Ten Years in Washington or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Chapter 39155 wordsPublic domain

THE PENSION BUREAU—HOW GOVERNMENT PAYS ITS SERVANTS.

Sneering at Red Tape—The Division of Labor—Scrutinizing Petitions—A Heavy Paper Jacket—Invalids, Widows, and Minors—The Examiner of Pensions—How Claims are Entertained and Tested—What is Recorded in the Thirty Enormous Volumes—How Many Genuine Cases are Refused—One of the Inconveniences of Ignorance—The Claim Agent Gobbles up the Lion’s Share—An Extensive Correspondence—How Claims are Mystified, and Money is Wasted—Seventy-five Thousand Claims Pending—The Reward of Fourteen Days’ Service—The Sum Total of What the Government has Paid in Pensions—The Largest and the Smallest Pension Office—The Miscellaneous Branch—Investigating Frauds—A Poor “Dependent” Woman with Forty Thousand Dollars—How “Honest and Respectable” People Defraud the Government—The Medical Division—Examining Invalids—The Restoration-Desk—The Appeal-Desk—The Final-Desk—The Work that Has Been Done—One Hundred and Fifty Thousand People Grumbling—The Wrath of a Pugnacious Captain, 418