Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1902-04-10
A STREAM OF GOLD.
RUNS YEARLY THROUGH THE CHAM
NELs OF THE PENSION OFFICE.

NElS OF The PENSION VFF'Ves
The Klondiks Of Old soldisrs-Hugs Pre-
portions Of . Business That 10 still
Growing -O.s Of the Most Enaciont
Employs +" c'lo''a.
The Pension Office at Washington
oils the biggest brick building Of the
world, says Frank G. Carpenter, in .
letter to the Washington Star. l doubt
II there has ever been building made
Of brick which surpassed 1t In size,
although the baths Of Dlocletian, the
ruins Of which stand by the Via Nasl-
onale, in Rome, were q mile In clrcun-
ference. This building covers only
two acres, but 1t 10 three stories high
and there Is big attic up under its
glass roof. 1t has a court In Its center
bigger than any barn yard you have
ever seen, and the huge brick pillars
which rise from door to roof each con-
tain enough brick to build three good
sized houses.
Both court and Offices are filled with
papers. There are hundreds Of mill.
ions Of pages Of writing packed away
here. There are enough files In the
cases of the Pension Bureau court to
carpet Z county, and the old docu-
ments among its records, II they could
be pasted together In 3 single strip.
would be long enough to cover .
wagon road reaching clear around the
world. The Pension ONCE deals IN
big figures. Take the mail, for To-
stance. 1t was to this division the
commissioner, Henry Clay Evans, and
l first went. The commissioner re-
ceiyes 10000 pieces Of mail a day, or
more than 100000 pieces every year.
He gets more than 100000 letters In
In a year. II you could paste the an.
swers to his mail together In one single
strip 1t would make ribbon Of white
letter paper covered with typewriting
reaching from New York to Chicago.
If he had to pay his postage at the
rate Of two cents per letter biz stamp
bill would amount to 100000 q year,
and when you figure up the labor and
brains you would have Z number Of
life times embodied In that one item.
1t takes forty-thres clerks to handle
this mall. There 10 one corps Of men
who do nothing but open letters. An
other stamps the date Of receipt upon
them, and third reads the letters and
sends them to the proper divisions for
answer. From four to eight thousand
letters are answered every day, and
the correspondence increases from year
to year.
Every one Of these letters has
money end to it. The Pension Office
IL the Klondike of the old soldier, and
not few mes and women who are not
old soldiers seek to pan gold out of
the sands of it's rivers. Last year
the amount of money distributed was
more than $14OOOOOOO. This was an
Increase of more than $l,5O00OO over
the sum paid out in 1896, and the COM
missioner tells me that there will be
more paid out this year than last.
The gold miners of the world are now
producing more than ever before and
still the total output OF them all Is
only about 100000, 900 a year. If the
gold mines of all the world were run
to their full extent for the next ten
years they could not get out as much
gold as this office has paid out for
pensions on account Of the War Of the
Rebellion. Up to last June the amount
was more than S2,000,OOO,00O, showing
a steady increase from the close of the
war UP until 1890, and an enormous
Increase since then. This sum Is be-
yond conception, and, as l have stated,
| 1t is on the increase. 1t amounts to so
much now each year that II every
man, woman and child In the United
States contributed 81 the aggregate
sum would Just about pay the pension
bills. This is equal to about so for
every family in our country. OF this,
over $4,000 goes abroad. Between
| 5000 and 1000 pensioners live in for
eign countries and draw their money
from III. The remainder are scattered
over the United States from Florida
to Maine and from Massachusetts to
California, and the streams OF money
which flow here and are damned up
In the treasury are turned into the
great pensoni irrlgatinS bitches every
year and carry this golden Hood to ail
parts Of the country.
During our walk through the Pen.
sion Office Commissioner Evans and
myself spent some time in each Of the
divisions watching the hundreds Of
clerks at work. There were old and
young men among them, and there
ware plenty Of old and ysung WON.
en-. I asked a numbsr Of questions
as ito the efficiency Of II eenployss,
and was told that while the most Of
them were very s6,cisnt clerks, some
were little gesd except y tie up pa
pers. One man ted q The poorest
clerks he had were the old school
masters, and another said the grill
In his bureau were Of less value thar