The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1900-09-11
AMERICAN PENSIONERS.

Though it is thirty-fye years since
the war between the states ended. there
are still nearly one million pensioners
on the roll. On July l. 1900. there were
ss5.52s pensioners on the rolls Of the
pension Office, according 70 the annual
report Of Commissioner Evans. During
the year iy.6i5 names were added 10
the rolls and i.ss9 restored; 1884
were dropped because of death. S09 by
re-marriage Of pensioners, and 6.6ie fo-
other causes. During the past six years
260,79 names were dropped from the
rolls, 1904 because OF deaths The
number cropped this year because Of
death is 1920 less than estimated.
Pensioners are long lived, as some Of
these pensions are paid 10 survivors
OF the war Of 1872 and many to those of
the Mexican war. The bulk are, how
ever, survivors of the civil war
During that war. 2.77S.3 men wera
in the service OF the Union. or these.
67,05S were killed in battle; 43.012 died
of wounds; .12o died of disease, and
40 154 died from other causes, such as
accidents. murder in Confederate pris-
ons. and so on, a total death roll of
349,944.
The number of wounded in either
army has never been definitely asce--
tanned and, excepting through the pen
sion bureau, there is no way of deter
mining how many of this great army
returned home more or less disabled
and permanently injured in health
through exposure, insufficient food,
physical strain and the various hard
ships incident TO protracted field cam
paigning That the number is large
is undoubted and it is probably not an
exaggeration- TO say that out of the
nearly three million men that the
Union had in the field between 1861
and 1865, one million suffered physical
ly TO greater or a lesser degree.
The all but 100000 men who laid
down their lives at Gettysburg. Spot
sylvania, Wilderness. Antietam. Chan
cellorsville, Chickamauga. Cold Har-
Dor, Shiloh and the hundreds of en-
sanguined fields of that war that the
Union might survive intact. still live
on the pension roll. This is a fact
too frequently overlooked by those
who criticise the pension extrava-
gance." or, like Mr.. Watterson. de-
nounce the pension plunderers
Nearly all these heroes dead left wives
or mothers or fathers who were more
or less dependent upon their toll AMI
wage-earning capacity Under the just
laws which grateful nation enacted
in behalf OF the men who made the
supreme sacrifice for il these dependent
relatives were very properly placed or
the pension roll and represent the great
phantom army by proxy. Pensions
W nave III line
ner been transferred to dependents
upon the deaths of the original pen
sioners and thus the chain has been
heightened. and justly. too.
There is no money the United States
appropriates from its enormous in
come more deservedly placed than that
set aside for pension payments
Another decade and few members
of that grand army of the Union will
be left and as its ranks are decimated
by death, so will be the numbers OF
dependent pensioners.
The additions that will be made to
the roll by the Cuban, Philippine and
China wars will be comparatively triv-
ial, and it is TO be hoped that the coun-
try may never again be called upon to
raise, equip and fight an army such as
that OF '61-'65.