The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-07
Tho Publication OF tho Roll of Honor
IL Begun.

Tho Publication of the Roll OF Honor
Ii Begun.
All over the country tho demand is
heard, Publish the pension listl 1t comes
from the citizens who are taxed indirectly
ut the rate OF $40 for every voter. or at the
rate Of So for every man, woman. and child
in the United States. in order to enable
the Government to meet the monstrous
annual pension charge. 1t comes from the
honest pensioner himself. Least of all men
does he desire that the roll on which his
name stands shall be loaded with fraud
or d%iscredited by Just suspicious.
After careful consideration Of the militia
hive In its various aspects, THE Sun makes
public this morning the names, rates OF
pension, and addresses Of all pensioners
In receipt of more han $45 per month
from the Treasury. Our broad reasons for
doing this are two in number.
First, we wish to establish tho principle
that the pension list is a roll of honor, and
\ that tho pensioner whose mann belongs
there by right has nothing to fear, but
much to gain by the publication of all the
names. Whatever frauds exist are prac-
tically covered by the system of secrecy
which has been the mistaken policy Of the
Pension Office for nearly a third of a CEN
fury. Secrecy is tho cloak Of fraud In all
] the business, and under that cloak the list
has grown to its present enormous dimen-
sions. The process of publication properly
begins with the higher pensions.
The fact must be kept in mind that in
the list printed to-day there is probably the
\ minimum percentage of fraud. The special
II granted pensions are here, such as the
I &c, 900 q year pensions of Mrs. GRANT and
Mrs. GARFIELD; but the great bulk Of the
names included are those of the veteran
privates whose injuries in actual military
service were 80 severe, and whose result
n ing disability was so nearly absolute that
under the general pension avs they were
! clearly entitled to their 800 a month,
their $72 a month, or their $50 a month.
In the nature of things, this particular
installment of the whole pension list rep
( resents the minimum Of deception, Of i'm
position, of malingering. of pension agents
jugglery. That is why 1t ought to be put
forth first of all. If any part Of the list
will Withstand the ~severest scrutiny this
part will. Here are the surviving patriots
and heroes who suffered most for their
flag and country.
Spread this roll of the honored brave |
We invite those Of our esteemed contem-
poraries who are with THE SUN in the
effort to promote a thorough investigation
and purgation of the rolls to publish such
parts Of the enormous list as concern their
respective territories. Let the list be studied
with admiration and gratitude in every
State, city, and town. Copyright does not
apply to the roll of honor.
Our second purpose is to afford to the
country an impressive object lesson in d.
4 mansions. The names Of the pensioners
receiving annually from $40 to $4,000
0ccupy nearly fifteen columns of this news
ypapsr. Yet they number only 1868 In all.
Z They constitute but a little over one-thtrd
Of one per cent. of the gigantic total of
| 076,o14. The annual expenditure repre-
scented by this fragment of the list is less
than $2, 600, 900; that is to say, about one
4 Iorty-seventh of the total annual expendi-
ture. II THE Sun should undertake the
publication of the entire list of &c.
\ 600 names, giving q single line to each
pensioner in the type employed this morn.
ing, the completion of the task would
require 1880 columns of our space. If we
could devotea whole page of THE SUN every
day of the week to the publication of the
070, 900 names, we should fill about 624
pages with pensioners names before we got
through. We should not finish the work
until some time In October of 1890.
Such is the magnitude of the pension list
thirty-two years after the end of the civil
war. National interests Of the gravest
s character require the publication of the
entire list. The Job LIS beyond the power OF
any one newspaper. 1t must be done by
the Government itself. by means of lists
prepared In sections and posted or other.
wise published according to geographical
distribution.
The roll of honor Is publicly established.
Now let Congress complete 1t.
A Naval Hospital Corps.