The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-07-15
A RECKLESS MEASURE,

We have several times expressed the
! opinion that but comparatively small
portion of the enormous amount con-
templated to be expended under the Ar
rears of Pensions bill will ever reach the
| pockets of deserving soldiers. Every
| impartial ana thorough investigation Of
this bill and of the policy in pursuance
Of which it was railroadel' through
| the House, has disclosed the fact that it
! was an eXtravagant piece of legislation,
unjust to the taxpayers of the nation,
and not demanded by the better classes
| Of the cx-soldiers of the Union army, and
which was carried through by formid
able ring of claim agents and profess
sional lobbyists. 1t is not the outcome
of careful and deliberate concern for its
| nominal beneticiaries. but an immense
job, which conciliated so many personal
and corrupt interests in the ''deeStricks'
of each member of the House, that honest
inquiry has been prevented, opposition
has been averted, and an overwhelming
majority Of members of both parties
have kept their eyes and mouths shut,
while advancing in Il solid body to the
plumber of the taxpayers.
Why has the press--as q rule-been SO
silent in regard to this shameless, inex
cusable and unexcused spoliation-with
out precedent in the legislation of any
country?
Is it because there is an apprehension
| that it may be unpopular to oppose any
measure Of liberality to the soldiers of
the late war and their families 1t is a
Islander on the brave men who Offered
| their lives to save their country and keen
it free, to suppose that they want to be-
! come even the indirect means of cor
rupting Congress and of imposing unjust
burdens on people already taxed most
mercilessly and necdlessly. The old
! soldiers OF the Union do not want TO be
! identified with frauds aud corruption
! They know that no Congress will refuse
a lair, just. well regulated and carefully
! guarded Pension law. They know that
this Congress has not even tried to do
! justice to the soldiers, while guarding
the taxpayers against l.ZneSs Of liber-
aiity that inevitably Iarurs the corrupt
middlemen' more than it helps the
| soldiers.
! The New York Mrald accounts for
the apathy and Indifference that have at
| tended the successful progress Of the
Arrears OF iienslopS swindle. first: by
the meanHess and Gowarilee "f the partl-
| san politics of the praheilt uay, The
! Democrats and the Republicans each
| fear to take the initiative in Il movement
for its repeal, lest the other may be dem
agogieal enough to seek to score some
| partisan advantage against its adversary
| for so moving"
The Herald rightly adds that this pen
| sion swindle is "thoroughiy grateful
only to the strikers. the maligners, the
bummers the dead beats, the camp fol-
j lowers of the civil war, and to their
claim agents. Already, before its pas
| sage. the late Commissioner of Pensions,
Mr.. Bentley. testified that at least one
tenth of all the disDh easements of the
United States on account Of pensions
were fraudulent, and the Pension
Arrears act must have at least doubled
the proportion A few facts and figures
will serve Doth as text and illustration of
this measure.
\ thousand million i~i,.ys is the sum
WHICH the Arrears OF Pension. Hill will
cost, as it is now estimated. AS the ten
dency has been to underestimate the
chances are the saHl will be found to be
larger rather than smaller when the cost
is finally asrertained. The old roll, esti-
mating at law iigHre, would require an
average expenditure OF about 100000, 900
a year for twenty-five years. That is
half 4 billion more, 50 that the total sum
which in the next twenty-five years will
be expended in the payment of pensions
is not far from the colossal figures of one
billion and a half, or more than one-third
OF the cost of the late war. The adoption
to-day of that clause in the Legislative
Appropriation bill p...iiding for increas-
ing the clerical force of the feh..::s;n Office
by ! 200 clerks indicates that the House
is ready to go with those who have laid
out the Spoli4tion programme. That
programme is TO russ the payment of
| the arrears through as fast as possible.
The men Who are managing tins thing
| estimate that the additional force of
clerks will make it possible to grant
applications for arrears in the Hext fiscal
year amounting to xiG0, 0G0, COG, and this
sum is already fixed in tie Pension
Appropriation bill. Next they think
that this large force will have cleaned
this deck in the fiscal year 1854 for the
payment g $3.50, 600, 600, in the succeed
ing year $i0G, G0g, 0sQ, and the next year
so, 900, 900. This programme involves
the payment, therefore, OIL acco.a1 of
arrears of Sl25, 600, 900 in the next four
Years 1t is estimated that in the next
ten years 49, sum required will be $40
000, 900, and that usII until 1893 will the
annual payments fall below 80, 000, 600,
and that not until 1904 will they ell
below 81. 000,000 the sum which was
paid in the yr4r prior to the passage of
the Arrears act.
These facts are not 4s~, however