The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-09-10
PENSIONS AGAIN.
A Threatened Extension Of the
Pension Roll Involves Millions
of the Peoples Money.

The Philadelphia Record of recent
date says:
The New York .Sas calls attention
to the fact that the disbursements IN
der our pension laws have consumed
nine-tenths Of the entire revenue taken
in recent years at our custom houses,
or IS per cent. Of the internal revenue.
The Journal Of Commerce, noting the
leaps aud bounds of our pension ex-
penditures upward under the Arrears
OF Pension law ia 1879 and the Depend
ent Pension law Of 1890, observes that
If the maximum came in 1893 the de-
cline is not constant. II might fairly
predict that, so far from being constant,
there is now a threatened advance TO
sums surprising anything heretofore
known. In 1896 the average paid to
each pensioner was sl55.54. AT the
close Of the fiscal year ended June 30th,
1897, the pension roll had increased,
over all deaths aud cancelled pensions,
Il, $50. for which demand the sum Of
&, 9l3, 929 must be disbursed this year
over that Of last.
This process Of extending the pen
sion roll is still going furiously on, and
an iusensate disposition i manifested
not TO purge the lists nor TO tighten the
burden but to find pretexis TO increase
IL. Associated Press dispatches, which
in such matters are fairly reliable, have
recently stated that the new Commits
sioner of Pensions has resolved 10
recognize the eligibility OF Confederate
soldiers who deserted ana ENLISTED in
theUniOn army. The list Of these must
be considerable; for In the border
Z States there were thousands y no were
\ conscripted by the Confederate Gov
/ eminent. who when their localities
fell into Federal control regained their
liberty aud recruited the Union forces.
There may be Injustice il tie former
exclusion of these men from the bene-
fits common 10 FEDERAL soldier; but
this pariislity it ought not 10 BE in the
power Of the Commissioner To cure. Ii
should be done explicitly by law OF
Congress. This making haste to eX-
pand the pension list at time when
our revenues are still inadequate and
disordered, and when no one can tell
what they will be under the present
tariff law, is simply Characteristic OF
the greedy pension bureau at all times.
sion applications filed that had not
been adjudicated. Using actuaries'
tables to discover how many survivors
of the war there should be forty years
after peace and the Government ratio
Of widows on the pension rolls, there
were last year 74S, 334 persons still alive
and entitled to apply for pensions who
had not done so. This makes no &C.
count Of those who are annually re-
stored to the pension rolls after once
being dropped. During the last fiscal
year there were nearly 1000 of these
On this subject The Register, of Col.
umbia, S. C.. says with fraterna ap.
peal TO Union soldiers that has Just
and great significance:
Far better would it have been tc
exact a war indemnity, which once
paid, would have been settled for al
time, than to force the Southern State:
to pay year after year increasing mil
lions TO keep alive host Of impostor:
who have no shadow of Claim
on the bounty of the Government
The old veteran in blue has 6
duty to perform toward the old veteran
in gray, and he should be alive to thi:
important fact. Let him purge the
pension list of bummers aud pretend
ers, and thus reduce the expense of the
Government in this respect one..hird
or one-half. His old foe will, at least
have this much to thank him for, and
the two will be drawn much nearer
together.
If there be one thing more than an.
other that exhibits the complete loyalty
Of tine South it is the accomplishing
and silent way it has borne this wal
mulct, when its own soldiers can have
no part in it, and are an extra burden
on the pension rolls of the old Confed-
/ crate States, and still bears it more than
/ thirty years after the surrender Of its
armies. They comprise one-fourth OF
/ the people of the United States, and
! they may well maintain that the war
/ is not ended so long as an annual tax
of S30, 000,0 900 is extorted from them to
/ pay claims incident to their subjuga-
/ ton. Yet no one really objects to a
/ genuine and adequate protection from
penury of those who fought for the
/ Union. 1t is extravaganza, imposition
and the degradation of patriotism that
l is offensive.
The truth is that the whole subject
ought to be put into the hands of a
competent commission to elaborate a
plan of pensions good for all time. as is
virtually done in the British service.
Probably little objection would be
made to such commission formed out
Of regular and volunteer army officers.
AT present there is no system, except
such as has grown out of a reckless