Bloomsburg, Pa., Oct. 10, 1901.
To the Editor:
—In an article in The Journal of October 5 on "Laxity in Pension Examiners," the claim is made of "certain abuses" of "serious carelessness," and that the public has "a conviction of a vast amount of fraud in the pension business," and that the publication of such facts as these confirm it. Let us examine the alleged facts. If they are true, then the above allegations stand. If they are false, then they fall. The "facts" consist of an experience with one board of pension examiners, who examined twenty applicants at once, from one section and found them all suffering from heart disease. These applicants were then examined before disinterested physicians who found no heart disease in any of the cases. Is this probable? Is it possible, that twenty soldiers aged from 55 to 75 years, who have suffered all the privations