Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-24
PENSION NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

PENSION MISREPRESENTATIO
There is an immense amount OF special
pleading in connection with the discussion
of the pension lists. As THE DISPATCH
said the other day, it is perfectly proper
to examine the pension lists and to purge
them of any fraudulent cases, where PEN
sions have been obtained by persons not
entitled to them under an honest construc-
ton of the law. To fly into transport
at this proposition with the cry of attack
ing the veterans" is to assert that the
veterans are interested in fraudulent PEN
siOns. This is gross Misrepresentation.
the pension roll roll of honor by keep
ing it clear of any frauds or dishonest
pensions. No party can afford to stand
on the platform that dishonesty shall not
be exposed Yet this is exactly what
some lncansiderate partisans are doing in
raising the cry against the proposition to
investigate the pension lists.
1t would not be surprising if there was
considerable number of names on the
pension lists not justly entitled to the
Government bounty. It would be sur
prlsing, all things considered, if there
were not such cases. But the idea started
by our cotemporary, thu New York Sun,
that an immense and comprehensive fraud
is exposed by the fact that the total of the
pension lists is 100000 greater than the
total ''present for duty on May 1, 1865, is
a special plea more misleading than the
one on the other side. Yet it has super
fetal effect that requires explanation.
The 'present for duty" in the ar my re-
turns is the number of men actually pres
ent with their organization on that day.
1t does not include men detached to serve
at headquarters or in any of the depart
ments, for any of the multifarious duties
that take soldiers or officers away from
their companies 1t excludes men on
furlough, men in the hospital and men
under arrest The real significance of
this total is shown by the fact that on May
1, 1864, the War Department figured
127,4 as the aggregate present" of the
Army of the Potomac, while total enroll
ment would be much larger; but the total
of ''present for duty" or effective strength
was 81, ,273
The men who were detached at the time
these returns were made may six months
previous have been present for service,
while others were detached, absent on
furlough or in hospitals. All the men on
the rolls would at one time or another be
engaged in real service; but after they
got into the field there would never be a
time when all would be present for duty
together.
There are two facts which make this
total, taken from the returns of May 1,
1865, peculiarly misleading as applied to
pension matters. The first is that it in
cludes only the men who were sound and
able for duty after the fighting was over.
It Includes no one who was disabled by
wounds, no one who had before that date
been sent home on account of disease. 1t
covers by reason of the close of the war
less proportion of men doing detached
service; so that the difference between
the ''present for duty and the total en-
rollment, at that date, affords some
measure of the number of men on the
rolls then in whose cases pensions
were manifestly proper. But it
does not cover the second fact
that the immense difference between
the enrolment at the close of the war, or
1000, SIG, and the total enlistments during
the war, 1866, 999, includes the vast ma
jority of the cases on which pensions are
founded to-day. None of the soldiers
who had been discharged on account of
wounds during the entire war were either
present for duty or borne on the rolls at
May 1, 1865; none of the widows or de-
pendent parents of men killed in battle
or dead by disease during the war were
present or on the rolls at that date. None
of those who after three years honorable
service declined to re-enlist, and subSe-
quently developed serious dis lbility, were
there. In short, this total of May 1, 1866,
is distinctly separate from the vast total
of dead, wounded, diseased and missing
men, caused by the three years conflict
out of total of 100000 enlistments.
As we have said, it is quite possible that
there may be those on the pension lists
who have no business there; but it is ab-
solutely certain that the 797, ,SO7 hale and
whole men who were present for duty af -er
the war was all over have no possible rUla-
tion to the number of possible pensioners.