The Springdale news., 1889-09-27
European and American Pensions.

I The Republic showed that our mll- itary expenses, including pensions and excluding the navy. will be greater for 1889 than the similar expenses of any country in Europe last year. While thls illustrated the ruinous nature of the Pretorian policy, an illustration even more foreibIe is to be derlved from q comparison of our military expen- ses with those of Europe. Anyone who will examine the subject will be surprised to find that in several European countries, maintaining large standing armles, pension eA- peoses are so small that they are not itemized in the budgets, but are cassed either under miscellane- ous or under the general expenses of the army. The following table from the English budget for 1888 gives a complete view of the expen- SC of the mon effective services" Rewards for military ser Nlce..... o4,VJ Pay of general officers ..... 3S0,000 Pay of reduced and retired
 officers .............. 6,1G2, ,5O0
 passionate allowances Bss. 900 Pensions for wounds. ..... 900 In-pensons. ns.............. l67 coo Out pensions ............. 6,76l 300 Superannudtlon allow an-
 ces, etc. c.................. 9l6, ,500 Militia and volunteer corps
 total expensel ............. 235, 300
 Total effective service S15, ,44l 900 It will be seen from the above exhibit that our pensions this year will cost seven times as much as the entire cost of the British "non- effective service" though that in- cludcs not only the pensions of veterans and their heirs, but all ex- pense on the army account not charqeable to maintaining effective soldiers III the field. The point here is made palmer by the fact that the total English =appropria ton Tn the budget of 1888 for "et- feotive and non- effective service" is 9ls, 900, ,0O0 or s90, 900, ,000-sI0,- 000,000 less for the entire military account than the Harrison ,dminis- tration expects to spend this year for pensions alone.
 The total estimate for pensions in the budget of the German empire for the year ending March 3l, is 2S;000,000 marks or about S5,600,- 900 for an army, mobiliZable to a strength of 2,65O,000 trained sol diers.
 Not finding pensions itemlZed Tn the budgets of other countries m the reference volumes of our library we instructed our correspondent Tn Washington to consult the Library of Congress. His reports was as follows:
 Librarian Spofford informs me that in 1880 the following were the amounts of military pensions paid annually Ill the countries named.
 Great Britlan. an.............. Sl2 ,195.6S France. ................... l2 ,ooo,ooO | i GerfnailY. ................. f,Zoo,oo1 Austria Hungary. y.......... b2l ,ol0
 lie was unable to acertaln anything about pensions in Russia, Italy, Spain or Sweden. It is hls belief that the an nual amounts are much jess now as there have been no wars since then. He made special inquiry at the time and vouches for the correctness of his fig les. The figures I give represent American dollors and not pounds.
 1t appear from this that We will pay in pensions tLis year more than three times and nearly four times as much as the total paid by five leading countries of Europe, includ- ing France and Germany, immedi- ately after the France-Prussian war.
 In no other country in the world, not even in the worst despotisms, would the people tolerate such shameless extravaganza as the po- liticians of thls country have indulg- ed inthrongh their use of the public money to buy votes through grants of pensions. We are well within bounds in saying that oar annual expense for pensions is in excess of the pepslon expense ofal Europe. This is the work of the q. A. k. Instead of beiug satisfied, it's Prttorlanism has grown with what it fed on. It now demands that the tribute he dnuhled- then trip led. The Russian Czar would not dare to make such oemands-not