Middletown transcript., 1892-03-10
A PENSION STUDY.
]. A. D. DrLwoRTn.

Pension Bureau this year. Few peo-
| pie consider the magnitude of this sum
of money or the amount Of labor neces-
sary TO produce it.
Should every man in the country
bear his proper share of the cost of
these pension disbursements, it would
mean that he would have to pay into
| the Pension Bureau about SIS annual
| ly; but it is estimated that fully one
half Of the people Of this country sue
ceed in shifting the burden Of taxation
from their own shoulders to the backs
of others. It is certain that farmers,
miners, and ordinary workmen cannot
shift their responsibilities, and it is
reasonable to conclude that this class
of men bear burden OF from twenty
five to forty dollars annually because
of the taxation growing out Of pension
legislation by Congress during the past
twenty years. The average pay Of
workmen above enumerated does not
exceed seventy-fiye cents per day.
Some of them may get more pay for the
days they work but they are often en-
forced to idleness, and in arriving at
their per diem wages their years. in
come should be divided by 300, the
number of working days In year. I
think am justified in saying of that
large class which represent majority
Of the voters Of this country, that more
than half of them earn less than $125
per year. If the average amount re-
quired from those who pay the taxes be
$50 per year, those workmen would
have to labor fully forty days each year
to pay pensions alone; and it is GER
tain that the majority of American
workmen are each compelled to labor
fully thirty days per year to meet the
expenses of a pension bureau that de-
mands $3.50, ,OOO,0
Why do they thus labor ?
That clap-trap about tour fathers
sacrifices for us' should find no favor
with an intelligent people. II the his
tory of the political world be our guide
as to the effects of the fathers political
exam Piles upon succeeding generations,
I think our conclusion must be that
the effects In most cases were bad, ex-
cept as they served to point out their
own badness. 1t will also establish
the fact that succeeding generations
have been exceedingly careless Of the
fathers sacrifices. except when partic-
ular sentiments have been illuminated
by the heroism of a few of the fathers.
Revolutions have been glorious in
their results-sometimes but If poll
Of political revolutions be carefully
taken, fancy the good ones would be
in hopeless minority.
The revolution of 1776 was one of
the good ones. Doubtless it was the
best in its results of all the great polit-
ical changes of the world yet it not
only failed to strike the shackles from
the slaves, but upon its results was
built upa thriving slave trade that
perhaps caused more Africans to be
stolen from their native homes than
were stolen by all the other nations of
the world in the same time, and it
legalized that crime.
The revolution which has just taken
place in Chilli, let US hope, will be pro-
ductive of great good. 1t now has
that appearance, but it was not occa-
stoned by anything that was done by
the Chilian people thirty years ago.
The cause Of it cannot be fastened upon
The past generations of Chilians, nor
can its achievement be credited to any
hing that occurred at that time. 1t
was the result of the indignation of
portion Of the people Of that country at
The political conduct of another
portion.
The war between the States grew
,ut of a quarrel between people who
ived few years prior to, and at the
ime of its occurrence. It was quar-
el between the Davises, the Masons,
he Slidells, the Rhetts, and the CAL
louns, on the part Of the South, and
he Greeleys, the Stewards, the Sher-
mans, the Chambers, and, the Ste |
'enses, on the part of the North. All
mite now in declaring that the Gght
vas not over the negroes. But If not,
What was 1t about I? Il
Northern apologists for that war say .
hat they fought for the integrity Of
he Union, and-for liberty. The
apologists say they fought !
or their homes, and flresides, and-for /
liberty. Liberty was fought for by Z.
10Th sides at cost Of y half million
ives. " Liberty" is exacting.
If the war was for the negro. it re-
ulted in freeing him from one master,
ut it changed his condition SO very
lightly that a visit to the cotton fields
t the South would not reveal the a
hange. He is the same half-fed, half :
lothed, untutored man that worked
hose fields thirty years ago. He may
9 able to read and write, but he exists
! poverty.
The war that grew out of these quar-
BIS between distinguished gentlemen
the North, and no less distinguished
entlemen Of the South, have appar-
ltlJ done but little for the negro.
That then did the war accomplish
gratifed the military spirit perhaps
should be termed the numbering
'irit) Of the conquerors, and it MAIN
lined the integrity of the Union.
as the maintenance of the integrity
the United States added to the op-
,rtunities of the men of this country
earn decent livingg This ques-
on is a t least debatable. and the proh.