receives today. |
Many of these clerks live in their own |
houses. They can not leave their homes |
without great hardship. Many of them |
have been in the service for the last |
clerks, and the figures of the pension |
show they have paid PEN
sions more economically in the country |
than it has been done in Washington.
In answer to the statement of Mr.. |
Gardner of Michigan that no one opposes |
this consolidation who does not have an |
agency in his district, want to say that |
I have no agency in my district. L have
as employees; but I have hundreds Of pen
sioners in my district district who receive t r.
for them that 1 speak.
mo man who favors centralizing these
agencies in Washington has shown that it
will not delay the payment of pensions.
1t Is a mere assumption that the change
will result in having the business done
and even if it did, the delay that would
necessarily follow would not justify the
save few dollars a year as a result of
delay in the payment of pensions"
Bills granting increased pensions to four
Kansas veterans have passed the senate.
George W. Curl. company I, Eleventh
regiment Kansas volunteer cavalry, $z4
Clark S. Devoe, company H, Second reg
fment Kansas volunteer cavalry, s24
Con Hadley, alias Cornelius Sessions, of
c. Eleventh regiment Kansas
volunteer cavalry, $50.
Louis Gilstrap, company 3, Seventh reg
iment Kansas volunteer infantry. $24.
Benjamin F. Simpson, major Fifteenth
regiment Kansas volunteer cavalry, $50.
''Never saw anything like it in all my
life said Baker E. Foulke of Phfladel-
phia, a real estate dealer who has some
interests in western Kansas, in referring
to the remarkable growth in the last two
or three years of that section of the Sun
flower state.
''I was out in Kansas a few years ago.
and felt very much discouraged, but my
friends urged me to hold on continued
the philadelphia; II did, and GER
tainIy am glad I needed good advice.
Towns have sprung up out there, the
prairies are dotted with farm houses, and
the real brand of prosperity is safely in
stalled.
1.-THE old temporary ranch houses miles
apart. have been added to and converted
into real homes and the farmer with the
pillow and the hoe has taken up his abode
there These settlers in western Kansas
are the right kind of people, too. They
do not have to go through the hardships
of the early pioneers on the cattle
l