New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-11-10
UNCLE SANS PENSIONERS

UNCLE SANS PENSIONERS.
Some Curious Facts and Interesting Figures from
Pension Drawing Widows.
The annual report of the Commits
sioner OF Pensions, recently issued,
contains some interesting facts not
heretofore gwen to the public. It
shows, for instance, that the amount
paid for pensions since 1861 is over
$800,O0O,OOO, or about $500 for
every man who enlisted in the war,
whether his enlistment resulted in
death, disability. or a return in per-
feet health. If the payments 20 on
at the rate that has been made in the
last few years, the payments will
reach a round billion OF dol
lars by the close of the pres
ent decade. The amount, which in
1862 was less than 81, 100000, has
steadily increased until nowit is $685.
100000 year, and it seems as though
it might continue to increase, for the
applications filed during the past year
for pensions were $4,000. That is a
larger number than has been filed in
any year since 1880. Indeed, there
have been but five years since 1861
in which the number Of pension claims
was greater than in the past twelve
months, and in no single year in all
that time has there been greater
number of claims allowed. The num-
Der OF pensioners now on the rolls is
365,OOO-1,O 900 for every day in the
year. The amount paid out to them
is $65, 100000 or $4,000 day. If
you want to remember how many
pensioners there are and how much
they get it will be easy. There are
as many thousand pensioners as
there are days in the year, and
the amount paid to them is at the
rate of $l78,OOO a day or 81, 900 in
an hour day and night. Every time
your clock strikes the hour it means
another $1,000 paid for pensions. OF
the 100000 pensioners on the roll,
100000 are invalid soldiers, while
95, 900 are widows and dependent on
relatives of deceased soldiers. The
list of pensioners OF the late war has
not yet arrived at that state in which
the widows outnumber the soldiers
themselves. It will be by and by,
however, for that is the history of all
pension rolls, where widows OF deceas-
ed soldiers draw the pensions allowed
because of disability or death OF their
husbands from service in the war.
The history of all pension rolls is that
the widows last great deal long
er than the original pensioners.
1t is almost always the case that the
widow is five or ten years younger
than her husband and therefore out
lives him, while IN many cases it hap
pens that pensioners marry at an adj
vanced age to women very much
younger than themselves. In cases
OF this sort it sometimes happens that
the widow survives to draw pension
twenty or thirty or even fifty years
after the death of her husband, who
was originally in receipt. OF that pen
sion which she afterward draws dur
ing her lifetime. So it comes about
that when the pension list is made out
the number Of ex-soldier pensioners
upon it is not much greater than the
number OF widows, while as it grows
old the number of sx-soldiers is rapid
ly decreased by death, while the
number OF widows does not diminish
with such rapidity. For instance, in
the number OF claims allowed for pen
sioners to survivors of the war of
1912 there were over $1,000 ex-sol-
diers and 5000 widows in the year
1872, while in 1886 there were five
allowed to ex-soldiers and 3O5 to wild
ows. There are now on the rolls only
l, 500 Survivors of the war of 1912,
while there are over 1000 widows of
soldiers in that war. A still more
striking instance of the longevity of
the pension-drawing widow is found in
the fact that there are several widows
of revolutionary soldiers still drawing
pensions in this country. The most
casual reader OF history does notneed
to be informed that the Revolutionary
War ended something over a century
ago, and just how a widow of any fel-
low that eft into" that war can be
still living seems a little hard to un.
derstand, especially when it is re-
membered that even in those days q.
soldier had to be at least q dozen or
Is years OF age. Yet there is no rea-
son to doubt the commences of these
widows that so draw pensions, and .
careful calculation shows the possibil-
ity OF the pension period which has
been thus stretched out a full century.
Suppose, for instance, that Young
man who entered the army, at an
early age toward the close Of the war,
came out at the end 20 years OF age.
Suppose that he chooses to marry or
remarry at the age Of IS, as some
men have been known to do. Suppose
his bride to be Is years of ageas some
brides have been known to be. Sup
pose that she should insist on living
to the grand old age Of, say IS years,
which some people have been known
to do. By this not impossible pro-
cess the length OF the pension period
in that particular case would be
stretched out over q period of 125
years Of course this vonld be an ex-