Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-12
BEN BUTLER's LATEST NOTION
He Would Give All the Soldiers, Even ex-
COnfederates, Slice of Pension Money.

COnfederates, a Slice of Pension Money.
"Have you observed the action of the
Committee on Invalid Pensions in Con-
gress in reporting bills ~ was asked of
Gen. B. F. Butler to-day, says a Boston
special to the New York Sun.
Il have,'' Gen. Butler replied, sswith
some care and interest, and with some
amusement have seen them struggling to
avoid doing that which they ought to do
iGthey are going to do that which they
| recommend to be done. They apparently
are seeing how near they can come to
pensiOning everybody who had a part in
the late war and yet not do it.
"Ihey claim only to be pensioning in
Yalids, but their bills take away all re-
strrctions as to proof of disability, and
while L do not suppose it is intended by
the committee, vet they seem to be play
ing into the hands of claim agents.
Nv by not do as our fathers did in 1926
and 1892 with Revolutionary soldiers!
They pensioned all who served in any
way in the war of the Revolution, whether
as militiamen, sea fencibles, or in line.
fixing maximum for those who served
during the war, and then giving to those
who served a less time a sum less than
the maximum in the ratio of time served
by the individual pensiOner, to commence
er after the close of the war than that ac-
ton was taken, but things go faster now.
The country is very much richer. We
have just got to a point when our debt
ceases to be a burden, and there is large
surplus in the Treasury. That was the
exact case in 1892, and then, under the
Democratic administration of jackson,
they used portion of the surplus to pen
sion everybody, and distributed the bal
ance among the States.
81 would agree to the pension part of
that action, but not to the distribution
part, and one great reason | have for
agreeing to it is that such a pension law.
carefully drawn, would entirely do away
with pension agents, and with a large
horde of pension officers, detectives and
clerks, who hunt up evidence and are ex-
amining disabilities which never existed.
1t would relieve the wants of many
brave and good soldier who came out Of
the war apparently uninJured, so that he
cannot prove that the i'll health which he
now suffers was the actual result of the
service, and It would give the soldier who
fought bravely andendured all the dam
gers of the war the same recOmpense that
some soldiers who We're struggling in the
rear and got run over by an army wagon
are receiving. Amy pension law must
pension undeserying men. The trouble
with our present pension laws is that
they do not pension all the deserving
"Where would we get the money to
carry out such plan as you suggest?"
appropriate the tax upon whisky, malt
liquor, and tobacco to this object and you
Will get enough to make a sufficient fund.
and the taxation may be diminished one
half, and yet pension all our living SOL
diers. Then the internal revenue tax. the
constitutionality of which, unless as a
war tax, may, well be questioned, ought,
as war tax, to be devoted to making
good to the nation the expenses which the
war entalled in the shape of pensions. II
this is done il viii take a stumbling block
out OF the way of tariff TefoTmers and
protectiOuists alike. The amount to be
raised by tariff can be limited exactly to
the actual expenses Of carrying on the
government, less the pensions, and such
alterations can be made in the internal
revenue taxation as to get rid of a horde
OF officers now required, and by putting
out OF service the officers employed in the
Internal Revenue Bureau the country can
be relieved of what is its greatest curse-a
horde of OfiicehOlders.
Again, ii the internal revenue tax is
devoted to the payment Of pensions, no.
body can complain of the tax, for if he
doesn't want to be so taxed he need only
stop drinking and smoking.
I'VE OF the North might become recon-
cIled very soon to admitting the poor dis
abled Southern soldier who fought honest
ly for his belief by pensioning him suffi-
GENTLY to relieve him from want, espe-
clally as the tax upon whisky and tobacco
falls largely upon the Southern section of
the cOuntry''