Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-12-16
Wednesday, Dee. 16, 1885.
The Pension List.
From the N. Y. Sun,

Twenty years have passed since the
civil war ended, yet to-day the list of
pensioners is not only greater than
ever before, but growing enormously.
Ten years after the close of the war
it had begun to dwindle, as it natural
" would on account of the deaths Of
veterans, the marriage of soldiers
widows, and the coming of age of
their children. Then the legislation
of Congress made change. The ar
rears act alone added an ultimate lia-
bility variously estimated in official
documents at between $254,000 900
and 1921 100000, and not yet deter
mined.
As years rolled Oil, the fruits of this
legislation become apparent. Al
though the number of names dropped
from the list since 1865, from death
and other causes, must be reckoned
in hundreds of thousands, the names
added more than counterbalance
them. Last year, for example, as
Gen. Blacks report shows, 1928
names were dropped. but 35,76S new
ones were added, besides many rein
statements. Looking throug h success
sive annual reports of the Pension
Office, we find that, while the aggre-
gate roll numbered 26S, $50 pensioners
in 1881, 2s5, 695 pensioners in 1882,
3O3,65S pensioners in 1888, and 322,-
756 pensioners in 1884, it had reached
345,125 for the year ending June 30,
1885. This is an addition of nearly
thirty per cent. in four years. Again,
we find the aggregate annual value
of pensions, which was 2S,769,967
four years ago, increased year by
year until it is now $3S,090,9S5.
Even this great outlay does not rep
resent all the country pays, since
every year it gives many millions for
arrears of pensions, and the total out
lay last year was thus brought up to
nearly sixty-fve millions. For the
past two years it has averaged over
sixty millions.
Yet we have not reached the maxi
mum of annual pension liability.
Official calculations have shown that,
even on the basis of present legisla-
ton, the roll of pensioners will be in
creased over all natural diminutions
to between 5000 and 100000, and
the annual cost of pensions, exclusive
of outright payments for arrears, to
between S44 100000 and S50,000,000.
Before the year 1890 the amount laid
out on pensions since 1861 will be
more than billion dollars.
Nevertheless schemes are rife for
enormously increasing the pension
burdens of the Treasury. Some of
them involve amounts SO prodigious
that their projectors hardly venture
into accurate calculations of what
they will cost. The Mexican War
Pension bill, which itself would have
entailed vast expenses, was saddled
with amendments when discussed in
the late Congress, that would have
swamped the Treasury. One Of the
proposals which will again be urged
upon Congress is that of pensioning
to an extent depending on length of
service all soldiers who fought in the
Union armies. Several bills aim at
this result, one of them giving to any
surviving soldier or sailor, sick or
well, rich or poor, So a month for the
rest of his life. Another bill gives,
in addition, 100 acres of land to each
man. Still another bill gives graded
pensions to all who were captured and
confined in Confederate prisons, even
where no disability resulted. Others
provide for very large increases of
existing nensions.