Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1891-09-18
FOR PENSION REFORM.

The reaction against the scandalous
pension frauds which the REGISTER
has been predicting for the past year is
coming.
That monstrous humbug, our pen
sion system, has by successive steps
reached its zenith, and now that the
country has been awakened to the
danger OF the thing there is every
reason to believe that a revision OF
the laws and a sitting OF the fraud
will result in righting much of the
wrong inflicted upon the people by
INSCRIPTIONS agents, dishonest pen
sioners and cowardly Congresses.
There has just been formed in
Washington a society OF Union vet
Grams that proposes to take active
steps to uncover and prevent frauds
upon the government through the
pension office. This society, accord
ing to the New York Sun, takes the
ground that fully one-third OF the
600, 900 pensioners are drawing money
to which they are not entitled; that
another third Of the 600, 900 pensioners
are not in need of Government
charity; and that the remaining
100000 pensioners, comprising the
meritorious class, get less in pensions
than they really deserve.
The work Of this society will meet
with the approval Of all patriotic peo-
pie. The evil has assumed most dan
gerous proportions-it will bankrupt
the nation if it is allowed to go on I'M
checked. The plain truth must be
told. Men who have gotten pensions
through false swearing must be e1-
posed. Chronic laziness must not be
rewarded because it is called by some
other name. Veterans" who never
smelled gunpowder, or who never car
ried gun, must not be quartered
upon the government in defense OF
which they never lifted finger.
How this work Of reform is to be
done is a matter for the next Congress
to decide. But it must be done. Ev-
cry pensioner should be examined and
every case investigated according to
common sense business methods, and
the pension bureau should be placed
i'll charge of capable, honest, courage
l.. Il thnir DIT wit h
out fear or favor.
The pension scandal, says the Sun,
has grown to its present magnitude
by successive steps, and through the
reluctance of the makers Of the laws
and the newspaper press to assume
an attitude seemingly hostile to the
inst claims Of the nations defenders.
In consequence, the pension e1pendl-
lures Of the Government have gradual
ly increased to an annual aggregate
which threatens to bankrupt the
national Treasury. Seven years after
the end of the war the list Of pen
sioners had mounted to nearly a
quarter of million, and the annual
disbursement for pensions was $780,
600, 900. At that time Gen. Garfield, a
Republican veteran of the war and a
Republican member of Congress, de-
clared in the House OF Representa-
tives that the maximum was already
reached. I'VE may reasonably eI-
pect," said Gen Garfield, that the
expenditures for pensions will here
after steadily decrease, unless our tegis-
lation should be unUGrrdntable ertrara
CANT" Almost twenty years have
passed since then. The list Of pen
sioners has grown from 232, 229 to about
800, 900; while Gen. Raum, the Com
missioner of Pensions, has recently
boosted that his bureau is disposing
OF new claims at the rate 100000 a
year. At the same time the annual
expenditure has swollen from the
$50, 900, 900 which Garfield regarded
as the high water mark, to 1926, 900,
900 a year, with schemes pending
which will carry it up to $500, 900, 600
or more, thrice the annual Govern
ment expenditure for all purposes in
the years immediately preceding the
civil war.
In the light OF all these facts, pen
sion reform Is coming none too soon.
Let the people see to it that the re-
form shall be thorough, no matter
who is hurt