The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-03
The Pension B,n-rhe Lobby at work.

The Pension Bill-The Lobby at Work.
The vultures that infest the halls Of Congress, |
and that go to form that curious institution |
known as &c the lobby" have been sedulously but |
silently at work for the last three weeks, and |
have actually succeeded in getting through one |
house measure which, if contaminated, will en- |
rich them beyond anything they could have con-
ceived possible, and will saddle the national |
treasury with an increased annual expenditure
scheme is covered up in the guise of bill grant
ing pensions to the surviving officers and
soldiers of the war of 1872, and their widows,
and to those who served in Indian wars during
or preceding that period. Notwithstanding that
it is plundering scheme, concocted between the
lobby and such members Of the House as fall
into their plans, the thing has been gravely
represented as an act Of justice to
the survivors of our last war with
Great Britain, and any amount of balderdash
was got off by orators Of the hifalutin order, in
depicting the SORROWS and sufferings of the war
worn veterans designed to be benefciaries under
the act. We give elsewhere, in our columns to-
day, some extracts from the speeches made in
favor of the measure, as well as review of its
passage through the House, which will enable
our readers to comprehend fully this last grand
swoop of the lobby upon the national treasury.
We have no doubt that the bulk of those
whose interests are ostensibly promoted by the
bill will join with the people Of the country at
large in denouncing 1t as wrong in principle, in
furious in practice, and, to certain extent, hui
initiating to the patriots of 1912. The men who
then enrolled themselves in the service of
their country did so from sense of duty,
not from those sOrdid motives Of pay and
pension which the friends of the mea-
sure now impute to them. If there was
any propriety or justice in the measure its opera
ton should certainly not commence with the
present Congress, but should extend back to the
time of service, and to the heirs of those who
have since passed out of existence. AS there
were about half million Of men enrolled for
service in the war of 1872, the aggregate pension
to which, under the principle OF the bill, they
would have been entitled, would be forty-eight
million dollars year; and supposng the num-
Der of pensioners not to decrease, as they
certainly would do, the aggregate cost Of
this pension system to the government up to this
time would have reached the snug figure of two
thousand, two hundred and eight millions of dol
lars. If the pensioning principle is to be estab-
lished at all, it certainly should commence i'm
mediately after the service-so that those whose
health was injured, though not to such an extent
as to entitle them to be considered invalids,
might enjoy the bounty of the government before
they passed away.
But nothing could be more antagonistic to the
principles on which our government is founded
than the inauguration Of great pensioning
system like that now proposed to be fastened
upon us. There was some reason for pensioning
the soldiers of the Revolution, for they perilled
their lives and fortunes in desperate cause, and
without having an established government at
their back. There is no parallel between their
case and that Of the soldiers Of subsequent wars,
and the policy of granting pensions to men not
invalided should have expired, as was intended,
with them. Our general laws provide pensions
for all who are wounded in battle, or who, from
exposure or other cause while in service, are in
capacitated from supporting themselves, and for
the widows of those who die in battle or from
any of the accidents of war; and our pension list
for these and for the soldiers and widows of the
Revolutionary war shows the number receiving
pensions to be-from the army 10, 1913, and from
the navy s92-and the aggregate amount
of their annual payment is $1033,l 80.
But, besides this, Congress has from time to time
passed, at the instance and for the chief benefit
of the lobby, bills granting bounty land warrants
to all who have served in any of the wars of the
country, including Indian scrimmages. Under
these laws more than sixtytwo millions of acres of
the public domain have passed from the govern
ment into the hands, for the most part of capt.
talists and spectators, who first bought up for
song the claims of old soldiers and their widows
and heirs, aud then went to Congress and got
that body to pass these bounty land warrants,
ostensibly for the benefit of the old soldiers and
their widows and heirs, but really and virtually
for the benefit of the lobby and of host of PEN
sion agents and swindlers. 1t is exactly the
same sort of influence that is now at work to
fasten on the government this enormous pension
swindle, and that has succeeded in getting the
favorable endorsement of the popular branch of
Congress.
The total amount of pensions paid since the
establishment of the government has been within
a fraction Of ninety millions of dollars; and if
we add to that the value of the land given away
in bounty warrants, estimatedIat 81 20 an acre,
we have grand total of about hundred and
twenty millions of dollars paid away by the
government in bountics and pensions.
But the new dodge for robbing the treasury
has not even the semblance of consistency or
fair play about it; for while it provides for
the soldiers and marines who had little or no
fighting to do. it makes no provision for the
gallant sailors who had fighting to do,