| Show PEGUAIUTION BY lENSIOXS Under tho abovo caption Lieutenant ALLEN R FOOTE founder of the Society of Loyal Veterans writes n vigorous article ia the December number of the Forum in 1 I I which he Illustrates how the present pension I pen-sion laws are degrading to true patriotism I Lieutenant FOOTS Is a veteran volunteers and a pensioner but tho fact does not pre I v ent him from attacking tho vicious ays tem by which the unparalleled pension roll continues to increase thirtyone years after tho close of the war the system which has brought into existence a vast army of pension agents who are industriously industri-ously engaged in adding names to the roller f roll-er fees which the agents receive There Is i probably no good citizen in the United States who objects to government making liberal provision for tho men injured in the war and f or the dependent families of the killed and wounded Thc question ought not to bane o ba-ne of party or politics and is not so far a s tho Democrats are concerned What good citizens and patriots object to is the eckloss squandering of the public money pon unworthy persons and the granting o if pensions to exsoldiers who ought too I b > to-o ashamed to accept the bounty of the I ation under such cIrcumstancesthe nderstood conditions being that the pensioner pen-sioner vill support at the polls the party which is most generous with the peoples ash Lieutenant FooTe has certainly arned the right to speak nnd he raises his olce against what he designates the dogra atlon of veterans and the cheapening of mtriotism An extract from his papera will illustrate whether or not his assault pon the pension laws possesses merit As though It was feared that these who volun cereel ll to serve their country would not volunteer volun-teer l to accept the bribe thus offered them sixty t thousand pension attorneys have been comjnls s ioned about twenty thousand of whom are in ctlvo practice to hunt up the old soldiers and oar urso and tempt them to make oath that t hey are unable to earn a support by manual abor l For this work of corrupting the loy ally honor and honesty of the Boys in Blue the government offers o reward to the pension attorney of tio each These pension attorneys are reenforced by Senators and Reprosenta tires in Congress who In one year have made 24817 requests on the commissioner of pen Ions for tho condition of claims Under such conditions tho country seed not be astounded banded at the figures given by tho commls loner of pensions In his official report for the fiscal year ending June 30 1S91 Number of illusions In force CT610D Number of claimants not on rolls 559U27 umber of persons pensioned or seeking to be pensioned u 00 t235187 Number of claims pending Including original claimants claim for Increases In-creases and duplicate claims 928473 Number rejected claims In files 146530 Total number of claims requiring attention atten-tion 1075009 It is estimated that tho organizatlan is now so well disciplined and the work so well in hand hat 350000 claims can be allowed during the fiscal f year to end June 30 892 nnd that 1133 473085 can be distributed 1 he influence of tho act of June 27 1SW fa seen in the fact that 1 14757 pensioners were added to the rolls and 4S1S1 claims were placed on file In one year under that act making a total of 5939 S claims which at J10 each show the pension attorneys nterest l realized from the passage of that law to ba 85909580 > Amount paid as fees to attor > nejs during the year < 276920070 The growth the Industry corruptionthe ndustry of procuring claims to prosecute against the government In the name of its beneficiaries who should receive the full amount paid by the government on their account ac-count not as collection forced by process of l aw but as a codlal recognition of honorable service Is strikIngly Illustrated by the fact that in lIE but 63637 claims wero allowed and now the promise Is made that OUOO claims may be allowed in 182 Is it not time that honorable men should hand themselves together to-gether to destroy the industry of corruption |
