Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-05

,.,,ed 1895 by Frank G. Car
Eop'is penterO
..,rvtou. Feb. /. 1851 spent Two
Na' racsntly travelling through the
vs.. office with the Hon. Henry
~ Tyons the United States commas
~ Of pension. I had asked Mr.
~ :, Give me some idea of Uncle
t'r,s pension business. and tosethes
ia from bureau to bureau ana
"a office. asking questions OF the
.,s IN charge and gathering the
/ .',l., which give you in this letter.
| .a,,m,ssioner has the office In a
~, business condition than 1t mas
!, for years. He not only ordered
:, everything be furnished me, but
| ,.rsonal,aided in my investigations
[ ,,nrnev was no small one. The
i,n oalce at Washington fills the
-, brick building Of the world. 1
~, that there has ever been build
made Of brick which surpassed 1t
,,,a although the baths OF Diocle-
the ruins OF which stand by the
Nszionale. in Rome. were Il mile
| circumference. This building COW
| .r,v two acres, but 1t is three sto-
]. blgh and there is n big attic UP
Is.r ifs glass roof. 1t has court In
[ center bigger than any barn yard
n, have ever seen. and the huge brick
MARS which rise from floor TO roof
III contain enough brick to build
rec good sized houses.
kuE PENSION FILES AND MAIL.
bah court and offices are filed with
kpers. There are hundreds OF millions
pages of writing packed away here.
ksra are enough files In the cases OF
u pension bureau court to carpet a
Iunty. and the old documents among
records. II they could be pasted to-
Ither. in a single strip, would be long
Tough to cover wagon road reaching |
Bar around the world. The pension
koe deals in big figures. Take the
LII. for instance. II was to this divi-
In the commissioner and ] first went. |
H. commissioner receives 10000 pieces
mail day, or more than 100000
Ices every year. He gets more than
Ia. 900 letters in year. If you could |,
Xste the answers to his mail together
one single strip 1t would make a
kbon OF white letter paper covered |
n typewritlng reaching from New |
Fk to Chicago. II he had to pay his |
tage at the rate OF cents per letter /
stamp bin would be over 100000 a
b, and when YOU figure up the laborI
brains you would have number |
life times embodied in that one item.
takes forty-three clerks to handle |
is mail. There is one corps of men |
Do do nothing but open letters. An
Der stamps the date of receipt upon
pm, and third reads the letters and
nds them to the proper divisions for
lswer From four to eight thousand
tiers are answered every day, and
correspondence increases from year
year
hE KLONDIKE OF THE OLD SOL
DER.
Every one of these letters has a
oney end 10 1t. The pension office is
klondike of the old soldier. and
few men and women who are not
soldiers seek to pan gold out of the
nos OF Its rivers. Last year the
louht OF money distributed was
pr than sl4O-000,000 This was an in
tase Of more than sl.5O0,0OO over the
y pnd out In 1895, and the commits
,nef tells me that there will be more
"a out this year than last. The gold
lss o. the world are now PRODUCING
~ IMAM ever before, and stlll the
y output OF them all is only about
VyvV'VVo year. If the gold mines of
me world were run to their full ex.
y ior the next ten years they could
get out as much gold as this office
pald out for pensions on account
he war OF the rebellion. Up to last
w. ,he amount was more than So
,~VvVo' showing Il steady increase
, lhe close Of the war up until 1890
az enormous increase since then.
. sun Is beyond conception, and. as
a.e stated 1t Is on the increase. II
oulls 10 so much now each year that
Ia man man, woman and child in the
w. states contributed 50 the ag-
Nv Nv sum would Just about pay the
Ign DIS, This Is equal to about
,Vi every family In our country. OF
! V'er S5OOOOO goes abroad. Re-
I'll ''V'O and 1900 pensioners live in