The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1897-12-25
PENSIONS FOR ALL. L.

The passage of the eannual appropria
ton bill for pensions has not put a
stop to discussion of this great problem,
that is sapping the life blood out of the
national treasury. So burdensome has
the pension bureau became that con-
gressmen a"e beginning to realize
that unless something is done to check
the growth of the pension list, there
will be comparatively no limit to it
within the next fifty years. and that
another generation must die before the
debt to the old soldiers and their pro-
geny will be paid.
Representative Howe, of New York,
seems to be one of those who realizes
the enormity of the pension charges.
and has introduced measure that will
cure many of the existing ills. 1t is q
bill only ten lines long that repeals all
present pension laws and substitutes
provision tnat all honorably discharged
Union soldiers who are dependent up
on their own labor for support and
who are incapacibated because of disa-
bility to fully card support and who
shall make affidavit to that effect shall
receive pension of Sl2 a month. All
other Union soldiers who hold an
honorable discharge shall receive sS
month. No provision is made for
widows or children. The pension roll
under this law, although it would EN-
brace all of the soldiers who served in
the federal army. would only require
an expenditure of about one-half the
present cost of pensions. This bill
will be vigorously pushed, and it will
have the support of a large number of
soldiers who are not entitled to pen
sion under the present law. 1t will
not be fought by very large num-
Der of pensions who would receive as
much as they do now, and if those who
receive more make too prominent
fight they will arouse very urgent op
position to themselves and active sup
port of the bill from those soldiers who
are not injuriously affected. II has
long been matter of opinion of
great number of these men that the
government should be just as grateful
to one valient soldier as to another
and that the man who bore arms should
stand upon terms of equality, so far as
the material evidence of their country's
gratitude is concerned, Thu bill also
disposes of the business of all pension
attorneys. 1t likewise does away with |
the necessity fer the millions of dollars |
expended yearly in making examina-
tions, Investigations. and passing upon |
the claims, the difference between the |
two rates resting entirely upon the |
affidavit of the applicant. The saving |
to the government would amount to |
more than the deficit has ever been in
one year and four-ffths of the present
pensioners among the old soldiers !
would not be ipjuriously
affected, while about 200,0 ,0o0 veterans
who do not receive a pension now
would be entitled to one under the
provisions of the bill.
Should this bill become a law it would |
by no means correct ell evils in the
pension department, still it would be
an improvement over the present sys-
tenn, since all honorably discharged
soldiers would receive the hounties of
the government, while the widows
years after the close of the
war, and the children yet to be born
would not become government wards.
Mr.. Howe's bill granting pensions to
Ill is certainly an improvement over
the present acts governing the pen
sion bureau.