Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1886 — Unbecomiug a Soldier. [ARTICLE]

Unbecomiug a Soldier.

Chicago In'kT-Oecwu. In his annual report General Black, Commissioner of Pensions, charged that the Pension Office had been used as a political machine to forward the interests of the Republican party and that applications for pensions had been allowed or rejected on account of the politics of the applicant. Asked to specify what claims had been allowed on this theory General Black, out of the tens of thousands of cases, specified twenty. Where sohnany thousands of applications had been acted on it would not be 1 -strange if h undreds. could, he tortured into such shape as to leave open inferences as to political n - rtuence. But when General Black, with the uiidle list befoi-e him, selected only twenty, he virtu&ltv admitted that the charge h..d no foundation in fact. Three, of the twenty cases reported by General Black have been inquired into by the Semite Committee. ihe case of General Bennett convicts General Black of an unsoldieriy attempt to injure the reputation of a fellow officer and a fellow pensioner. The case of Neil convicts him of recklessness in making charges, as the applicant was a democrat The third case is that of at man oh whose claim action was suspended at the request of Congressman Pettibone, who stated that information had been placed in his hands showing that the man was a fraud. Mr. Black’s predecessor in office marked this case for investigation, and

General Black had approved the audoraemenjt. >. < '-r , ' * General Black admitted that had such a request come to him from a Congressman he would have acted just as Colonel Dudley acted, and yet this case is paraded as evidence that Colonel Dudley used the Pension Office* as a political machine. A fourth case on General Black's list is that of Senator Filer, of Bloomington. When it is understood that Fifer is the soldier who was shot through the

lungs and dhe liver, ami whose case was so much discussed when Prerident Garfield was shot, the cruelty of the insinuation or charge that such a man received his pension through fraud is apparent. With nil due respect for General Black we say mopt emphatically his course m this matter does not become a soldier.