The National tribune., 1910-12-22
THE BEST REPUTATION.

sion system is furnished by President
Cleveland. President Cleveland had
every line of this stuff before him wher
he entered office March 4, 1898. The
Worlds Works young men have added
absolutely nothing new, and their pre-
tensions as to an investigation of the
pension system of to-day are absolutely
baseless, as can be shown on every page
of what they have written. They have
not given a line of the abundant rea-
son why the pension system has grown
to its present dimensions nor the sub
stantial facts upon which Congress has
acted in passing the various bills. They
have not attempted to answer a single
one of The National Tribune's argu-
ments in support of a further liberal.
ization of the laws, and even in theil
abuse of this paper and its editor they
have only copied what the yellow. the
Copperhead and the rebel papers have
said time and again.
Seventeen years ago Mr.. Cleveland
was similarly influenced by this malevo-
Ience of the soldier hating press, and
came into office with a sounding proc
Iamation that "the pension system was
honeycombed with fraud, and thou
sands of neighborhoods had their we'll
known pension frauds" This was a
most astounding declaration to be made
by the Chief Executive of the United
States, and it might well give the peo-
pie reason to pause and consider. 1t
was such a feature in the Reform Ad-
ministration" that President Cleveland
promised the people that. every energy
of the Administration was perverted to
make his statements good Mr.. Cleve-
lands first act in carrying out this
sounding challenge to battle was to ap-
point as Commissioner of Pensions
Lieut. VIM. Lochran, of the famous 1st
Mimi, a man of excellent military rec
ord and of high ability as a lawyer.
Commissioner Lochran issued his fam
ous Order 240, which caused incalcula-
bic suffering to the veterans from the
necessity of having to reprove their
claims after a lapse Of long years, dur
ing which time their witnesses had died
order, which involved the re-examina-
ton of every case upon the roll, read
as follows:
First. If a soldier leaves widow
and a child, who, prior to attaining the
age of 16 years, had become, or shall
become, insane, idiotic or otherwise
helpless. the widow shall
receive 50 per month on account of
such child so long as he may be de-
pendent on her, without regard TO his
age.
Second. If the soldier leave no wild
ow, or if the widow die or remarry.
such helpless child. as above described,
shall be entitled to pension without re-
gard to his age.
Third. If a soldier leave widow
who is not pensionable under any law,
because the soldiers death was not
due to his service and because she
married him subsequent to June 81,
1890, any children he may leave by
former marriage may be pensioned as
if he had left no widow"
S. bill 1913, to repeal that clause of
the appropriation act of March 1, 1893,
which reads as follows:
THAT from and after July l, 1893,
dent who is not a citizen Of the United
States, except for actual disabilities in
Cured in the Service"-
was considered in Committee of the
Whole House, the vote being: ayes, 80;
noes, 20 (no quorum), when the bill
was withdrawn.
On Dec. IA, 1898, the Senate had
passed it without division, on motion
of Mr.. Palmer, and on the urgent rec
of the Commissioner of
Pensions.
The help of Congress was asked and
readily given by an appropriation of
$400,000 to put in the field an army of
Special Examiners, the duty of which
was to take up every case on the roll,
follow il to the residence of the PEN
sioner and investigate his character,
his physical ability and everything re-
lating to his moral character. Never
before in the history of the United
States had there been such wholesale
spying into the daily lives of private
citizens Every neighborhood in which
pensioners resided was visited by these
Government detectives, who raked all
over the neighborhood gossip and scan
dal, listened to all the stories of petty
quarrels, involving the invasion of some
mans garden plot by another's chick
ems, and even put the veterans widows
thru the third degree as to their lives
since their husbands died. The most
insulting questions We're addressed to
these venerable women-questions
which brought the blush of shame to
every American citizen when he heard
that Government officials were practic-
ing such nefarious things. AS a result
of this tens of thousands of the best
and most deserving veterans and their
widows thruout the country were sus-
pended on the most frivolous pretexts,
and subjected to the greatest mental
anguish because of the taking away of
their means of support The storm of
indignation aroused in every neighbor-
hood by this injustice and cruelty was
so great that Congress at once put a
restraint upon the arbitrariness of the
Pension Bureau in dealing with the
pensioners by passing the following
law:
THAT any pension heretofore or that
may hereafter be granted to any appli-
cant therefor under any law of the
United States authorizing the granting
and payment of pensions, on applica-
tion made and adjudicated upon, shall