Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1886 — IN OFFICE AT WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

IN OFFICE AT WASHINGTON.

Disproving a Ridiculous Charge That Soldiers Have No Chance in the Pension Bureau. The following appeared as an editorial in the Philadelphia Press of a late date: The treatment Union veteran soldiers are receiving from the present administration is attracting re-new-ed attention. Earnest protests have heretofore 1 een made against the dismissal of wounded and crippled soldiers from the government service, but the practice still goes on with unabated vigor. The four letters of remo strance sent to the President from prominent members of the Grand Army of the Republicjhave elicited no response, and the other officers of the government seem to understand that they are to meet all applications for information on the subject with the same contemptuous silence. The consequence has been the formation of unions to look after the rights of ex-soldiers all over the country, and the matter will be brought to the attention of the Grand Army in its approaching encampment at San Francisco. It will occasion surprise that the chief cause of complaint is with the Pension Bureau and with its head, Commissioner Black, who is himself a veteran soldier. To General Black belongs the good fortune of drawing the largest pension granted to any wounded soldier —a pension obtained on a claim that he was a physical wreck and wholly incapacitated for business. The natural conclusion from this fact would be that he would be found sympathising with ether wounded soldiers to an uuusual degree and be the first member of the Administration to resent any injustice done to them. But when he began to draw his salary o\ $5,000 as Pension Commissioner in addition to $1,200 a year in pensions his compassion for other disabled veterans seems to have vanished completely. He will neither stop discharging soldiers from the service when remonstrated with nor will he give his reasons for such action when respectfully requested to do so. If it were for the good of the ervice there might be some excuse for General Black’s course. But the ex-soldiers claim, and no effort to contradict the statement has been made, that the discharges have been in direct violation of the civil service law and for political reasons solely. In the letters sent to the President cases wer j cited and proofs were given showing these dismissals could be explained on no other ground. The above is being copied by Republican papers everyw ere, and made the basis of adverse criticisms of Commissioner Black and his administration of the Pension Bureau. Only a few days ago I was shown a letter from a gentleman in the West, who, after referring to the article printed above? asks:

“Can you tell me how many exsoldiers were employed in the Pension Bureau in 1884? and how many ex-soldiers have been appointed B ince March 4, 1885 ? I meet people daily who have no means of knowing the truth, whose minds are being loaded with prejudice founded upon falsehoods and misrepresentations of the President’ B vetoes of unmeritorious pension claims. Since reading the letter above quc ted, and in order to be able to “speak by the card” as to the treatment of Union soldiers by the Democratic administration, and General Black in particular. I have taken the pains to go back over the register of employes in the Pen-

sion Office for a number of years, and find that in the year 1884, there was a greater number of exsoldiers employed there than during any previous year. The register for 1884 shows that the total number of employes in the Pension Bureau at that time was 1,669. Of this number 549, or a fraction less than one-third, were ex-sol-diers. This, it must be remembered, was while the Pension Office was under Republican rule, and during the Commissionership of Colonel Dudley, the idol of Republican politicians. General Black became Commissioner of Pensions March 17,1885. On that date the number of exsoldiers in the Pension Office was, as stated above, 549. Since assuming ihe Commissionership General Black has from time to time discoveredfupon the rolls of the office the names of many persons whose services were of no practical value to the government, and these people have been dismissed. Among the persons whose services have thus been dispensed with are a number of ex-soldiers. Then there was another class of men in the Pension Office, of whom General Black found it necessary, for the good of the office and in justice to pensioners to get rid of and to substitute other and better men in their places. Th se were the men who under Republican ru.o had been selected more for ability displayed in the manipulation of flections and the securing of Votes than for aiiy service they could or would render the government as employes in the legitimate business of the Pension Office. Among these men there was also a number of ex-soldiers. Then there have been a few other dismissals —some for drunkenness, others for neglect of duty, insubordination, etc., aud a few of these people were ex-sol-diers. And now, after going over the entire list of discharges from the Pension Office from March 17, 1885, the day on which it was handed over to the Democratic Commissioner, General Black, to date, the total number of ex-soldiers dismissed is found to foot up just fifty-seven.

So much for the discharges. Let us see about tlie appointments and how the ex-soldiers have fared at General Black’s hands. To his credit it must be said, and every man who has any knowledge of the facts will admit that every word of what I say here is true, that he has in every instance in making an appointment, all else being equal, given the preference to the exsoldier. The total number of appointments made by General Black from March 17,1885, to date, foots up 179, and of this number ninety, or 55 per cent, of all the appointments made by him, are ex-soldiers. By this it will be seen that the total number of ex-soldiers in the Pension Office to-day is 582 as against 549 when General Black took the Bureau off Colonel Dudley’s hands. And, further, of eigh y-nine of the 179 appoint, ments made by General Black not recorded as soldiers a majority are either the widows, daughters, or sons of deceased soldiers. This is not all. It is a matter of record that during the first year of General Black’s administration of the Pension Office the number of claims allowed was 8,000 greate r

than during any previous year in the history of the bureau, and this, too, in the face of the fact that the working force of the office was reduced from 1,669 to 1,523 —a lopping off of 146 clerks, and an actual saving to the government of $160,000 in the item of salaries.— Washington Cor. Chicago Herald.