The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1886-11-20
What We Pay in Pensions.

III IulI from bne 1ONeTuulellJ TINT
ing Office.
Much was said while ago of
the Presidents yetoes of private
pension bills. Every disapproved
bill of this sort, even if three lines
long, brought out an elaborate
argumentative message; and all
these messages were successfully
taken up IN the press and extolled
from one end of the country to the
other, as no doubt they deserved to
be. Yet what the real upshot of
the whole business was is indicat-
ed in this passage of Commission
er Blacks report:
From Jan. l, 1861, until Dec.
|, 1886 1867 private pension acts
had BEEN approved. Since that
date GA such acts have been APP
proved, and certificates issued in
nearly every case, the delay in
some cases being due to the ne
cessity of medical examination in
cases where the rate is not fixed
in the special laws" .
&c this statement be correct, it
appears to show that death blow
has at last been delivered by the
President to the practice of pri-
vate pension legislation, during
the single session of Congress
thus far held under his Admins
tration he approved of or suffered to
be enacted the enormous number
of GA such private acts, or one
third as many as the aggregate of
all the sessions of all the proceed
ing Congress during the last quar-
ter of a century, including all the
period since the January prior to
the civil war.
The next striking point in this
interesting and important report
is contained in Table X. of the
appended statistics. This/ table,
which sets forth the number of
certificates for pensions ISSUED
during the year, shows that, under
the act of March 10, 1886, alone,
there had been issued, prior to
June 80, no fewer than 1889
certificates. The act was the one
approved by the President that
day, for adding fifty per cent to
the yearly cost of each of a GER
tain class of pensions. The in
crease of each of these pensions
henceforth is to be S46 a year. In
round numbers, as has been seen,
$4,000 such increases had already
been affected up to June 80, max
ing a total addition thus far of
nearly four millions to the PEN
sion outlay, this addition being
repeated every year. The exact
annual addition under this par
ticular pension gratuity cannot be
known until decisions are had up
on all the pending applications for
pensions of this class. But, TAX
ing together this legislation and
similar Legislation in various 9TH
er classes of cases effected at the
late session of Congress and APP
proved by the President, We find
that the increase in annual values
of pensions for the year has al
ready been $6,6l7,04l, so that the
eventual increase under the APP
proved Legislation of that Con-
gress will probably be eight mil
lions a year. The aggregate ex-
pense put upon the country by
these increase acts of the present
Congress as approved by the
President will be, under ordinary
longevity calculations, somewhere
between $75,000,000 and 100000
/ 900.
The necessity of not making too
narrow allowances for Pension
longevity is illustrated by the fact
that at the beginning of the fiscal
year now reported upon, nearly
10000 persons we're drawing pen
sions either as survivors of the
war of 1912 or as widows of sold
iers and sailors of that war which
had then been ended just seventy
years. During the year there was
a great mortality among these per-
SONS, but at its close 1897 of the
widows were still drawing pen
sions.
| M e. 1911 FL. e H.