The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-12-31
Light on the Pension Question.


WASHINGTON, Dec. 25.-Appended to the
report of Pension Commissioner Raum,
which, has lust been printed, are a couple OF
tables that throw considerable light on the
question of how long the United States must
continue to pay pensions if the present laws
remain in force. One of these is a table CIV
ING the names of the twenty widows OF revo-
lutionary soldiers who still survive and draw
pensions from the government. When It Is
considered the revolutionary war ended
more than one hundred and eleven years ago
il will be seen that these ladies are open to
the suspicion of belonging to the class OF
Young women whom Representative . Neil.
of Massachusetts, recently told about, who
marry veterans on the brink Of the grave for
the express purpose OF securing their pen,
sion after death. Two of these pensioners,
Nancy Rains. of Tennessee, and Anna Maria
Young, of Pennsylvania. are put down on
the list as being one hundred years old.
They were not born until eleven years after
the close of the war in which their husbands
fought, and if the late Mr.. Rains and the late
Mr.. Young were about twenty years old
when the war closed, they afterwards mar.
ried women over thirty years younger than
themselves. The other cases are all worse
than these, for the other women are all
Younger. Most of them are below ninety,
and would thus be more than forty years
Younger than their husbands, assuming that
the latter were twenty at the close of the
war The youngest widow in the lot is Mary
Suead, of Virginia, who is but seventy-siX
years old, and was therefore not born until
1916. or thirty-fve years after the war closed,
when her future husband was tifty.iive OF
sixty years of age If she did not marry Mr..
q ii. ha h.
ing Young bridegroom of some seventy five
or eighty wears Of age at the time. If she
lives TO be as old us Anna Maria Young she
will continue to draw a pension until the
wear 1916, or 1875 years after the close of the
war in which her husband served.
\ GLOOMY PROSPECT.
Comparing the relatively small number OF
men who participated in the war of the Revo-
luton with the 2,066, 39l men whose names
were carried on the rolls of the Union army
during the late war, and it will be seen that
the pension roll will be a considerable burden
on the treasury for the next seventy-five
wears. even if there should be no more wars
in the meantime, and that at the end of a
century from the present time the last strag-
glers OF the great army of soldiers widows
will still be drawing their quarterly pensions
from the government II the war of the
Revolution can be taken as IA precedent,
there are still future hundreds of widows OF
the civil war who are being rocked in their
cradles, and widows of that war will continue
TO be born until the year 1900, those born in
the latter year being on the same basis as
Mary Snead was with regard to the Revou,
ton, and being destined to marry about the
wear 1920 veterans of seYenty-tiye or over.
PROPOSITION TO LIMIT PENSIONS.
The large number of young women who
marry gray-haired or bald headed old veter-
ans, and the prospect that these marriages
will keep up for thirty years longer, have led
Il number of Congressman to suspect that the
Young women marry the old fellows only to
get their pensions, and proposition to limit
the pensions to soldiers widows who were
actually married before or during the war
has been advocated by number of Repre-
sentatives. That the veterans themselves
will continue on the rolls in large numbers
for many years TO come is shown by the fact
that there are still 100 survivors of the war
of 1912 on the pension rolls, though that war
has been over nearly eighty years. Very few
OF the men on this roll are less than ninety
five years old. The youngest is eighty seven
and the oldest is one hundred and five. They
are thinning out very fast now, and in a few
years but very few of them will be left II
the average length of life among the veterans
Of the last war shall be as great as among
those oC the war of 1912 it will be seen that
there will still be quite a number of the old
fellows Gu the rolls in the year 1910 though
by 1915 they will have practically disap
peared The large number Of young widows
they will leave, however, can be estimated
from the fact that with the soldiers of the
war of 1872 disappearing from The rolls there
are still 6,65l widows of that war drawing
pensions. This is a striking illustration OF
the wisdom of Mr. Weler's injunction to
"heware Of the widows.