Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1886-03-20
BRECKENRIDGE.
Extracts From His Speech Deliv-
cred in the House of Rep
resentatives,
Upon the Widows Pension Bill-Ken-
1tucky's Reputation Well sus-
tanned.

Upon the Widows Pension Bill-Ken-
etucky's Reputation Well Sus-
tained.
In the House of Representatives, when
the Pension Appropriation bill was pend
ing, Representative Breckenridge, of Ken .
tncky, was among the speakers, and his |
eloquent utterances caught the ear OF the 1
House and country. We publish herewith
liberal extracts from his remarks:
Mr. Chairman, when the proposition came |
before the House TO increase the rate pad TO /
the widow and orphan 81 per cent, ana rep !
resentatee bad to consider the clemens /
which entered into his decision upon that |
proposition, the first fact which met him was |
that the present rate had been fixed years |
ago; that it had originally been agreed upon !
by former generation OF statesmen, That II |
had been accepted in the very throes of the |
war; that it had been unchanged when the ,
money in which twas paid was at large |
discount: tina, 1t had been received without |
complaint from 1862 to the present time. IL |
was not. therefore, the question. shall the |
widow and orphan be pensionedl Nor was =
the new question, TO ascertain from careiul
calculation what was a tar rate; but II was
to add, without any proof OF necessity, WIN
out any cause given 10 per cent. to a we'll
established and long accepted rate.
The next fact was that at the time at which
il was offered was a time when dollar had
the largest purchasing power that IT had
possessed for many years. To-day, he who
has n fixed salary is in a better relative con
dition thun he has been for quarter OF
century or more. Every thing in the coun-
Try has almost touched bottom prices Never,
since the war, has tnsion been relatively
50 valuable as 1t Is to-day. Never cOuld u
purchase so much of comfort, SO much of
whatever adds to the pleas re OF human Iife.
Instead of there beng any necessity in the
genera state OF the country aud or us mar
kets. and of its prosperity, whv this change
should be made, there was every reason why
II should he al least postponed. FOR whlle
! the dollar was now more yaluabe than ever
before, il was also harder TO Obtain. There
is more sweat in the dollar thar pays for labor
in these hard days OF winter than ever before
| in this country.
| Everywhere are the unemployed stalwart
| uuN with wives and children dependent
| upon them standing idle in the market place,
| Tor no man hath employed them. The un-
| pleasant symptoms of the unsatisfactory
condition of labor Ohtrude themselves upon
| ,is un every side. The strikes, which, alas
| are the protcstsof heart and muscle against
| unjust demands and unrequited toll; the
| labor o IaniZatiOnS, by means OF when CO.
! operation may produce more justice ana
| W .cr treatment; the sad walls of poverty
| which come from every city, bear testimony
| that il is not the time to increase the burden
| Oi the aborer to take more f. ON the earnings
| ui the tOiler. There are other widows ana
| oihcr orphans than the widows and or
| phans of the soldiers and every dollar added
| to pensions is, in part, taken from them. NO
| war can be carried on by the soldiers alone
| He who drives the plow or the plane, he VINO
/ strikes the anvil or holds in It's place the ma
| Chinery which with almost lite.llke lnteIIl-
| gence, weaves the garment that are worn,
| are as truly the soldiers of the Republic as
| those who, with serred ranks. carried her
| tnncrs to victory They are the soldiers in
F 80 A.
| Their country and whose widows and orphans
deserve our car. and protection. In this dis
cusson | pay heartfelt tribute TO the great
| army of the peaceful obscure, who in every
rank and walk of life, through al their days
| of care and toll, perform well tha part to
which they are called; and | hesitate with
/ sincere reluctance to vote any added dollar
for any cause TO the burdens which are al
! ready so hard to be borne.
| | plead to-day the cause of tho humble
home whose father, buried in an adjoining
grave. did not 90 TO the war, but with equal
patrlotism did his p'rt IN The great bate OF
lite. Ii is not only the soldier element that
We are to legi late for, but it is every element
! of the country in every part OF the country.
These are the conditions that stares IN the
face every man who had to pass an intelligent
cons Iteration upon this subject.
/ The provision made by existing laws Tor
: uouSiou Is in its aggregate startlingt ] Will
rot attempt TO show that il Is unreasonable.
But do mean to say that before any increase
should he demonstrated. The amount paid
for pensions up to the Goth OF June, loal. is
reported to be the sum of sI6j, .ls,
To this must /. added the sum of sGJ,0O00U0
appropr utCd for the current year These
aggregate Ss2i ,ej0ls To this add the
amount covered by the present bill,
1900 These various sums aggregate
Sm0. 0.s4a s40Is which 5 the sum that has been
or will be paid under the laws as they now
ex st up to June 30, lss, To this must be ad-
dcd that unknown sum VIII ch will have 10 be
rnil to those pensioners whose appl cations,
yet undecided, will he allowed. How large
hi. may be- is n mere matter of specu alton.
Some have estimated 1t las see from the ad-
mfrahle and wetempered speech Of the
gentleman from &c, rgla, Mr.. CliSpl as adding
enough TO The present m ual appr priatiOn
10 require the annual expenditure OF Sl@5.'
O01OW. Others make il much small r, but IL
certainly viii not he less thin somewhere
GbOut slUJQN010, and that for series of
Years
Mr. Cha rman, these fEdres do lot. of
th,mAply,S create uny very distinct cCncep,
ton in our minds Of their magnitude ! ind
in SpufOrd' American Almanac that the Hs
srs>abe value OF all propcri in the great
State of Texas is SJ02, liH227, and in the pros
pc Gus State OF Kansas S24s,S3 ~, which
add, d together. is SNlO,us5lO. which is ovei
s 4,U0000O ess than we have paid for pensions
nv the 30th OF June, 1855. Kentucky owns
S423115,5sa and Iowa s+t5,I4I,3s,. These two
States combined tSsS9 ,j.22.Pidl are SlL0nM
Isl of July, lrSt under existing laws, without
the addition of a single pensioner on the
rolls. The rich state of Illinois reports s1gt.
G4t f.6. which is in round numbers s3HwjlN
les than the amount we will have paid tC
pensioners by the end of this current fsea
year
| Mr. Chairman, IL we could make these dull
figures instinct with life. If we could trans
form them into smiling landscapes. tertIl,
fields, growing cities, loving homes-it W,
| could see them turned into the implemcnt
of industry and the herds and nocks whicl
prDlc upon our fields and bring comfort an(
Irospcriry TO our homes, and then reai2,
that these lands and homes and tocks hav,
been. So far us value is equivalent thereto
maid in instalmcnts year by yearundcr thcs,
laws which have been passed for the beneh
OF hut single class of our citizens. we nigh
form some conception of the magnitude o
these sums.
ol course do not mean to be understood a
rCrrrsruting that all the sums menfione'
have been paid to and for those who serve,
in the late war. or that there will he ptrma
ncut annual expenditure OF either SlOlHl,W
or SIiWu,UUl Part of the Sum-in itself con
siderable. hut relatively quite smOll-has bee
aud will be paid ON account of the war of Isl.
, And US the pending claims are allowed ther
will be an increase in the amount needed
' then the climacteric having been reached
there will gradual decrease. For how man
, wears aud to what extent this increase wi
continue no one can with any accuracy fore
| tell Certainly the amounts Will reach int
the hundred millions. And we may obtai
: some conception of the time this lurde
u.,l ,.st an industry nv lOOkluQ nj the ppr