Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-12-26
The Pension Outrage.
Comnoner

Commoner
No other department OF the gov
ernment has equaled the pension Of
flee as breeding place for scandal.
The stealings offered by it are SO large
that man has to be more than or
dinarily honest, to withstand the temp
tation. Vast fortunes are made with
in few months by those in the pen
sion ring, as witness the case OF Cor
poral Tanner who, since he was dis
missed from the position of commits
sioner, has accumulated over $25O,O
as a claim ..agent. He is but one OF
many. Innumerable human buZzards
have been lowering around this pen
sion carcass, and gorging themselves
upon its spoils. They are impudent
buzzards, and do not abstain from
their feast, even when the attention OF
the whole people is directed toward
them. They have been made fearless
by long immunity, and feel that they
can say, with their illustrious collabor-
ator in the thieving art, w. H. Van
derbilt, the public be damned.
The San Francisco Examiner, in dis
cussing the pension enormity recently,
which we deem worthy of reproduc-
tion, says:
During the late campaign the poll
ticians of this State were convulsed
with agitation over the subject of
taxes. A matter OF a million dollars a
year, more or less, seemed to them,
and to the voters, important enough
to upset the State government. And
yet they had nothing to say about the
enormous pension drain that depletes
the pockets OF the taxpayer of more
money every year than would run all
the State governments in the union
put together, with enough left over to
build a railroad from Omaha to San
Francisco. The fees of the pension
attorneys alone amount to more an
nually than the total saving that will
be made by the Republican tax limit
in California as compared with the ap-
preparations of the legislature of 1889.
We groan under the exactions of rail-
road monopolies. The money we
spend on pensions represents the in
terest on $5,OOO,OOO,OOO. For that
amount the government could buy out
every railroad in the country and
make the people for ever Independent.
The Total nominal capital invested in
railways-stock, bonds, water and
everything else-is $9,O15, ,l72 ,374, and
5000 !OOO,OOO would be ample to buy
it up. The entire amount Of dividends
paid last year on all roads in the
United States amounted to only about
$S2, ,11O,19S, or about half what we
shall be spending in pensions next
year."
This comparison can be extended
further. For one-third of our annual
pension expenditures. all the telegraph
lines in the country could be re-
produced, and two-thirds would suf-
fee to add all the telephone lines. II
pensions were not paid for one year
the government could not only dupli-
cate the telegraph lines and buy out
the telephone companies, but it would
be able to reduce letter postage to one
cent and have far more than enough
money in the treasury to make up the
deficit.
1t is twenty-five years since the civil
war ended. Every man who was en-
gagged in it has lived more than the
average term of human life. In ac-
cordance with the laws of nature
most OF those who suffered very seri-
GUS injuries in that conflict have
passed to that undiscovered country,
from whose bourn no traveller returns.
1t is safe to say that the vast majority
of those who are still living have been
and are still able to earn livelihood
for themselves, or if they are not,
their incapacity results from their
own folly and not from their service
to their country. And yet this people
is paying out an annual sum which
would have bankrupted the tabled
treasury of Cresus for their support.
How long will the people consent
without murmur or protest to
this reckless proidgality, which is
helping to impoverish themH