Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1889 — AFTER TANNER’S SCALP. [ARTICLE]

AFTER TANNER’S SCALP.

ANOTHER MOVE TO OUST THE PENSION COMMISSIONER. Secretary Noble Again on the Trail—The Corporal’;! Acts to Be Invest’gated from the Beginning of His Official Career. [Washington special jo Detroit Free Press.] There is evidence enough at hand to warrant the statement that Secretary Noble has caught on to the whitewashing scheme of the majority of the commission appointed to investigate Commissioner Tanner, by ordering the latter’s acts investigated from the beginning of his official career to date. Enough, too, is known to warrant the statement that Commissioner Tanner is very much chagrined over the turn the affair has taken. He knew that the work performed by the commission would exonerate him from personal blame, from the fact that the specific acts on which there has occurred so much comment took place in the month of May, when he was in Tennessee making speeches; therefore he was not held’personally responsible for them. • As the net in the first place was cast in shallow waters, Secretary Noble, who is something of a fisherman and knows a trout from a bull-head when he sees it, has ordevad the seine cast in deeper waters, and it is said by those who have inside knowledge of affairs in the Pension Bureau that the artful Secretary is very liable to catch a haul this time that is w’orth something. The same persons that have been pursuing Tanner since he crossed the threshold of the Pension Bureau are close at his heels, and to their suggestions is credited the new move on the part of Secretary Noble. They have determined if it is a possible thing to oust Tanner. HOW TANNER GOT THE APPOINTMENT. The way Tanner got his appointment may not prove uninteresting at this time. While on his way westward a short time subsequent to the Chicago Convention to deliver some lectures, he stopped at Indianapolis for the purpose of paying his respects to the nominee. In the course of his stay he made a speech that caught the audience and pleased Mr. Harrison. The latter induced Tanner to cancel his engagement and stump the State. The distinct promise was given him by Mr. Harrison that if he was elected he (Tanner) was to be made Commissioner of Pensions. When Tanner was about to return home after his labors the promise was voluntarily renewed on the part of the President-elect. A short time subsequent to the inauguration Tanner came to Washington and reminded the President of his promise, and asked that he deliver the goods. To his astonishment the latter tried to steer him in another direction on the plea that there was a strong opposition to him from New York, headed by Senator Hiscock., who wanted Poole, of Syracuse, to have the place. Tanner hastily summoned to Washington a delegation from the Maimed Soldiers and Sailors’ League, whose headquarters are at Philadelphia, and at a stated hour they called upon the President in a body and urged Tanner’s appointment, in behalf of the maimed soldiers and sailors of the country. The plan succeeded and Tanner’s troubles commenced soon after his installment in the office. Like many other officials he promised too much. He avowed that the Pension Office stairs should resound with the crutches of crippled 1 veterans. He has not been able to fulfill the promise to any remarkable extent. He declared that a more liberal granting of pensions should be adopted by him. His ambition in that direction has received a sudden and violent check. Even the administration that promised so much and acted with rapidity in that direction has, within a few weeks past, grown conservative, and Tanner—well, he is so harassed, perplexed, disappointed, humiliated, and disconcerted with investigations that he sighs for the peace of other days, when he saw the office he now holds only dimly in the perspective. Has such taking ways—the shoplifter.