The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-11-19

service, the article shows soldiers
were entitled to receive So month
If totally disabled. while lesser dis
abilities were compensated in pro-
portion. In July, 1864. congress made
special ratings for specific disabilities.
under which soldier losing both
hands or his sight received SIS a
month. Since then this act has been
greatly extended and developed, so
that now almost every physical dis
ability brings the veteran some par
ticular amount; for instance, the loss
Of sight brings 500 month.
When hostilities ceased in 1865,
with 1885 names on the pension roll
and new claims piling UP. the claim
agent or pension attorney came to life,
and in time became a prominent fac
tor in the pension machinery. Many
of the pension attorneys were men of
character and integrity. but abuses be-
gan creeping In. and there grew up
in Washington and other centers great
firms of these professional claim
agents, employing subagents in drum
ming up custom. They professed to
have. and in some cases did have. in
6uence at the national capital which
they said insured the granting of al
most any claim that could be filed. Mr..
Hale says:
Even IL these wholesale claim
agents were disposed to be honest. the
fact that the clients which they were
drumming up were strangers to them,
that an agent could have no personal
knowledge of the merit of claim or
of the truth of the testimony, relieved
him OF any moral responsibility as to
the good faith of the claimant"
Were Part Of System.
Many acts were passed to regulate
the activities of the pension agents.
yet they were always recognized as a
part of the system. Mr.. Hale says, and
inasmuch as they were largely recruit
ed, from employees OF the pension bu-
reau itself, they were from the start
extremely influential in devising in
genious legislation for the expansion
OF the system and in preparing papers
taking advantage of every technically
of existing laws. Further. Mr.. Hale
says, their ranks were soon invaded
by gentry to whom every device of the
forger and procurer of false testimony
was easy. So grave became the stu.
alton that in 1899 a courageous COM
missioner of pensions (Evans) investi-
gated claim agencies and disqualified
1862 of the registered attorneys,
leaving only 1s.481 authorized to prac-
tice before the bureau. Their offenses
ran the gamut from collecting illegal
fees from claimants, to forgery and
blackmail.
Fraud Discovered Early.
Meanwhile, as early as 1867 the
commissioner of pensions had begun
dropping names from the pension roll
because OF fraud and had begun In
shutting prosecutions, and II years
later Commissioner Bentley ofIicially
reported:
Il am convinced that great number
Of persons have been pensioned who
had no just title" A year later he
complained that. besides being cum
bersome and expensive, the present
systemeis an open door to the treasury
for the perpetuation of fraud"
This commissioner investigated 600
cases Of admitted pensions, finding 1893
altogether fraudulent, while the allow
ances in IS cases were reduced. His
attention was attracted to these cases
through accident or through some sus-
picious circumstances, or through the
statement of a volunteer informer,
hence he was convinced that but a
very small percentage of the frauds
committed came to the knowledge Of
the Office.