The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-04
WAR WIDOWS.
How MatrimOny SweIIs and Perpetu-
ates the Pension Roll.


ates the Pension Roll.
Washington Letter in st. Louis Globe-Dem-
ocrat.
Commissioner Evans sat at his desk the
other day figuring on pensions as they con-
Germ generations yet unborn. The Declara-
ton of Independence is 121 years old The
country is still discharging its debt of graf
itude IN the material form of pensions to-
there are no surviving soldiers of tho revo-
luton There are. however, surviving Wild
oWs. The commissioner was specializing on
what that TACT has to do with the future
of the present pension list He has now up
on his roll Of monthly recipients 9s2, 62S
names Before the end of the current year
the grand army of pensioners will pass the
l,O00,OOO mark. 1t is a fair deduction that
ninety years hence the government Of the
united States will still be paying pensions
for the civil war of 1876.
The army of George Washington was
squad compared to the 600 and more
enrolled in the North to crush secession. IT
suffered privations calculated to sap vit1l-
ity, but the widows of those patriots Of
Valley Forge are still drawing pensions
Unless the twentieth century women differ
much from the nineteenth century women
there will be roll of honor in the year
OF 1881 or quite respectable proportions.
Pensions conduce to matrfmony. A fixed
income which can be transmitted after
death as an estate has it's bearing on tho
question of marriage.
Suppose" suggested the commissioners
with his sheet of figures before him, -four
teen years to be the lowest limit of age for
OF that age would have been thfrty-eight
years old in 1900. Now the youngest of our
revolutionary widows on the pension list is
eighty-three. She was born in 1914. At Tie
date of her birth the youngest of the revo-
lutionary soldiers was fifty-two. If he mar
RED this woman when she was eighteen
he was seventy. There you have the age
conditions of matrimony not at all unreal
Sonable or unusual.
Reasoning from what has proven true re-
garding pensioners, the commissioner las
no doubt that during several years to come
girl babies will be born to the destiny of
becoming the widows of the veterans of
ten Revolutionary widows on the roll now
there may be 1000 civil war widows in 1885
This is possible without taking into account
the fact that the world is learning how to
live longer The ranks of the old soldiers
are thinning. The ranks of the old soldiers
widows are not. Nearly one-fourth of the
1888 62S names now IN the roll are widows.
To be exact, the widows ut present receive
ing pensions number -zS,522. The proportion
is increasing steadily. Soon one-third of
the pensions will go 70 the widows A few
years later the widows Will outnumber the
veterans. The time viii come when the
widows Will exceed the old soldiers in such
numerical relation as they 10 for the war
of 1872. There are seven survivors OF 1912
on the roll and there are 2S10 pensIcned
widows of that war The Indian. wars were
ts32 TO 1912. from fftyf.ve to
stxty-f1ve years ago. The peEsIoned vete1-
ans of those indian wars number 2,3s3 aud
the widows Ass. The. Mexican war widows
do not quite equal veterans. They number
S,072. while the male pensioners of that war,
fought fifty years ago, are 1922.
OF Union soldiers who participated in tho
civil war the number new penSioned is 741,.
141. Unless additional laws are passed this
number of civil wac veterans will not grow
much. The deaths are about IS, 900 a year.
The new applicants admitted to the roll
with the greatest diligence the Pension Bu-
reau can bestow, will not long maintain the
present strength of pensioned veterans. But
the widows will grow in numbers for many
years to come.