Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-04-28

from the Treasury no one knows.
The lowest estimates are $4,000, 1000
year, and others reach $4,000, 900.
Commissioner Black has estimated
the number of beneficiaries at nearly
$4,000, so that at s96 year the cost
for this number would not fall short
of five millions annually. The ag-
gregatc amount required, until the
death of the last person reasonable,
has been variously estimated at from
s5O,OOO,00O to s100,O0O,OOO.
What is specially noticeable is the
sweeping character of this bill. Mr..
Townshend's bill, which was passed
by the last House under Il like sus-
pension Of the rules, with only thirty
minutes of debate, made n service of
at least sixty days in the Mexican war
q prerequisite for Il pension, or else
actual participation in battle. The
present bill draws no such distinction,
and will apply to men who never left
the recruiting camp and to the widows
of such men. The Townshend bill
also limited its benefits to widows who
had been married to soldiers or sailors
prior to the discharge of the latter
from service.
The treaty of peace with Mexico
was agreed to Feb. 2, 184S. Thus
only about thirty-eight years have
elapsed since the formal close Of the
Mexican war. It's last combat took
place during the October preceding.
Nobody knows how many Mexican
war veterans out of the round hun
dred thousand of enlistments and re-
enlistmcnts will appear to claim n
pension under this bill; but accepted
recruits are, rs rule, stalwart youth,
and it was with this fact in view that
the Pension Office once estimated
at 500, 100000 the cost Of like bill |
applied to the Mexican and TO yari-
Gus prior Indian wars.
The precedent set up is the pension
ing Of the survivors Of the war of
of 1912. But they were not pension
ed for service only until 1871, or fiji
ty-six years after its close, and were
then required to give evidence Of SIX
ty days service. The present bill
comes at the end of thirty-eight years,
and does not require ten days service.
1t will be remembered, too, what an
extraordinary number of surviving
widows came forward for and receiv-
ed pensions under the law Of 1871.
The number presenting their claims
under the present much more loosely
drawn Mexican bill would be more
This bill will Of course have to run
the gauntlet Of the Senate. The
Townshend bill was amended by that
body SO as to apply only to soldiers,
sailors, or widows who were or should
become 90 years of age, or else were
subject to a pensionable disability.
On the other hand, the time of SER
vice required was reduced to fourteen
lays in Mexico or to service on the
Mexican coasts or frontier or Oh the
way thither. The Senate practically
killed that bill by attaching to it the
amendment Of Mr.. Cullom relating to
Tho pensioning Of dependent veterans
IF the civil war.
Whether these or other Senate
will again defeat the
Mexican pension scheme cannot be
oretold. The excessive anxiety Of
he Forty-ninth Congress to heap pen
ion burdens on the country may
cause it to be cautious about getting
nto any fatal dispute over this meas
Ire. Besides, it is possible that the
Jullom bill can easily be passed by
his Congress as an independent meas
Ire, since il is supposed to only call
or s50,O0O,0OO a year,
The one thing certain is, that this
Mexican Pension bill, if passed, will
reate a precedent that promises to
bankrupt the Treasury and bring
Jack the war taxes. The moment it
becomes law an cutlery will be rails
d against giving to the soldiers of
he Mexican war privileges and bene-
It's denied to the Union veterans of
he civil war. The movement for
making simple service in the Union !,
rmy tho ground for Il iffe pension
1ill become irresistible; and it is not :
iffcult to say where that will land
he national fnances.--N. Y. Sun.