The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-29
A VETERAN ON PENSIONS
HISTORIAN OF 10TH MASS. INEAN- TRY GIVES EMPHASIZING FIG URES.

The Widow Gets More Than Her Share of the Government Bounty-Real "War Widows" Scarce and Their Successors Reap the Rich Harvest of Others-Start- ling Facts Givon by Experts.
 From the Springfield Republican, In 1886 first came recognition of the widows of the Revolution. But they were not pensionable unless they were, or had been, real war-widows, welded to their soldier husbands before the eX- piration of the last period of their ser vice. That act did not require that they should be dependent, or that their husbands had been pensioned, or died from wounds or disease of service ori- gin. All they had to do was to show that their soldier-husbands had served as required, and that they were, or had been, the widows of such soldiers. If widow had remarked and on July 4, 1886, was again widow, that re-mar- riage was condoned, and as a genuine warIWidow, who had endured the pri- vations of the war with her husband, borne and reared his children, kept his family together while he was in the field. and ministered to him during sickness and wounds. all the rights and emoluments of her husband reverted to her; but great care was taken that she should not receive more of benefactions than would her husband, had his life been spared.
 On February 3, 1858. seventy-hve years after the final termination of the x,,I,Oy ,AOf ,1Sf have averaged over ninety years of age, the Limitations as to date of mar riage were removed. Congress seemed to think that 1t was a patriotic act to offer special inducements to younger women that they should receive pen- sions for life on condition that they would marry and care for the survi- vers of the Revolution. But it should be kept in mind that until 1853 no wo- man could obtain a pensionable status by her marriage with Continental sol dier unless 1t had occurred prior to January 1, 1900.
 February IA, 1871, fifty-six years af- ter the close of the war of 1872, when the survivors thereof must have av eraged eghty-one years of age or twenty-two years at enlistment, a ser vice pension of eight dollars per month was granted to the veterans and Wid- ows of that war. The only condition was that the pensioner should have served at least sixty days The wid- ows came in as widows; provided they had been married to the husbands prior to the termination of the war, and not re-married. There seemed to be the same desire that female pensioners should be veritable war widows as in the treatment of the revolutionary wid- ows. Seven years later a military ser vice of but fourteen days sufficed to place veteran, or a widow on the pension roll of 1S12 By the statute of that year the limitation as to the date of marriage was not renewed and on March 19 1886, the widows pension was increased from eight to twelve dollars per month; and now that roll reveals 2,810 widows, no minor children, and but seven survivors of our latest war with England. There seems to be no way of escaping the conclusion that however -venera ble his years, the adage was verified-"none but the brave de- serve the fair.''
 The pension statistics of the war of 1872 present some startling, perhaps amusing features. The sixty days ser vice pension act of 1871, which required neither loyalty, disability nor depend ence, brought out in the three following years applications from 2S,750 survivors of the average age of eighty-one years, and 10189 widows of uncertain ages In 1878. on the passage of the fourteen days service pension bill, which swept away all limitations as to date of mar riage, 27S6 more survivors, averaging eighty-eight years, appeared as claim ants. and during the next three years 27,797 widows filed their claims. Nc longer required to prove marriage te soldiers prior to 1916, they won the field Truly May and December must have welded. Since 1871 the survivors of 1872 have received in pensions s14.- 013510 and the widows S29,334,S35.
 The widows of the Mexican was were never hampered by any limitation as to date of marriage. The sixty days service pension bill of January 20, 1887 gave them a status on the pension rol at eight dollars per month by sole vir. tue of their being widows of Mexican veterans. without regard to the loyalty disability or death causes of their gal. lant husbands. There are DOW on the pension rolls as reminders of that wal 10,922 survivors and S,072 widows, re, ceiving s2, 752 annually During the past three years the annual death rate has averaged for survivors e3 in 1000 and fdr widows but 32. indicating, per haps not December welded to May, but certainly November yol1ed with June.
 The table of survivors and widows o the late war, as part o tine eleventh census. is of great value. setting eortF as 1t does the nationality, nativity ant ages Of the members of those classes The late war was really a civil war, war of Americans with Americans. o. the Union soldiers 84 in every 100 were American born, and of those eigthy four, seventy-five were not only born ir this country. but born of American parents. Men of foreign birth (manS of them brought here in infancy O youth) furnished only sixteen per cent of our military strength. Of the con federate soldiers ninety-sx per cent were to the manor born. The above i similarly true of the war widows 0 both north and south. Our pension lis may be burdensomeIy large, but fiv,
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