The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1881-05-05
PENSIONS.
Abuses and Frauds The Enormous
RudYof

| n Enormous
budget.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. 27.-The
enormous appropriations for pensions,
together with the known fact that a
heavy per cent. of it is paid to those
who have no right to be on the rolls,
are at last attracting the serious atten-
ton of members and senators, and
there is a prospect that some measure
of relief will be adopted. Illustrating
the abuses that have grown up under
the system, a member Of congress from
one of the southern states tells your
correspondent that he knows man in
his district who lost his arm in saw
mill two years after the war, yet regu-
larly draws pension on account of
the loss Of his arm. He mentioned
another instance where man, for q
slight flesh-wound, that hardly left a
scratch and no disability whatever,
managed to draw $1,000 for arrears of
pensions "This so-called disabled SOL
der" said the member quoted, "ean
come to Washington and whip any two
members of congress in fair fight!
Disabled, indeed! He isn't disabled so
cents WORTH"
Your correspondent asked this men,
Der why he did not report these frauds
to the pension Office. His answer IL
Illustrates the difficulties of correcting
frauds of this class: "0h," ne replied,
'sit's none Of my business to report
them. They would become my ever
lasting enemies"
So it goes all over the country. It is
very rarely the case that member of
congress reports a fraudulent pension
er. They are far more apt to interest
themselves in getting pensions without
nice discrimination as to whether the
applicants are justly entitled under
the laws. 1t is correctly said and be-
lieved by those who have given intelli-
gent attention to the subject that there
are men in congress who would vote
the army $1OO,OOO,OOO annually in
pensions rather than lose their seats in
congress. The pension is a pretty one
to play upon, and the member who
gets the most money for his "district'
IS apt to be returned. But in the aggre-
gate it works havoc with the national
treasury. 1t is now the fifteenth wear
after the close of the war, yet the cx-
penditure on account Of pensions is
more than double what it was in 1866
or 1867. In fact. it is more than three
times as great as in 1866. Yet the pen
sion budget usually becomes less as
the war period recedes. Fifteen wears
after the close of the revolutionary war
the pension appropriation was only
1922 There are instances in the
past two years where twenty men have
received more in arrears of pensions
than was paid to all the survivors of the
revolutionary war fifteen years after it
closed! The per capital payments in
pensions are now more than forty
times greater than at a like period
after the close of the war of the revo-
luton and the war of 1912. In 1860,
including what few were left of the
revolutionary pensioners, and the many
surviving pensioners of the war of 1912
and the Mexican war,-including all
these, the appropriation for pensions
was but little over $1,OOO,OOO. At all
previous occasions in our history the
pension expenditures have declined
as the war period receded, but these
conditions are now reversed, and the
further we get from the war the greater
becomes the expenditure on account of
pensions