Fraudulent Pensions

The department bas entered au order Buapending all pensions granted under .,, of 1890, giving holdera i certiñeates opportunity to show cause why they should not be dropped. Ii seenw to iis this Isa verf grave mistake, f nol a censurable one. ïhe cries that have ii] about fraudnlent pensions have sn. wii Ld votan ver eiuce a G. A. R. post in New York, demaaded that the pension rolla be "purged" uutil one would tliink. by reading .-Mine papers, that scarcely a person was henestly apon the rolls. As ;i democratie paper, and as voicing the pledges of that party, to deal tairly by all veterans, the Preu desires to entera most vigoróos protest against the -toss injustice done to worthy pensionera by the order above referred to. Congrese passed b law prescribing grounda for pension. It constituted a tribunal to liear the claims of the soldier seeking pension, and anthoriaed that court tü enter judgment on the evidence presented. The claimsnt stated bis case and pul in his evidence. The governinent had its judge to decide, ita officera to determine the physical condition of the soldier, and then i)assed on the claims. Having heard that evidence, a court with fuü powers to issue a certifícate, reiiders a verdict and grants the certifícate on the evidence adduced. IYiniarilv the plaintiff has sliou n : (a) Service ninety days. (b) Honorable discharge. (r) Suflering from disability, mental or physical, that incapacitates bim froiu ■ il labor, to such a degree as to i-ender liiin unable to eani a support. That this disability is permanent. {e) That it does not arise from his vicioiis babits. (ƒ) He passed the surgeons' exaniination and lias their certifícate of disability. It is on this showing that lie lias ■ iiensiiiiied. I has shown il to the Batisfaction of one court. Now another judge of the same court assumes to say : " I will set anide all these verdicts, and make claimants prove their cases over again, because there is so much fraud." The Prest denounces tliis as an outs infamous as malignant hatred can inspire, and as without warrant or justilication. It is unparalled onfairneas. It is a diagrace to the nation, an insult to the soldier, and a cheap efl'ort to créate aprejiidiee, on wrong grounds. The law may be wrong. We are not defending the law ai all. We are conlemning the high handed assumption of authority On the part of a cabinet ifflcer, to make a law, and his determinad eflort to evade it. Congress made the law ; he should obey it. A mandamos should at once issue to compel bim to withdraw that order and pay all pensions that his predecessor has allowed, until the government oan show that the certiticate was gained by fraud. We don't believe in these wholesale charges of pension frauds. We doubt if one in a thousand has not been warranted by the testimony furuished. Let the government nose over the evidence in each case, if it choose, and select such cases as that investigaron ndicates should be looked after, and ascertain if the pensioner is a fraud, before au offleer issues such a high handed sweeping order. Mr. Rauin may have been a dishonest man. The democratie secretary may bate the republican administration. uut this is not sutlicient to throw discredit opon every case he adjudicated, and intímate the claims are fraudnlent. It is evident that to Hoke Smith every pension is unvorthy, and overy pensioner a fraud. It is time the administraron opened its eyes to the situation and set itself right by treatíng this pension legislatioo in a fair, open, business like way. It is said that a pension has been granted one man for being baldheaded. We venture to say this is an able bodled lie, and challenge the department to print the applicfttion for pension, with the riaims the soldier made; it will prove that we are right. No pensión has been granted, ezcept three examining pbysicians, the goventment's own officers, have certifled upon the disability. This alone should stop the government from Betting up the claim of fraud. Il' there is a person on the rolls rrongfully, let the name be remóved, after prooi by the government that there was fraud, Any other courae is wrougi and the present BWeeping order is a direct charge that every pensioner is a thief, every witness a perjurer, ever surgeon a dishonest scouüdrel, and the foriiier pension coiuinissioner a rascal. The men who are on the rolls are not unalile to make the showing that they have a right there. But they have once made thnt thowing, and ought not to make it over again to a Bubsequent hypocritical official, who seeka to gain notoriety, by striving in every possible way to deleat the ends of the plain provisions of a law of eongress. Let it be understood that the pensions mr, been granted under the rules of the department. and at much expense tothe pensioner. The new rule simply compela them to furnisli thia saine prooi over again, to oith thinks it is Bufficient. This is the contemptible and outrageously despicable meannesa oí the feature. Why does nut tliis anxious guardián againet fraudulent pensiona take up the evidence on tile, on whicb these pensiona have been allo wed, and see if it is safficient to sail his fastidioaa taste, and form a sufficient ground for pensions? Tlif evidence in every case is in lus department and easily accessible to bim. The (ad is, he is a pension hater, and this is not the democratie creed, nor is it popular. The writer Berved over 90 days, ia incapacited trom earning bis support by manual labor, and bia disability is not cauaed by his vicious habita, and lie is not in applicant for a pension, though eutitled to it uuder the law. But tbougb unable to do manual labor, liis disabilitiea are not sufficient to deter him from laboring physically and mentally, to denounce this order, and the one relativo to evidence as antagonistic tu democratie principies, and as unworthy the nation. We wish it distinctly understood that it is noi popular, to be denouncing penBioners as fraudulent, while the law ander hich the pension is granted is complied with. Uuder the law of 18!)0, if Gen. Alger should lose a hand, he is entitled to be peusioned, and the editor oí a paper, who was in the service, and who can get a salary of $10,000 per year, is entitled to i pension, if be can't do manual labor. If there be fraud in this, it is the fault of the law. We believe Judge Lochren ia a fair man, and we believe he does not sympathize with the Hoke Smitb rule, buspendinft pensions of all whoapplied under the act of 10. He is too much of a lawyer to approve such an edict. But whether be has the manliness to enter a protest against the inalignant rule, and denounce its author for the real mowhich inspired it, remains to be Been. For one, as a democral who stands bv lus platform, who believes in rigbt and who does not believe in the opinión of one officer over-ruling that of another, we denoonce the order as the emanation of hatred, and as an insult to the entire country. Wc beUeve it is an arbitrary and revolutionary assunijition of power, sustained neither by jus tice, loyalty, honor or democracy. It will be time enougfa for the freah young Georgia politica! rastier, to revcke liis predecesaor's ruling, when he looks over the evidence tiled in a case and finda it inaufficient to warrant a judgemnt. Even then, we doubt if he can rob a man of a pension until iirst setting forth the fraud that he claims exist's upou whicb. it was issued.