Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-21

LANCASTER, PA. July 81, 1890.
Wanfed-Morc Pensions.

In the fiscal year 1SSl-So, the govern
ment expended for pensions $50, l02, 2s7,
about one-fifth of the total cost Of gov
ernment, including interest on the
I national debt. The expenditures for
pensions for the year ending June Soth,
as now officially stated, amounts to
( e109, ,s57,534. Thus, in five years, 1t has
nearly doubledtbe pensioners costing
the government one-third, instead of
one-fifth Of its annual expenditures.
Besides this our little army aud navy
cost between fifty-five and sixty millions
annually, while the German army, ,num-
herring millions, and perhaps "the finest
on the planet" Is estimated to cost for
the present year only sol, 726, ,2a3.
Last year the governor Of Illinois, ad-
dressing the Illinois department of the
Grand Army, said: "If the government
paid million dollars daily for pensions,
the nation as nation would he just as
rich mt the end of the year as it was
4 before, as the money would still he in
the hands of our own people" Com
menting upon this demagogue's drivel--
the silliest that ever leaked from an
soldier for the Union and lifelong Re.
publican, remarks, in the PopuiU
Science Monthly. "To take million dol
lars n day from industry and bestow il
upon idleness is patriotic form OF
dragoonade much recommended by poll.
I ticians like the governor of Illinois. The
nation IA nation is not injured by IL
hsa tp In, hn hnn Ia &C
own people. II is merely taken out OF
the hands that earned il and put into
other hands to spend it,"
4 The soldiers that marched in grand
review before the president in 1865 were
not an army of weak, diseased and en-,
feebled invalids, but brawny veterans,
full of health, strength and lusty life
Yet 10 dcbasing has the pension system
proven; II We can believe the official tes
timony Of the commissioner of pensions
that these men, honest patriots as they
were then, have become corrupt per.
jureS by the thousands. For over q
million pension claims have been filed
since 1861 each of which has been
sworn to many times in the same period
many more than half million have
been allowed aud of these, mere than
. quarter of "A million are the claims OF
old soldiers. Such showing make the
English pension list, which all honest
Englishmen have looked upon for years
as q national disgrace, appear in com.
parison mean, parsimonious, even mig
gsrdly.
1t Is due to the honest veterans of the
great war, the battle-scarred heroes or n
hundred battles---it is due to .tlieir own
honor and just fame--tu check this In
famous raid upon the public treasury
Why do they not rise up AS one man
and demand n halt? Alas, they know
only too well that there are many
modest and deserving invaIids and pool
sc.aieTsf widows, who really deserve
government aid, aud that while thou.
sands of brazen-faced perlurers have re.
ceivcd pensions, these have not. Be
sides this they urge, and truly, that the
best and most deserving among the In.
valid veterans are too proud to ask fol
aims even from the government whose
life they offered up their own to save
let the government, therefore, bestow 1t
They favor general pension law, al.
though none feels more than they the
base uses to which such law, in the
light of past experience, will be put.
The whole history of the system forms
sad commentary upon the morality OF
the people.