Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-12-14
Pensions.

FensIOuss
The report of the commissioner of pensions
has an interest for all readers, aside from its
financial and economic aspect. Its array of
facts and figures is the record and constant re-
minder of the suffering which war brings with
it, of the price which we have paid for our ma
tional integrity, of the fortitude and patriotism
of our countrymen, and of the acknowledge
ment, often miserably inadequate in individual
cases, though magnificent in its total, which the
nation makes for the lives, limbs and strength
sacrificed in its defense. The whole amount eX-
pended by the pension bureau for the year end
ing with June last, was more than thirty-four
million dollars, nearly one-eighth of the whole
national expenditure; the whole number of
pensioners of all classes for the same period was
207 1875. The number was greater by S7G9 than
that of the preceding year. 1t is believed now
to have reached its maximum, and will, after
the current year, diminish with increasing
rapidly The conflicts which have given
occasion for this roll of pensioners
are the revolutionary war, the war of 1912, the
Mexican war; the Indian wars and the rebellion.
There are now no surviving revolutionary sol
diers on the rolls; the solitary veteran Of the
war of our independence, after many deceptive
announcements, has positively made his last APP
pearance We had been so often deuded by
the assurance of his decease, that at last the
sole remaining participant in that heroic strug-
gle was allowed 10 vanish unnotlced, without
the honors which grateful country should
have paid to his memory. OF the widows of
revolutionary soldiers, married previous to the
beginning of this century, lorty-nine are in the
receipt Of pensions, and OF those married since
that time, five hundred and eighty-fye. The
expenditures of the pension bureau for the past
year were hardly less than those Of the war de-
partment. But this amount included many first
payments with the arrears, which made the total
much greater than it can be again. The est-
mates for the current year are nearly eleven
millions less.
The average monthly rate to invalid army
pensioners is 1892, to widows, mothers and
children, S12.G5. or the invalids who lost
limbs in the service there is one who lost both
arms and both legs; thirty who lost both arms
forty-two both legs; twenty-one one arm and
one leg; 5OO6 one arm, and 1927 one leg; in all
1927. The country ought to make more lib
eIdi pIONlSlOn lot Inc rev unlOrtuuatCS VINO
have lost both arms or both legs or one of each.
The loss of both arms, especially, almost Gu
tirey dsables the sufferer from doing anything
for his own support, and even from performing
for himself the common offices of hourly neces-
sity, and makes the services Of an attendant ill.,
dispensable. The small number OF persons in
this condition makes the total amount cxpend-
ed for their relief insignificant, and successful
imposture, which would increase the number, is
clearly out OF the question. A pension at the
rate of one hundred dollars monthly would not
be unreasonable for pensioners of this class.
OF all the diseases contracted in the service
for which pensions have been granted, chronic
diarrhea is the most frequent, its victims being
more than twenty per cent. OF the whole num-
Der. Diseases OF the eye have caused about
eleven per cent. Of the claims for pensions,
rheumatism about nine per cent, phthisis about
six per cent, and hernia four per cent. The en-
tire number ofsoldiers who served in the armies
OF the United States during the wars in which
the country has been engaged were: in the war
of the revolution, 27S,O21; the war of 1872, in
Guiding sailors 527 ,654 in the Indian wars, co.
1O1; in the Mexican war, 1920; and in the re-
bellion, 2,GSs, j23.