Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-01-02

| ioilOW1Hg statement, covering nara
dozen fiscal years, beginning with tn
cne for which Gen. Garfield brough
in his bill:
Yeas No. Pensioners, Djsburssmen:s IN
M MIS55 .:.:.::. sss's5I a. s5s,,z3s
| 1876. 232, 1871 IS, 3jl 599
| lS77....-... 234, I0i 2S, $50. l57
| 1878. .......-... 223 ,99S 26, ,S1l ,4I5
| The operation of natural laws wouit
have continued this decreasing ratio
until by the present time the number
of pensioners should have fail n below
200, 200, and the annual disbursements
| on their account should not have eX-
ceeded $4,000, 900. Undoubtedly Gen
Garfield in 1871 expected as marked q
decrease as this by 1889. Undoubtedly
too, it whould have occurred but fOI
| the "un warranty eXtravagant legisla-
| ton" regarding pensions which he
mentioned as the only cause that could
prevent it.
Instead, however, CT such a modest
sum as S2o 600, 900 year sufficing, the
Secretary of the Treasury reports that
the amount expended for pensions dur
Ing the year ending June 80. 1889, was
the enormous total Of S95, ,624 ,779; that
the expenditures for the fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1890, will reach $97 ,75S. 700;
and that the estimates for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1891, demand nc
less than SOS, SIS, ,252. From The S34,-
443, o94 during the fiscal year ending
Juue so, 1871, which Gen. Garfield
properly regarded as the high " ater
mark for pension appropriations, tt e
total has leaped to almost q round
hunGired million dollars for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1S91-twenty
years later.
The "eXtravagont legislation" which
has produced this phenomenal result
began with the passage Of the Arrears
Act in January, 1879. The pension roll
Immediately showed the effect. Claims
began to pour in at "an unprecedented
rate" Beior the passage Of the act
they had averaged only 1897 per
month; after its passage the average
soon reached 10, 300 per month, while
tens of thousands of old claims were
revived and often pressed through to
success. After only five months oper-
alton tie number of pension, rs had
grown from Do, ,99S to 242, 755, and the
Disbursements had risen from S26, ,S44,- :
4l5 to S333, $50 ,526, while by 1850 the ex-
pendltures had jumped to S57 240 $40.
Every premium was offered upon de-
ception and fraud. ard in almost every
community throughout the North
were perpetrated outrages upon justice
hardly less flagrant than that exposed
in August, 1856, by Montpelier cor
respondent OF the Boston journal, who
told how Mrs. Almira II. Farrar of
Waterbury, VT, had Just received the
sum of 81 125 in cash as arrears, and
the assurance of SIS month as long
a TO a
pendent mother, on the ground that
her son, who enlisted in the army iu
April, 1867, and was killed in Gettys-
burg in July, 1868, was her only sup
port, although the facts were that,
when the soldier son died Mrs. Ffrrar's
husband and three other sons were
alive, that the family lived on good
farm well stocked with horses and cat
tie, and that these other sons " ere still
alive and able to support the mother.
The era of "eXtravagant legislation'
inaugurated by the passage Of the Ar
rears Act, continued without check
until President Cleveland in February,
1883, vetoed the Dependent Pension
Bill. This measure proposed to put on
the rolls at ST. per month every man
who served in the army, even though
for no longer than ninety days, and
who now claims to te unable to earn
living, without reference to how the
alleged disability was incurred. 1t
would be hard to frame measure
more certain to ster decentralization
and to invite fraud. It's inevitable re-
suit would have been to tempt every
man who ever had had any connect on
with the army to claim that he could
not support himself, and in the light
of Ia of nd of no III
dent Pension Bill" passed for the sol
diers of the Revolutionary War. in
1918, it is altogether probable that the
passage Of such a bill would speedily
double the immense amount now paid
for pensions. When one reflects that
the detailed estimat tes of she Chairman II
of the Committee on Revolutionary
Pensions, and contemplated an addi-
ton to the roll of only 374 names and
to the account of only $40 900, and that
within two years applications were re-
ceived from 2S 800 persons, and the
appropriations demanded rose to 81
7G6 400, it is only fair to expect that
the passage of Dependent Pension
Act in 1890 would aid one hundred
millions more to pension bill which
already almost reaches one hundred
millions annually
President harrison recommends the
passage Of this pipce OF "extravagant
/ gislation." Congress should disre-
gard the recommendation. Every
Democratic Senator and Representive
should vote against such bill, and
it may be hoped that enough Repuhli-
cans will be found ready to jim the
minority 10 defeat it. Such Republi-
cans need have no fear Of lacking sup
port in their own party. President
CIeveland's veto received no warmer
praise than was givenit by Repu blicad
newspapers. Said the Philadelphia
Press: The pension business has been
overdone. The Presidents veto. be-
ing sanctioned by the country, will
probably operate as check on this
form of extravagance, and prove in
consequence a great public service