The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-14

(eXcluding the Spanish war from con sideration) the whole roll Will consist 1 of such widows, and such widows Will continue on such list until at least A. D, 1882. For there are still seven wid- ows on the list of pensioners of the war of the Revolution, which closed ll' years ago.
 It has been the policy of our pension laws to confer upon the pensioner an interest descendable by inheritance In favor of his widow and minor children, In case of a wife living at the time or the war-disability and minor children of such a marriage, 1t is obviously reasonable that such wife, becoming widow, and her children, while minors, | should succeed to some interest in the pension. Such a wife married sound | husband, and the casualty of war, rem dering him unsound, injured her, and for that she should receive some com pensation.
 But where a woman marrles disa- bled husband albeit pensioner, l wherein is it sound policy to pension such a woman, after becoming wid- l ow?
 The theory is this: It is based upon the subtle fact stated in the famous saying of Josh Billings Why is love like measles? Because taken young it is harmless. Taken old, it is awful
 The politico- o-economic idea was that if an unmarried pensioner, already of course, under severe physical disabili- ty, should add to his existing disabili- ties the disability of the burden of a marriage 1t would sooner use him up, and 1t was thought a saving to run the chance of small pension to his widow rather than to bear the longer continu- ance of the large pension to the old soldier. And it was further argued that the disabled pensioner, in the mat rimonial market would not attract any but the elderly female, widow or spins ter.
 That the spirit of economy is the ex- planation of this remarkable feature of our pension laws in general is further shown by the special provisions of the statute of 1890, The professed object of congress at that time was to reduce the surplus" Corporal Tanner was then made pension commissioner. He said he would reduce the surplus" He did. So the Mckinley high protec- tive tariff of 1890 was explicitly entitled "an act to reduce the revenue" Of course increasing expenditure for pen sons was one way of reducing the sur plus So the statute of 1890, providing for new pensions in certain large class es of cases, protected the new pensioner by taking him out of the matrimonial market since it offered no inducement for female attack by way of widows pension after his death. Such new pension is not likely to add to existing disabilities the further burden of sup porting a new wife, and he is removed from temptation.
 But there is great rage in the female mind about this peculiarity in the act of 1890. Some few females have by in- advertence married the new pensioner, supposing he possessed the usual power of transmitting pension to his widow. Many other females complain that the market is bare of goods which ought to be on the market. The female motto is. No pensioner shall die having no widow" It would be loss of so much good money to some good woman, and, mark you, for her life.
 Commissioner Evans had the hardi- hood to say that this exception" in the act of 1890 ought to be the rule, and that the prior statutes should be amended accordingly. But he has been so soundly berated by the females, and by the G. A. R., whose recent con- vention has likened him to the infa- nous Cleveland commissioner (whose rulings it is said he has followed), that In despair he cries out: Let there be uniformity. Let all widows married since the war have pensions, or let none such have them He advises that no such widow have a pension because he has found out that the facts do not hitch on to the economical theory which I have described
 Whatever may be the effect of the additional burden of married duties, or the life of the pensioner, the faculty of transmitting a pension to his widow has made him very attractive matri- monial object, not to be sneezed at by the young spinster. Under her encour- aging smiles he sings, For I'm jest as young as I used ter be-" So we shall be sure to have in 1892 one hundred and seventeen years from the close of the civil war, quite a list of pensioners, widows of the soldiers of that war
 Abraham Lincoln made one misstate- ment. He said, You cannot fool all the people all the time" You can. It has been done, is being done, and will hereafter be done.
 Look at the utteranee of this army of pensioners stating their views in the last convention of the G. A. R. Two years ago the country was stirred to it's depths by complaints of the injustice of the then administration of the pension bureau. Beyond doubt the political campaign of 1896 was largely influenced by the hope of amelioratng the harsh conditions then existing in the pension bureau We submit that this expected ameloration has not taken place.* , The iniquitous rule is maintained up to this hour, and we submit it is not such treatment as we had right to expect from Comrade Mckinley"
 A motion to expunge the last sentence above quoted from the report of the committee was withdrawn upon an ] amendment which only intensf1es my objections to it. For still, the com , plaint is made against and the appeal taken, not to William Mckinley as