The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-11-23
PENSION FACTS.
United States an Example For
Rest of World.
Two Billion and a Half Paid
Since 1862.
NEAR MILLION ON ROLL
Official Gives Figures ON the
Future.
Business Might Expire by Linn
itatiOn in % Years.

amounts paid out to them the United
states has furnished two lessons to the
world The first is in the lberality
| with which it has rewarded the men
| who have fought its battles and taken
! care of those dependent upon them; the
second is in the magnitude of the ma
tons resources, which has enabled IL
for years to go on paying without COM
| planning or embarrassment a sum which
would be regarded as a staggering bur-
| den by any other nation in the world.
How great this burden is can be best
! illustrated by d few figures. Since 1885,
to the close of the fiscal year 1900 the
United States pension roll footS uE
| 50. SCI. oil, 676. For the last fiscal year
the pension payments amounted to
$139, 515, 243. and the number of pension
ers on the rolls was 993.529.
1t is a matter of interest to the Amer
lean people to know how long this ex-
penditure will keep up, or, in other
words, when the pension payments, pro-
vided there are no wars in the imme-
date future to swell the pension list,
will cease. To ascertain this. if pos
sible. the question was asked by the
State Journal representative of a high
official of the pension bureau, who an
SWered:
L have been often asked to compute
the date when the pension roll will be
extinct, by reason of the death of all
its beneficiaries. The question as to
even the probable date when the roll
will expire cannot be answered. Even
as to old soldiers that is true, though
their number is steadily lessening by
reason of the deaths of the veterans
AS to the beneficiarieS, which include
widows, minor children and dependent
parents, an increase is shown.
An interesting probable result con-
corning this question may, however, be
determined with a little care and a few
figures. What the actual result may be
twenty-five years hence remains to be
seen, as possible wars and new legisla-
ton will change present calculations
Il 81 I of =
prehensive form.
During the past year there were As
344 pensioners added TO the roll. OF
these 1859 We're the restored names of
those who for various reasons had been
dropped.
by reason of the death, remarriage
or other causes there were dropped
from the roll 1884 pensioners, or diff
ference of 2,010 on the side of the in
crease. the roll having grown that
amount over all sources of decrease in
a Year
The total number on the roll at the
close of the year was 993, 529. With the
roll increasing at the average rate of
1000 year, a date when a correspond
ing decrease would enSue cannot be
fixed, but it is possible to show when
it would be closed out entirely, aSSum
ing that the decrease ceased. If the
increase and decrease are equal, or
comparatively SO, the roll will remain
stationary like fiood-tide with slight
soldiers die off, and new names of their
benefciaries. and of Spanish war vet
Grams and their beneficiaries are added.
But if there was to be no increase at
all. and an annual average decrease of
$4,000 names, which has been about the
average decrease during the past five
years, the roll would be exhausted in
tWenty-three years or in 1924
If, therefore, it would take % years
to exhaust the roll al this ratio of de-
crease in the assumed absence of any
increase the passing of the middle of
the present century may show compar-
atively slight change, because, while the
old soldiers will all be dead by 1850, I'M
less they are alive as centenarians, their
bene8ciaries will have taken their
places, together with the veterans Of
the Spanish war if not those of posi-
BILE other wars.
1T will be seen, consequently that
the matter is largely conjectural and
must remain forever so. We will take
the Mexican war veterans as a further
Illustration. Though this war ended 90
years ago, there are still 1852 survivors
of that war on the roll and S151 wild
ows, or a total of 1864 beneficiaries. In
the past four years the survivors of
this war have decreased 2,342, but the
number of widows of these veterans has
increased on the roll 70 in the total
number as compared to four years ago.
1.-The survivors of the Indian wars on
the roll have decreased 1000 in four
years, and there are but 1870 of these
veterans left on the rolls. The widows
of the soldiers of these wars have de-
creased from 4,2SS to 3,739. and the wild
ows of the veterans of the war of 1872
have decreased from 2,S1O to LIZA dur
ing the same period, there being but
one veteran pensioner of this war alive
These figures last given are useful
on the question of decrease, as the wars
in which the veterans fought are passed
half a century, and while they cannot
be taken as a basis of figuring the de-
crease of the veterans of the civil war
they are instructive on the question of
the existence of the roll itself.
ION the assumption that the roll
would show no material decrease in
number in % years for the reasons I
have heretofore stated, there would at
that date be a large decrease in the to-
tai amount thereof, for the reason that
the pensions paid beneficiaries are much
smaller individually and in the gross
aggregate than those paid to the old
soldiers. The civil war ended SO years
ago If we assume that every pensioner
came out of the war at the age of g.
% years hence, if alive. all would be "a
years of age This is an proba BILE as
sumption, and is made for the purpose
of illustration only, as many thousands
of veterans We're over 40 al the close of
the war. These latter men must be rs
years age now, and would be 80 twenty
three hence. BY the middle of the pres
emit century, therefore, if any of the sur
vivors of the civil war are alive. all
must be at that date over 100 years of
age, unless they came out of the war
as veterans at the age of IA.
ION the question of the decrease in
amount, if the roll lost about 1884, 900 last
year, though it increased in number 2
O10, the more disabled a pensioner is
the greater the amount of his pension,
and also the greater his chances of
dying over the more ablebodied. 1t is
probable that the reduction on the score
of high pensions will run up into the
hundreds of thousands, if not millions
within the next five to ten years. But
where one of these pensioners dies a