The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-29

man, the AHleIlSsth lS tlc HlleSI piOuuN' 1 of civilization, the Towering of the | ages. And in that respect the America | of to-day is superior to the America Of century ago. Our fathers ignored the widows of the Revolutions, and as late as 1886 they were not pensionable un- less marred to their soldier husbands prior to the peace of 17SS. The sweet hearts who deferred marriage until the war was over were cruelty left out, as was also the case in regard to the war of 1912. Our civil war enlarged and elevated us, and such neglect was not possible to this generation.
 Surely we have done ample justice to the widows of that war. think more than justice, seeing that we have treat ed them better than we did their bus bands; and, meritorious as they were, not they, but those husbands saved the Union. Had we been less generous to the widows, we could have been more generous to the veteran. There are now. of all classes, 229,1S5 widows on the pension rolls, receiving annually $2S,0 0S0. If their pensions had been limited to eight dollars per month, af- ter duly providing for the 65,6S9 pen sionable children. there would have
 been 8 saving last year of s6,049,919. a sum that would have largely augment ed the comfort of the men who really
 did the nations great work. We have also erred In not initiating to some ex- tent the action of our fathers in limit ing the date of marriage. The women
 who married veterans after 1875 or 1880 can in no sense be termed war widows. On them fell none of the anxietes or burdens of the war. The census of 1890 shows that over sixty per cent of the
 soldiers were unmarried men; hence, presuming that they have all married three-ffths of the widows on our pen
 sion rolls must have been married to
 ''the boys" since the close of the war. There are but few left of the real war 1 widows, the women who married sol
 diers prior to 1S61 They have passed
 away. They had to endure the anxie- l ties of the war, the shrinking pay, the
 eorroding economies-and the soldier
 himself.
 To-day the damsel of sixteen weds veteran of sixty--the average age of
 the survivors, but no effort of our inn- i agination can present her as a war
 widow, but, pensionably, her status is
 the same as that of her grandmother,
 whose husband was killed at Bull Run.
 If he die, and she can prove that he
 died as the result of some disability of
 service origin, she receives twelve dol
 lars per month, with an addition of two I dollars per month for each of his chil-
 dren by her under sixteen years of age.
 He may have pension claim pending for years, perhaps filed prior to July
 1, 1880, which, if allowed, would draw
 arrears from the date of his discharge.
 He dies, and the long-deferred claim is
 allowed, she having completed said
 claim. In addition to her twelve dol-
 lars month she receives thousands of
 dollars of "back pay" and that, too, when his children by his real war wife
 are still living; children who contracted
 their own lives to provide for the disa-
 bled father, but being over sixteen years of age, have no longer any pen-
 sionable standing.
 I Or, the soldier thrice welded may < have married a thrice welded widow, a
 widow who, perchance, was for years on the pension roll by virtue of her former marriage with another soldier!
 And to her, also, marriage proves to be
 a profitable investment.
 I To return to our bride of sixteen. The dead husbands claim is still un-
 settled, and she dies without ever hav-
 ing applied for widows pension. If
 the soldier never had any children pri- or to those borne him by this young
 wife, fifty years hence, her son can step into all his mothers right (and , s.a41 I.o 1z,, I,ex rights), and 10, his minors pension
 will be all his fathers back pay, plus
 fourteen dollars per month (his moth
 CTS widow pension twelve dollars and i: his own two dollars) until he reached
 his sixteenth birthday.
 1, To illustrate how much better 1t is to be a widow than veteran: Here is a , poor fellow, unable to earn anything, , drawing pension of six to eight dol , lars ped month, barely enough to pay , for doctors and drugs. He is, and keenly feels that he is burden upon his family and that his death would : be a relief to them. He dies from his
 pensioned disability, or from some oth- ) CT disability incident to his military service, and 10! his widow receives , twelve dollars per month, and two dol lars per month additional for each of l his children under sixteen. Yes, his death was a relief to his family; and l if his pending claim for increase of {, pension should ever be allowed, the feeling of relief will be augmented Though pensioned, poor fellow, he was not allowed anything for the care Of his minor children.
 March 19, 1886. the pensions of all } widows was raised from eight to twelve , dollars per month, involving an annual - expenditure of s7,5S4,11 And no in, crease of rate was allowed to the vete.
 ran himself. Tn 1887 the bars were f thrown down and it was decreed that l all widows pensions at twelve dollars l per month should commence, not as be fore, from the date of filing, but iron
 the date of the husbands death, an6 ] this should apply to all then on the f rolls, as we'll as to those who should g fortunately. in the future be placed : thereon. Up to date this has cost the ! government s9S, POS, ,Oo0 The newly l married Cleveland approved both tn, 7 above bills. A few weeks before, thu r Mexican war survivors bill was passed
 practically pensioning all the survi : vors and widows of that war withou
 rdpard to lova1tV disability ar depend