The Saint Paul globe., 1899-01-01
FOR LATE WAR HEROES
WOULD THE SOLDIERS HOME
BOARD MAKE PROVISIONS
AT ONCE
CARE FOR THEM IF NEEDED
Annual Report of the Trustees Also
Recommends Tint the Appropria-
tion of 100000 Cut on Two Years
Ago Be Restored by the Coming
Legislature - Some Statistics
About the Institution.


The eleventh annual report of the
board of trustees of the soldiers home
has just been completed and will be
ready for distribution soon. OF the
general condition of the home at Min
nehaha park the trustees have to say:
everything has moved along smoothly and
the institution. This condition of affairs is
in striking contrast to the turmoil which pre-
vailed during considerable portion Of the
previous fiscal year.
The population did not Increase quite to
the extent anticipated during the winter
months This is partly. owing, no doubt
to the greatly improved financial condition of
the country, which enables many of the vet
Grams TO support themselves with the help
OF their pensions, when they would otherwise
have been obliged to appeal to public aid
Under the operation of the law Of
1897 all the married inmates of the in
stitution were given honorable dis
charges, and where the necessities of
the family required it they were given
help from the old soldiers relief fund.
This action the board asserts carried
out the original intention of the law,
which manifest1y was that, as rule,
single men only should be admitted to
the nome, while married men, when
necessary, were granted relief in their
homes.
The total number of admissions to
the home since it's organization is 1,219.
The actual admissions and membership
for the year are as follows:
Number OF members, Aug. T. 1897 .. 1851
Aomitted during the year -. ........ %. 73
f'eadmftteo ...... ...... ........... 46
Total ....... ............. .4S0
Died Died during the year ........ ......... 26
Number of members. July 81. 1898 ..... .33s
lotai 80. ......a. s..-....... ...4SO
The average age of the inmates at the
home is sixty-one and ,one-third years.
The average term of army service is
twenty-seven months, and the average
residence in Minnesota, of the veterans
at the home is 28.2 years OF the 339
old soldiers now at the home 234 receive
United States pensions. The lowest
pension is Sc per month, of which nine
ty members receive benefits, and the
largest is SIT. drawn by three veterans.
Under the United States statutes all
pension money in excess of 81 per
month is collected and turned over to
the state treasurer, to be credited to
the soldiers home support fund
The report recommends that the an
nual appropriations of $4,000 from the
state, shut off by the alast legislature,
be restored by the coming session.
The board makes recommendation
for the increase Of the facilities at the
home which, 1t claims. will be needed
to care for the wounded and destitute
of the war with Spain. On this subject
the board says:
During the period under consideration in
this report, the United States government
has tnaugurated and successfully prosecuted
war for the liberation of Cuba. This war
came Unexpectedly, has been carried on with
characteristic American energy and with un-
precedented success. new army of about
a quarter of million men was called into
the field, of which army the state of Min
nesota furnished four full regiments, besides
recruits to the regular army, the navy and
to other volunteer organizations. Two of the
regiments thus sent out from this state will
soon be disbanded, and the soldiers will re-
turn to the duties of citizenship. Discharged
soldiers who served from other states will
also undoubtedly remove to Minnesota within
the next few years and become citizens of
the commonwealth.
Among all these there will naturally and
necessarily soon appear greater or less
number Of disabled and destitute ex-soldiers
who will have similar demands upon the
benevolent attention Of the state as those
who aare now the recipients Of her bounty
Provision was made by, this board at its an
fiscal year, for temporary admission of such
applicants, If any, pending action by the COM
ing session Of the legislature.
1t Is respectfully suggested that the law
under which this board was constituted be so
amended as to permit an extension of the
benefits Of the Soldiers home and the Sol
soldiers of the late Cuban war on the same
terms enjoyed by the veterans of the Mexican
war, the Civil war and the Indian cam
paigns.
Concluding, the report says:
1t is estimated that in 1865 there were l.
727,353 Union soldiers surviving According to
the mortality tables the survivors of the war
for the suppression OF the rebellion will
number 1,O32.418 IN the year 1900. In 1910
the number viii have been reduced to 626,-
2S1; in 1920. to 251,727; in 1880, to 37,O3a; in