Evening star., 1925-01-22

Monday Gen. Hines, director of the
veterans Bureau, emphasized warn
| ing to persons attempting TO mr.
| chase such certificates or TO lend
| money upon them. At the Veterans
Bureau yesterday officials also en-
| phasized the fact that the holders of
sucn certificates, even though made
bene1ciaries, had no security, for the
law made such transactions void.
\ + x y
Investigation into the actual expe-
| riences of the Pension Bureau under
! identically the same restrictions upon
pension certificates proved however,
chat the abuse is not safeguarded
where sharks" undertake to prey
upon the veterans.
At the close of our Mexican War
most Of the soldiers received their
discharges at New Orleans. At that
time no legislation had passed to
grant any bonus or reward to the
veterans, yet New Orleans was in
tested with spectators who bought
the soldiers honorable discharges"
for from IS to $40. Later, Congress
voted to give every soldier with an
honorable discharge a homestead OF 100
acres, and then these Sharks appeared
with their assigned discharges and took
Z
was the prospect of the Immediate
| cash that betrayed the veterans in
that case, as 1t is again today.
Following the Civil War the pen
| sion attorney" scandal grew to enor-
nous proportions. Part of the meth
DDS of those days was for attorneys
| to lend money TO pensioners and hold
| their certificates as security, In spite
of the law forbidding 1t. That prac-
tice persists to this day, but when a
veteran complains the Pension Bu-
| reau RECEIVERS the certificates from
the lender, who loses his security and
is liable to go to the penitentiary.
Not only the lender Is thereby vio-
lating the law, but also the veteran
who so uses his certificate Many
cases are on record where both the
lender and the veteran have gone to
the penitentiary for the misdemeanor
involved in the transaction.
Pretenses have often been made by
pension agents that they had render
ed service outside the mere necessi-
ties in securing q claim which justi-
fed extra charges, One such case is
cited at the Pension Bureau of a
lawyer who, in addition to the then
legal fee Of S25 for fling a widows
claim for a pension, got from her 1910
and demanded s125 more. He was
sentenced TO the penitentiary.
A Baltimore soldier Of the Civil War
borrowed $40 and gave his pension
certificate as security. The lender got
possession of the next pension check
for S36, but as he could not cash it
he refused to surrender 1T unless the
soldier first repaid his $50 loan, since
tho soldier had earned a reputation
or unreliability In such matters Re-
suit: Both lender and soldier were
found guilty Of misdemeanor and
sent to the penitentiary.
4 u X y
Any person who charges a World
war soldier anything for assisting
his getting the adjusted compensa-
tfon is liable to a fine of $500 or i'm
prisonment for a year, or both (sec-
tfon 30S). Any bank OF other lender
VINO oVercharges a. veteran is penal
lied under the law in the sum OF 500
in addition to the voidance OF the
overcharge; but using the certificate
as collateral prior to the two years
does not appear to be misdemeanor
as In the case OF the pension. The
law simply makes the security void.
Senator Jones of New Mexico has
introduced bill to abolish the two
year walt in the Ioanability of the
Veterans Bureau certificates. but IL
is said that there is no expectation
that the bill will be brought nm for
passage this Winter.
Copyright. 1926, By Paul v. Collins.l