Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-06-20
The SURPLUS.
The Republican Plan OF Reducing 1t by
Granting Pensions to Amy and All Who
Apply.

The Republican Plan of Reducing 1t by
Granting Pensions to Any and All Who
Apply.
This should be the title Of a work written
TO Illustrate the economic notions that DOM
mate the American house Of moneybags. 1t
would make large volume. Naturally, an
Introductory chapter would be given to ex-
planning why the surplus revenue ought TO
be got out OF the Treasury without stopping
the channels by which it flows in. Stopping
those channels would mean a reduction of
tariff taxation, and that would mean di-
mlaution of the unearned gains of the
monopolist gentry. Though the public rev.
enues may greatly exceed the needs Of Gov
ernment, the revenues of the monopoly
pigs are not greater than they desire; there
fore, public taxation must not be reduced
StIll, says the Chicago Globe, it is an ardent
wish of every tarlff-fed monopolist that the
accumulated surplus shall be got out of the
Treasury; because the more it accumulates
and the longer it remains there, the greater
is the menace of radical change of tariff
laws that cm6ody the policy of taking from
the Tuany that which they have labored for,
and giving 1t to the few who have not earned
it.
Among the countless devices of monop-
olyism to consume the surplus, one of the
giving. But some of the numberless special
pension grants (all of which appear TO
originate in the Senate, but slide through
the House without any perceptible obstruc-
tom, arc even better manifestations of the
sensational idea OF "a legitimate appropria-
ton Of other mems earnings.
Some sample cases are found in the bud
get OF vetocs which came down from the
Executive the other day. One was an act
granting pension TO Anna MertZ widow
OF Charles \. Mertz, who served in the
army thirteen months and resigned his
commission of Captain on account of i'm
paired health He was subject to attacks OF
catarrhal pains, which he attributed to his
army service; but he never applied for a
pension. Twenty-one years after his dis
charge FROM the army he died from an over
dose OF morphine, self administered for the
purpose, it is claimed, of alleviating pain.
And, four years afterward, monopoly
craftsmanship sets up the theory that hls
death was so related to his military service
as TO entlue his widow TO pension
Anot her was an act of granting a pension
to David a. Servis, who served as An en-
listed soldier almost three years. He sus-
tained no personal injury of any kind in the
service. Four months after his enlistment,
a comrade put powder in Servis' pipe and
covered 1t with tobacco; the powder ex-
ploded and injured his eyes but not seri-
ously, because he served two and half
years aiterward and no notice was taken of
that stupid joke. More than twenty-five
years aiterward he applied for pension,
and monOpolyism discovered instantly that
the hurt to his eyes by the pipe Joke was a
result Of military servicel
An act TO pension one Elisha Griswold is
yet more extraordinary. The applicant
served as private two years, part of the
time as prisoner, for some transgressiou
of army regulations. While i'm prison he
fell from swing erected by himself and
other prisoners " Tor pastime and exercise"
and struck the ground with his head, doing
no damage 10 either so far as the records
show.
Noproof Of any injury was submitted, but
monopolyism assumes that he was injured
"whiic engaged in rccrcation,n and that
" such recreation IS necessary part OF a
soldiers lifep' The assumption stops too
short. The conditions require that it in
clude being in prison for insubordination as
a necessary part of a soldiers life" The
applicant seems to have disccrned this fault
IN his case, because, after the bill had been
introduced, he hled another application, al
leSing that he contracted .idiarrhea and
raarial poisoning" in the service. The
wisdom of the Senate preferred the 'neces-
sary recreation" theory, however, and
voted to grant pension on ground which
the applicant himself deemed worthless.
The course Of the Senate in the special
pension grab business has been simply scan
dalous; but what scandalous device will not
the pig-sprit of mohopoly employ 10 pre-
serve us license to prey upon the earnings
of othersi