The National tribune., 1901-03-28
CONTRAST IN PENSIONS.

| tHutE lHlS
Tribune, which certainly should be bet
ter informed. says, editorially:
''The generosity of the Government and
people of the United States is illustrated
| by the fact that since the civil war al
most as great sum has been paid out in
pensions TO its survivors and the depend
| ents of those who have passed away, as
| the war itself cost. The war is estimated
to have cost the loyal States about $4,000
| OOO0 Pension Commissioner Evans
gives the figures of the payments out of the
Treasury for pensions since the close of
that struggle at $2,52S,3T3, HIS. In
June of last year there We're near $685.
529 perSons-or nearly a million-On the
rolls. who drew an average of more
than SO per month each, the payments
ranging from Sc TO 500 per month for
each pcnsiOner.
''The measure of our Nations gener-
osity to its veterans will be set forth IN
strong light if we make n comparison
with what Great Britain is doing. That
country has been engaged in innumerable
wars during the past 30 years and has
had an aggregate Of armies and navies
in the field equal in all probability to the
number of men enlisted in the Union army
from 1860 to 1860; and yet n pamphlet
recently issued by the British Government
shows that there are 5000 persons there
in receipt of pensions. and that the
amount paid out annually is SS,922,2:5iI.
The United States has II times rs many
persons on its pension rolls and pays them
about - times as much annually.
''ln addition to this, the Government
shows its generosity by establishing and
maintaining numerous Soldiers Homes
in which decayed veterans may enjoy
rest and comfort in their declining years.
There are also % State HomeS-that is,
Homes maintained mainly by State Gov
| crnments-Some of them providing also
for the wives and families of the in
mates. Surely this Republic is not I'M
grateful to its brave defenders"
Misled by Commissioner Evans. in his
systematic pcrversion of facts and figures
TO create public sentiment against pen
sions, the Tribune falls into quite n num-
Der of astonishing errors which il should
have avoided by ordinary information and
research. In the first place, instead of the
war of the rebellion costing $1,000, 900, 900,
it probably has come near costing three
times that much. The late eX-Secretary
Sherman, who was considerably higher
authority than either the Tribune or Com
missioner Evans, estimated that the war
had then cost about 100000, 900. If we
add to that the enormous amount paid
for interest premiums, etc, on the war
debt, the war claims passed by Congress.
the judgments of the Court of Claims,
etc, etc, the total cost must climb up very
near S9,000.000000. But, then, few
hundred millions never stand in Commits
sioner Evans's way, when he is trying to
make point against pensions and pen
sioners.
The comparison with Great Britain's
pension roll is most unfortunate and mis-
leading. In all the wars which Great
Britain has been engaged in since Water
loO-S6 years ago-she has probably not
lost as many men actually killed on the
field of battle as we had in single bat
ties, like Gettysburg. Chickamauga or
fundamentally far less than we had
in series of operations like those begin
ming on the Peninsula or in the Wilder
ness. The most of her wars have been
affairs about the size of our Indian
wars" The greatest of her wars-that
of the Crimea-saw nothing like the fight
ing, the hardships and the loss of life of
our campaigns against Vicksburg. 1t
happened to be the only thing going on
at the time, and was most voluminousIy
written up.
We reiterate what we have said many
times before, that the proper comparison
of the United States pension roll is not
with that of any one country in Europe,
but with all of them put together 1t
represents more downright, hard fighting,
more men actually killed in battle, more
hardship and suffering, than all the armies
in Europe have experienced since the
close of the NapOleonic wars, Sc years
ago, and of which there are very few
survivors on any pension roll in Europe.
The great trouble is that the people,
and such superficial writers as those of
the Tribune, who assume TO think for the
people, do not stop to think how vast the
war of the rebellion was, and that we had
millions Of fighting men where other wars
have only numbered their tens and hun
dreds of thousands of combatants. There
is about the same comparison between
the war of the rebellion and other wars
that there is between the steel trust and
furnaces and rolling-mills that we thought
big quarter of century ago.