Lockwood-0066_2

pefisation., 0418 COm pensau.
it, as well as the report, beco.

1yuasy
a sub-

ject for special investigation, which
hours and perhaps days are ct .iumed.
Thus the poor soldier who is d ending
upon a physieian’s certificat ior the
allowance of his case, is hedge in and

hampered by a surveillance vever in-
tended for honest men, and perhaps de-
feated altogether,

But I desire to say, for the svecial ex-
aminers, that there is one class of
cases to which they could give their at-
tention with profit, and to nawe a case
in point will best explain my meaning.
In the case of Alexander Sweeny,
original Navy invalid, I have received
the following letter:

“Wasn., D. C., Dec. 19, 188%

Madam:—In responee to inquiry of recent date,
relative to above claim, you are informed that
you have been repeatedly advised of the status
of this claim, and that no further action can be
taken inthe same until the requirements indi-
cated in calls made Sept. 17, 1880, July 5, 1881,
June 27, 1882, and Sept. 18, 1883, are compled
with. Very Respectfully,

W. W. Dubey, Comrpissioner.
i MM.”

To this letter the following response
has been sent:

“Wasi, D.C., Der, 20, 1883.
Hon. Com'r of Pensions:—The above named
claimant is usdoubtedly entitled ta pension,
but 3s feeble-minded, on account of injuries to
his head, without means cf support, and has
been fur years in the Washington asylum. He
has not mental capacity enough -o indicate
where the proofs may be found. I could and
would be to the expense and trouble of procur-
ing the proofs, were I allowed or permitted to
deduct the necessary expenses after the allow-
ance of the case, as IT have hitherto déne in huna-
dreds of cases; butaslam ne longer permitted
to do this, I respectfully refer this cape back to
the Hon. Contr of Pensions, with he request
| that he send out one of his special eximiners, at
the Government expense, to take tha proofs in
this case. and thus serve the ends of pastic .
Respectfully submitted, j
Betva A, LOCK Woop, gtt'y, &.”

For the last eleven years I fave been
in the habit of prosecuting pension
claims without asking fees ig advance,
in many cases paying the no ries’ fces,
and often supplying the app§cant with
smal] sums of money. The ’fecent ac-
tion of the Pension Office in shspending
and prosecuting by wholesa}
attorneys, who, if the newspaper reports
of the’charges are correct, arg@not guilty
of offences that constitute under the law











the possibility of my contin 1
ecute claims in this manner §
The condition has therefore pen forced
upon agents and attorneys to fake fees in
advance or refuse to take the§ cases. If
they do not do this they mgy be sus-
pended for the slightest defliction or

mistake, and disbarred frog practice,
this entailing upon them a lofs of thous-
ands of dollars already earnal,and leav-
ing them without redress ex@pt it be by
a suit for damages. 1

The fees are so small at bq,) that they
are in no wise adequate to tlt Jabor nec-





‘of the’ declaration, “tok. an auusucsy

could afford to spend for ten dollars.
Thus the law either defeats itself
or defeats the case—either of which
is to be deplored. The law and the
facts as they now exist have driven
many reputable attorneys from the field,
and their places have been filled by
shysters without offices, signs, or stand-
ing, who secure if possible a fee and neg-
lect the case. There is a confusion in
the camp, which looks to an ultimate
explosion of the whole business, unless
somebody calls a halt and takes a few

steps backward. It is about as disas- K
‘Washington, D.C.

trous to know too much as too little.
The question is, “where is the blame?
The Pension Office for the past three
years has been trying to run a claim
agency and get up a monopoly of the
business. The result has been a col-
lision, in which several parties have
been hurt; and the end is not yet.

The country has been electrified by
the cry of “dishonest pension claim
agents,” and every penny-a-liner has
joined in the cry, until the public have
been led to suppose that the poor pen-

sion attorney, who receives his ten dol-]-

lars, is the very chief of criminals, and
that the public treasury has been de-
pleted by him. The pensioner receives
anywhere from $500 to $5,000; and for
securing this by the aid of an attorney
who spends months and years of labor,
he pays ten dollars. Often the poor at-
torney is cheated out of this small
stipend. Dear reader, place these pen-
sion attorneys but for a moment beside
the attorneys for the Government who
conducted the star route cases and for
seven mouths received one hundred and
one hundred and fifty dollars per day;
and the steal of even the guilty pension
claim agent, with his perhaps hungry
family, pales into insignificance. But
so far ag any developments have yet

been made public, no one of the pension |

attorneys charged or indicted seems to
have been guiity of defrauding anybody.

The most venal of these offenders, an
attorney who had left the business and
the District of Columbia long ago, has
been indicted for sending a supposed
pension certificate C. O. D.; and yet any
other class of attoraeys could send pa-
pers in this way with perfect impunity,
and be considered honorable and busi-
ness-like; for from time immemorial an
attorney has had a lien*upon the papers
of his client until his fee was paid. The
Treasury Department still recognizes
this lien, and protects the attorneys
practicing before it by sending in every
instance the warrant issued in the claim
to the attorney of record, thus enabling
him to secure a fee. An undertaker, a
grocer, or a dry-goods man, sending his
wares by express, is accustomed to have
his dues collected before the goods are



WAY: eee

Has anybody cried “Fraud!”—has.
anybody attempted te investigate or to
arrest them? And if not, why not?
The Judge from the bench had nerve
enough and sense enough to pro-
nounce their condemnation, and should |
promptiy have fined every one of them
for contempt, and sent the cases to the
Grand Jury, not for an attempt to de-
fraud, but for an actual fraud on the
public treasury.

“Whom the gods would destroy they
first make mad.”

Briva A. Lockwoop,



pig 0A