The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-31
VETERANS Of THE WARS.
They Are Better Treated in the
United States Than in
England.
Such Is the Deliberate Opinion
of a London Newspaper
Correspondent.
He Compares the Pension System of the
Two Countries to the Advantage
of This.

The Glasgow correspondent Of one of the
London dailies contrasts the old soldiers
position in Great Britain and the United
States. He writes that a statement which
has been going the rounds about the good
luck of a poor inhabitant of Glasgow has
been clipped by several correspondents and
sent to him. This kind of mute appeal for
a few words of notice was, he says. very
natural considering the not too glorious
phases of military life which nave lately
occupied considerable attention. It APP
pears that the Glasgow man was i'll, out of
work and almost penniless, when some
friend of his was struck by a happy thought.
Didn't you,' he asked, Garry a rifle in
the northern army during the wal of seces-
sion?" 81 fought all through it, almost
from the beginning" was the reply. ''Then
send over your papers through the consul
TO the pension Office, or whatever it is, in
Washington, and tell them you are hard
up and would like a little help"
The advice was taken with the result that
in less than three weeks a letter was re-
ceiyed containing a postal order for a sub
stantial sum and an intimation that the
same sort of insult would be- repeated to
the tune of S25 a month so long as the ap-
plicant should live; that his widow should
draw it after his death, and that it would
be paid to the guardians of his children,
if any, when she was gone, until they had
all reached the age of 16.
considering the circumstance Of those
grand old men," says the correspondent,
'the survivors of the Balaclava charge of
the six hundred, to fifteen of whom it has
been our privilege to send a weekly postal
order for the last month or 30, a news item
of that description was just the thing to
set a fellow thinking. We have some Am
erican soldiers of superior slogging pro-
pensities at Manchester just at present,
and it struck me that a few particulars as
to how the Americans manage their pen
sion system might be interesting to our
readers. Accordingly ] wended my way to
Brooks bar snd tapped a few of the wild
westerns In Col. Cody's troupe for facts.
was amply rewarded and-I must confess it
--astouhded. Their statements. corrohor-
atop by oflclal books that l have seen at
the American consulate in Manchester,
sound Ike a romance in the ears of an Eng
ilsilinan and are OF a nature to make his
heart slnk with shame when he learns how
much our cousins across the water are
ahead OF as In this as in other matters.
hose of our readers who care to know
what sort of a mother the American eagle
Is to hsr lighting offspring may rely upon
The statements here following:
The soldier in the United States regular
army enllsts for a period of five wears and
can stay lii the service for four such terms,
or twenty yea's in all, if he likes it we'll
enough to re-enlist at the end of each such
period. For his first wear as a recruit he
receives $13 per month, for the second s14
and the pay goes ola increasing at the rate
OF ~ ler month per year until ne ia full
private on SIS per month, or an average of
something over l6s PSF week. OF this paw,