The National tribune., 1897-08-05
GENERAL BENEFIT OF PENSIONS.

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the enormous economical benefits to the
country of large pension payments.
These benefits are so decided, so pal
pable, so widespread they form strong
economic and business reason why the
Government should pursue policy Of
honesty, liberality, and justice toward
those to whom it owes everything.
Money is the life-blood of the body
polite 1t is as absolutely necessary
for that public health which we call
prosperity that it be kept in active cir
culation, as it is necessary that the blood
of the human body be kept in constant
motion. The most dangerous thing to
the general veal is a congestion or stag
nation of the currency of the people.
The most effective safeguard against
this of recent years has been the annual
distribution of S140,0O0000 directly to
the pensioners scattered in every Town
ship and settlement in this broad
land. There can be no doubt in the
mind of any thinking man that this
greatly ameliorated the distressing con-
ditions Of the past four years, and that
the hard times would have been incom-
parably more grievous but for this
amelioration.
1t is so easy to see this if one only
wants to. Unlike any other payments
by the Government, pensions are only
paid out in small sums to each indi-
vidual. Unlike other payments, again,
they are not confined to some limited
locality, but are distributed with re-
markable evenness and impartiality
over every square mile under the
shadow of the Flag. Other payments
from the Treasury are capitalists money.
They go in large sums to banks and
corporations. They are boarded in
Golfers and vaults and become part Of
the enginery of the Money Power.
Not so the payments to pensioners.
They are emphatically and wholly the
peoples money. They go directly into
the pockets of the whole people.
If we could trace the course of a
single small pension check, we should
see that it does at once a benefcent
work exceeding that of a thousand times
its amount lying in the vaults Of bank.
Let US imagine a pension check for
800 sent to Comrade Brown, in some
little village in Nebraska. Its arrival
has long been anxiously awaited, and
the use which will be made of every
dollar has been carefully planned. So
much must go for medicines, so much
for rent, so much for needed clothes for
self and wife, so much for food, SO much
to repay small loans made to tide over
until its arrival. The hour that it is
cashed it enters into active circulation
in the community and helps stir the
wheels of business. Ten dollars 60 to the
patient, kind doctor, as partial
payment for his ungrudging services.
The doctor pays it to the farmer who
has been bringing him oats and hay
the farmer pays it to the man who has
helped him in the harvest field; the
man pays it to the clothing merchant
for a suit Of clothes; the clothing
merchant pays it to the smith for repair
ing his wagon; the smith pays off an
iron bill at the hardware store. 1t helps
the hardware man pay his debt to the
wholesaler. So it is with every other
dollar of that 500. Within a month
after the receipt of that check ii may
have paid off S1,000-yes, s10,000-of
the Indebtedness Of the people of that
little settlement. Everybody has re-
ceived some benefit from it. 1t has
| quickened the pulses of business. 1t
has given life and encouragement to
every man through whose hands por-
ton of it has passed.
What is true Of the 500 check is
equally true of the larger and smaller
ones in exact proportion. Each of them,
big or little, carries the same stirring,
leayening impulse into the community
whittier il goes every three months.
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