The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-02
THE PENSION PAYMENT
NEARLY $4,000 900 TO CIRCULATE IN
INDIANA THE COMING WEEK.
Effect the Free Coinage of Silver
Would Have on Veterans Depend
ent on Government support.

Next Tuesday the local pension office
will begin the payment of quarterly PEN
sion vouchers. Al present there are 70,s76
pensioners on the roll of the Indianapolis
agency. OF this number 50, 900 are veterans
of the civil and Mexican wars. The re-
mainder are widow and dependent minors.
At this payment 81. 500. 900 will be disbursed
in Indiana. Chief Clerk Joseph Reilly says
that about 5000 pensions are paid in In
.dianapolis and Marion county. The aver
age amour paid is $l3.s7 TO each pension
er. so that nearly 5000 will come into
Indianapolis and enter int immediate
general circulation. Some few of the PEN
sioners receive as much as s72 a month,
but the great bulk of them receive less
than $50 a month. and as they are poor
men with scarcely any other source of in
come, the money is largely consumed in
paying for the necessities of life. For this
reason most of the none gets at once
into the channels of trade.
A veteran was discussing the effect the
proposed free coinage of silver would have
upon the thousands of veteran soldiers in
Indiana alone, not 10 mention the many
thousand mere residing in other States.
Many old soldiers said he, have the
mistaken idea that the government is COM
pelieQ 10 pay pensions IN gOlu. lHlS dSStT-
ton is made brazenly by some of the dema-
gogues who are trying TO deceive the OLD
soldiers into voting for Bryan. AS a mat
ter of fact all pensions are payable IN law
passed over the counter of the pension
office are drawn on the subtreasury and do
not contain a word that would lead any
one to suppose they are payable In gold.
VIVA Is lawful money!
Either silver, gold, treasury notes, bank
notes or any sort of currency now in cir
Cl1l1 tim MIGHT \ that AnX SORT OF
money now in circulation is Just as good
as any other sort. Some people think that
the Republican party intends to make
lutely false. The st. Louis platform de-
clares in favor of the present gold stand
ard 1t is the free-silver people Who are
demanding a change. Not one OF them
dares say that one kind of money is not as
good as another, but blindly demand a
change, declaring that things can grow no
worse. Any veteran can realize that he Is
asked TO try an experiment when he is
asked to vote for free silver. Why want a
change that might possibly bring about a
deprecated currency. when the present is
absolutely good?"
What would be the effect of free COIN
age on the old soldiers?"
low enough. goodness knows-to one-half
what they are. You tell me nearly $4,000
will be paid out here next week! Then
their dependent widows and orphans would
really only be worth $4,000. No one could
compel the government 10 pay pensions In
gold and the pensioners would have to
take free silver. as it is proposed to
make free silver full tender. lawful money
of the United States. 1t is a serious ques-
ton and the pensioner who draws S2 a
month should hesitate about helping to cut
down his income by half. Under such a
change as is proposed he could buy but
one-half as many provisions. one-half as
much clothing or any other necessity of
life, for the price of all necessaries Is
bound to double. Merchants have paid
gold. or money as good as gold. and to get
back value for value they must increase
the cost of their merchandise in order to
meet the decline in the actual value of
~iIvar soIrarSv