The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-30
How Many Surviving Veterans Are
There?

How Many Surviving Veterans Are
There?
In the administration Of the Pension
Bureau there has been manifested gener-
ally q disposition either to magnify tho
estimates of the number of actual surviv-
ors of the wal or to throw 80 much mystery
about the available statistics that 1t Is
very difficult to sift them and analyze them.
That is to say, the bookkeeping of the
Pension Bureau has been such as to hinder
investigation rather than to promote 1t.
That is the fact. The motives for this pol
icy Of observation are not now the subject
Of inquiry.
In a recent article upon the pension list,
printed in THE Sun of Dec. 90, a compute.
tion OF the number Of war survivors at the
present time was based upon the figures
Of the census Of 1890. The population
schedules of that census showed 1894
O73 surviving soldiers, sailors, and
marines Of the United States, liv-
ing at the date of the enumeration,
namely, June 1, 1890. With that total
as "a starting point, making reasonable
allowance for deaths in the seven years and
half which have elapsed, and the other de-
auctions necessary to an estimate, the fig
ures 727,122 were reached as representing
the probable number of survivors at the
present day; while the pension rolls show
1882 persons drawing pensions as actual
survivors of the war; with 49,, 800 more
=" survivors" on the list of applicants for
pensions.
Up to the present time the only direct
and specific attack on the competency of
this highly significant computation pro.
ceeds from the Pension Bureau. Mr.. H. T.
JOHNS, who is registered in the last Blue
Book as a Pension Office clerk of the 81 200
class. has written to the Washington Post
a letter wherein he states that he has de-.
voted to pension statistics "many months
of exhaustive study" that he is preparing
q more elaborate article on the subject, but
meanwhile desires to "hurry this state
ment into press, hoping that it will do
something to correct the impress
sions that the article of THE SUN will be
sure to %engender."
Mr.. JOHNS says that on the basis of the
census figures of 1890 the conclusions
reached by the writer of the article in THE
Sun, that the pension rolls are padded al.
most beyond belief, and that there are
more survivors" drawing pensions thar
there are survivors, are mot only sensa-
tionally startling but substantially true"
Having thus admitted that If the CEN
sus figures are right or nearly right
the startling deductions drawn from them
are inevitable, he proceeds to attack the
census figures themselves, and asks us to
accept, instead of the census enumeration
OF 1904, O73 survivors in 1890, his own
estimate of 1,355,741, alleged by him to
have been produced by "the ablest of actu.
aries and statisticians commanding all the
data in the Wal Department" Mr.. JoHNs's
denial OF the accuracy of the census total
OF 1,O34,O73 rests upon the subjoined state.
ment or misstatement:
superintendent WRIGHT. who completed az It be
even now completely that census, reported the above
figures n .034.073l to Congress. adding that the re-.
port was incomplete and therefore unreliable; that
Congress having failed to appropriate the necessary
funds. the tabulation was never finished, a very
large number or survivors not being reported in such
taouiation. " : > Here then Is a variance between
the census figures ana the substantial accuracy of
later calculations II 1855, 741l OF 32l, $685."
This gives an entirely false idea as to the
census total of 1,O34,O73. The statement
Is apparently designed to create the i'm
preston that that total covered only part
OF the whole field, and that owing to fail.
ure OF funds a great many survivors were
not tabulated and are not included in the
1,O34,O73. The fact is that this enumera.
tion covers the whole country, and is fully
tabulated by States. The war survivors
were enumerated on the regular population
schedules by the regular census takers,
Just as the total population was enumer.
ated. 1t is approximate only, precisely as
the figures of total population are an.
proximate only. The census takers missed
some war survivors, just as they missed
some men, women, and children in their
attempted count of all the people. AS a
statistical basis the total of war survivors
Is u the total of population, comprehen
sive and complete as far rs territory is con.
cerned, and inaccurate only by reason OF
incidental omissions and errors.
The twist which Mr.. JoHNs's letter man,
ages to give to the truth is rendered posi-.
BILE by the circumstance, withheld by him
In MS statement, that the special census
inquiry OF 1870, which was afterward re,
ported to Congress as incomplete and never
inlly taoulated. was another and a uhol,
dtDcrent affair. That enterprise was ar
attempt to make n detailed list of tn.
names, organizations and length of service
OF the veterans by means of a specla.
schedule; in other words, the forma
ton OF a huge directory of surviy.
ing veterans. 1t would nave filed sever
great volumes of 1000 pages each
II 1t had been completed it would hay,
served both as an application and az 1
cheek upon the enumeration made by meanl
Oh the regular population schedules. Ii
have shown that there were more thar
l'oo4 .o'3 survivors in 1900; it might hav,
served to reduce that total. We are MOI
I likely to know, inasmuch as the work o
verifcation and completion was "temno
rArily set aside. and subsequently, by AN 70,