St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-03
ABoLIsHING RETIRED LISTS

ABOLIsHING RETIRED LISTSls
Congressman Bailey, of Texas. has
fathered three important bills which
are now before the committees of thee
house. and although they may be adj,
versely reported. or die in the pigeon
holes Of the committee. they should
never have been introduced. They
might properly be included in
one bill, for they are all aimed at a.
privileged class-the retired list of the
Judiciary, the army and the Maryland
contemplate their abolition. q
Something may be said against the.
system of penSioning judges and army
and naval officers. but whatever the obs
Jections to it, the justice of the practice
can hardly be questioned. When good
lawyer surrenders his place at the bar
to go upon the hehch-and only good
lawyers can hope to reach place on
the federal bench - he surrenders
all ambition of future prefer
ment. He can seldom rise high.
Ell. Tie supreme court is the
only advancement possible for him. and
the changes in that tribunal are so few
and infrequent as 10 practically exclude
it from his calculations. He receives
moderate salary, barely sufficient to
live upon in comfort and dignity. he
sees his old associates arguing cases be-
fore him with far less acumen and
knowledge than lie possesses, for which
they receive enormous fees-perhaps
many times his yearly salary. But he
has to be content. No fees are in store
for him. After twenty to thirty years
service, during which he is compelled
to maintain circumspection and as
sumption of dignity that may be repul-
sive to him.. and to forgo business vent
ures from which he might derive profit,
he is permitted to retire on pension,
which expires with his life, however,
and in his old age is left with barely
enough to live upon and without the
opportunity or the time to build up a
law practice.
And so with officers of the army and
navy. They are especially trained for
their calling, but for nothing else. A few
there are with exceptional talents, who
may be able to qualify themselves for
OtbCl n 10
thoroughly versed in civil engineering
as we'll as in the technical branches that
relate to army service. Such man can
generally procure more prohtabie
place outside the army than in it. But
these are but small fraction of the
army list. The vast majority who desire
to excel in any particular line have little
time to study civil callings, and, besides,
the traditions Of the army and the rules
of the service are opposed to such out
side study. An officer is supposed to
give his entire service to the gov
eminent, and to bend all his tal-
ents towards benefiting the coun-
try. His pay is never extravaganza,
seldom sufficient to meet the legitimate
expenses of his family. When he
reaches the age of retirement he finds
himself, in nine cases out of ten, poor
man. He has not even a home, for,
having been migratory all his life-sta-
toned first on the seaboard and then on
the frontier. first i'll one place and then
i'll another, and nowhere long-he has
been unable to procure a home. His
+ expenses have consumed his salary,
He is compelled to'quit the service, at! a
time when he is best qualified to do good
work, perhaps, and when his capacity
is at its MAXIMUM of power. If turned
adrIft by the government at his age he
would in many instances be reduced to
extremities-in some to absolute want.
Ii is no more than just that such a man
should receive from the government
which he has served faithfully all his
life comfortable subsistence in his
declining years. Norman with the in
stincts of fairness will cavil at such an
expenditure.
If officers of the judiciary, the army
and the navy have done their full. duty
up to the time of their retirement, they
are entitled to all they receive in the
way of retired pay or pensions. If they
had not done their duty they would not
have remained on the rolls as long as
they did.
There is nothing wrong with our. re-
tired list or its compensations. 1t con-
tributes to the efficiency of all branches
by relieving our judicial, naval and
military officers from harassing anxi-
cites for the future. and enables them to
devote their whole vigor to the discharge
of their duties. The retired pay they
receive is simply just compensation for
work we'll done; it is not gratuity.