The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-04-13

posed for the Senate are comparatively
small, but we shall not fail TO observe how
they are treated when the pay OF the friends
Of the new majority Is touched.
Carrying the Pension System Too Far.
Congress teaches lessons which the people
are not swift to learn. The teaching OF the
Forty-nfth Congress was that no project of
legislation, no combination OF projects, to
take money out OF the Treasury, can be 80
vast. wasteful, and wrong that majorities
both In tho Senate and House cannot be
marshalled to vote for them, almost with
out debate, II they benefit and ilatter the
survivors OF the republics four wars, or PEN
sion and fatter their widows and children.
The military vote OF the country Is pow
erful and tempting. Politicians OF both par
ties In Congress will tumble over each other
In their greediness to win IL, by finging to
II In competitive wastefuness the public
treasure in quantities crafty lavish, alb
surdly disproportioned TO desert, and with
out precedent in military history.
The senseless folly OF this sentimental
waste is comprehensive. An Admiral dies
For fifty years he fed fat at the public crib
Mediterranean and the Indies His shore
life was an exact division Of happy time be-
tween the satisfaction OF command or ae.
knowle6ged rank. and the pleasure Of eat
Ing, drinking, talking, LAUGHING, and sleep-
ing. Within week after the remains OF
this useless barnacle on the retired list are
entombed, a bill is put on its passage
through Congress TO give pension TO his
widow. And 1t is voted to her without ques-
ton. Yet she is not one hundredth part as
much entitled to n pension as is the woman
grown gray and thin with years Of running
a loom in the Wamsutta mills.
This disproportionate and senseless waste
OF the public money was astonishingly
shown four days before the close OF the
Forty-fifth Congress. From committee
room came a cart load OF bills TO pension all
sorts and degrees. There was indeed a hes
itating and soft asking of questions about
the quantity Of money that widow OF an
old officer in the Marine Corps would get
under her bill-whether it would be $4,000
right away in addition 10 future pay, and
whether the bill would be retroactive for
more than ten years. or less-but 1t passed
sweetly. not man in the House making the
point that n Marine Corps officer who had
lived In utter uselessness on the Govern
ment from 1917 to 1865 could not possibly, by
any distortion OF reason or greatness OF in
ference, have left the nation in debt 10 his
widow She got the money, past, present,
and future. And scores Of others held out
their aprons and hats for q continuous
bounty, that had no more been earned than
that which followed the marine into his
grave after hity-one years Of misnamed
public service which by no arithmetic can
be clphered to have been worth to the ma
ton two cents OF actual value.
Then followed case which, we predict,
will prove TO be what lawyers call leading
1t was an entering wedge, and was care
lessly and ignorantly driven right up to its
head. 1t was Senate Bill No. ,7O5, directing
the Secretary Of the Interior to put on the
pension rolls the name OF JAMES c. DAGGErr,
private soldier in the Signal Service, and
to pay to him for life pension OF S72
month-SS6i per annum. He was paralyzed
How2 Nobody said. Was he paralyzed
while watching clouds, noting in book a
change OF wind, working a telegraph in
strument? Nobody knew. Was he para
lyzed by some old or recent course OF
mercury or quinine; in a fight; by pro-
tracted spree a fall in the street; a tumble
down stairs? Nobody could tell. But some
body said that if the case were his, he would
rather die than 1.-Two without that pension OF
SsGi a year. That passed the bill. And that
established the precedent that the pensions
Of Signal Service soldiers are TO be Just
equal to their excessively large monthly pay.
The outrage of the vote will be appreciated
on the mention OF the fact that the soldiers
Of the Signal Service are expressly enlisted
not 10 fight; that in no sense whatever are
they soldiers, though nominaly armed and
drilled; that they are but thermometer
watchers cloud observers, wind recorders,
and telegraph operators; that, in the char
acter and the public value Of their services,
they have no more claim to be pensoned
when disabled than have the employees of
the Western Union Telegraph Company.
leading case we call this OF Private
DAddErr. Inevitably Gen. MYER will be
seen running pension bills similar to DAG
GETS through this aud future Congresses,
till he and his Office are abolished by trans
ferring his Geographic news bureau aud bust
ness TO the Post Onlce Department, or some
constituted telegraph company