The National tribune., 1910-12-01
VINDICATION OF THE PENSION
ROLL.

lltlcal Gdpltal against the RepuDEcan
by an investigation of the pension roll
President Cleveland's ability and hi
earnestness of purpose will be recog
nized and admitted by even the World
Work. Mr.. Cleveland had been imposed
upon by the yawp of such writer's al
those in the Worlds Work into tn,
belief that he could do the country
great service, furnish much capital tc
his party, and strike a deadly blow a
the protective system by a thoro over
hauling of the pension system.
All of the Democratic papers haG
for years been publishing articles OF
the character which have appeared ir
the Worlds Work, and such free trade
papers as the New York Times, World
and Herald severely strained themselves
to prejudice the community against the
pension system. Mr.. Cleveland thought
| it worth while to embody in a State
! paper an accusation that the pension
and thousands of neighborhoods had
their pension impostors." Immediately
upon entering Office he began this over
hauling with all the vigor that party
spirit could lend to public investigation
He appointed as Commissioner of PEN
sons man who was opposed to any
allowance whatever to men who had
gone out after the first call. Commits
sioner William Lochren was possessed
of the singular hallucination that only
those veterans who had responded to
the first call were actuated by motives
of patriotism. The later volunteers, ne
thought had been induced by big boun-
ties and We're hirelings employed to
free the negro, something which he
abhorred. He Immediately secured
from Congress an appropriation Of
100000 for the employment of special
agents TO visit every neighborhood in
the country. look up every pensoner
residing there, and listen to all the
neighborhood scandal and gossip con-
corning him. If man was capable of
saving his own wood or hoeing his own
garden he was decided to be fit for
manual labor and therefore unworthy
of a pension. No bit of neighborhood
scandal was neglected. A squabbIe over
the invasion of a garden by a veterans
chickens was listened to with grave at
tention. Every widow on the pension
roll had to undergo a catechism which
was deeply insulting. Cruelty and mis-
cry beyond expression were occasidned
by the demand that those who had re-
ceived pensions for wounds and disa bill
tiles incurred in their service should be
required to reprove their cases. With
witnesses dead or removed no one knew
whittier, this was a hard task for the
veterans. Not only did Mr.. Cleveland
get 100000 year from Congress for
four years for the crowd of spies in
formers and Investigators, with which
he covered the country, but all other |
Departments Of the Government were |
pressed into the service. The Post |
office Department and that of Justice |
We're particularly stimulated to aid to |
make Mr. Cieveland's charges good and |
furnish political capital. At least |
s2,O0O.000 was actually spent in this |
work, and if we count the diversion
Of the energies Of the Pension Bureau |
and the various Departments of the
the cost to the Govern
mont must have been nearly double |
that
The result of all this was the most !
wonderful vindicatiOn ever known in !
the history of the Governments expen-
1itures. Where in the ordinary course
Of operations the Pension Bureau had
detected something over 200 cases of |
wrongdoing a year. the total number
found by Mr. Cleveland did not exceed
300 in any one year
The reyulsion of feeling on account
Of Cleveland and Lochren's persecu-
ton of the veterans was intense and
widespread and helped greatly to bring
about the defeat of the Democracy at !
the next election. In every community
there were found the most CRYING in
stances Of injustice to deserving men
and women, and these aroused the in
iignation of all their neighbors. with
lut regard 70 party. So strong was this
0V'Ei"S mat NplBTeSS met II midway
n Mr. Cleveland's Administration with
l law declaring pension a vested right
which could not be taken away from
he pensioner without his being allow
ed to be heard in his own defense and
furnish proof showing his right. The
,lamors Of the hating papers
we're so effectively silenced that we
have heard nothing from them until
he Worlds Work, entirely ignorant
)f what had been done, raked up anew
l mass of old disproyed calumnies.
Other muck-rakcrs than the Worlds
Work have been Of late years TEMPTED
nto this field, but they had the wis
iom and good newspaper sense Of
irst Investigating the result of pre-
'iOus Investigations and reading the his
ory Of Mr.. Clevcland's prodigious ef-
,Ort. After little study of this they
saw how barren the field was and de-
sisted. The Worlds Work young men
lid not take this preliminary precau-
ion, and the result is that they have
'entured into a maze which will Sc
'iously diScredit their ability as writer's
md Investigators and impair the
Worlds Works credit as 4 purveyor %.
trustworthy information. In this way
he Worlds Work has hurt itself vast
y more than it has hurt the pensioners.
It's exposure" has fallen very fiat. and
y,T . II