Arizona silver belt., 1898-06-30
THE PENSION BURDEN.

providing the sincws of war; we have seen no mention of the fact that the
 heaviest drain on the national treasury
 comes after the conflict has terminated
 we allude to the payment of pensions
 to those soldiers and sailors wounded in battle or incapaeitated by diseass and to the families of those killed while in the service of the government. Mir. Cannon, chairman of the House com mittee on appropriations, estimates that the war with Spain, if it continues to the end of the calendar year, will cost the United States S400, ,00U, ,000
 The figures appear excessive, but even admitting their correctness, the cost of prosecuting the war is mere baga- .elle, compared with the increase of the pension roll which will follow as the natural and inevitable sequence of the conflict at arms.
 The casualties sustained by our for ces in the present war, compared with the victories achieved, have been OK tremely small, but as we have under. taken the invasion of the Philippines, Cuba and Porto Rico, all situated in the latitude of the tropics where levers and gastric disorders are at this season prevalent, and especially fatal to per sons not acclimstsd or inuured to the many hardships which ali army of in- Sasion must of necessity undergo, it is reasonable to expect heavy mortality added to the casualties of battle, We will be indeed fortunate if the death rate is not appalling. Should the war continue six months longer the aggre- gate of our armies of invasion will be swelled to 150, 900 men; possibly more, and in order to hold conquered posses sions after the war is over, reinforce ments will have to be sent annually to maintain tue regular quotas of troops in the islands which it is assumed are to become American colonies. It is all most certain, therefore, that the pen sion system is to take on a new lease of life and be perpctuated in our scheme of government.
 Iii 1862 there were S,150 pensioners drawing annually from the treasury s790, 3s4.76 In 1897, thirty two years after the close of the civil war, the nun. Der of pensioners on the roll had in- creased to 976,014, and disbursements to $40, ,S45i772, and still the roll con- tinues to grow at the rate of five thous- and to six thousand year, on account of the civil war, and the end of the iu- crease from that source is still not in sight. The government disbursed to pensioners from 1861 to 1897, the enormous sum of s2, 12s, ,36O, 926. 72 {! | The disbursements on account of pen sions last year were nearly forty per cent of tEe total expenditures of the government.
 The pension laws as originally in- tended were highly benefcent and framed in recognition of the invaluable services of those who had fought in | their country's cause, but the most ar- dent advocate of the pension system at the close of the civil war never dreampt | of the vast proportions to which the system has grown and the great abnses which have crept in to it. All the pen. sion legislation in recent years has been in the direction of g more hberal con struction of the laws, the increase of | Rnnuities, and the multiplication of beneiciaries. The pension fund has grown to be a mine of wealth for the pension agents and lobbyists, and a large percentage of the claimants now drawing pensions are not entitled to them, while other deserving applicants have failed of recognition. There are men who hide their mercenary purpo. ses under the cloak of patriotism, and | they are loudest in proclaiming their patriotism, which Dr. Johnson charac- terized as the last refuge of 8 scoun- arel.
 We have as nation congratulated | ourselves because of small cost of main- | tsining the army and navy, as com pared to the enormous expenditures of | foreign governments for the same pur- poses, forgetting that in the pension roll we have constantly growing bur den that rnless checked will ere long threaten financial disaster. And if we are not to enjoy longer our much vaunted isolation among the nations, but seek territory and trade in foreign waters, we will be compelled to support sn army many times larger than any we have heretofore maintained in time of peace and navy second only to England's. -. .- .,..-...... ..s
 Ths' rsform most urgently needed is time limit to all pensions. The government is still paying pensions that are legacies from the war of the ssTclutioD, and figuring on tho same oasis t has been shown that the widow of vstsran of the late civil war may l,e l;v;, $ ty, sba vaar oO01 May if not |