The National tribune., 1903-01-22
THE JUSTICE OF A SERVICE PENSION.

Every man who went into the UniO'
army had to make strong pecuniary sac
| rifice to do so. In spite of all that ha:
been said about big bounties, the men who
got them would have made much moro
money by staying ut home. Every mar
who went into the army left n place which
somebody else had to fill, and he raised
the rate of wages for the man who filled
it. With 100000 men in the army. and
more being constantly called for, wages
rapidly rose. and the monetary advan-
tages for the men who remained at home
steadily became greater This everyone
knows. or can readily sec if he will reflect
upon the severe drain made by taking such
an enormous number as 10000 men out
of the Labor market Such a thing today
would upIeave the labor market and send
it soaring skyward. Then the visible sup
ply of laborers. mechanics. etc, was not
one-fourth of what it is today. We now
have S0,000,000 people in the country,
where then we had but 32.00O,OOO, with
about 20,000.GO0 in the North. If man
got so much as $1,000 bounty. this count
ed for scarcely more than $3.50 would to-
day, and with mechanics receiving 81, so.
or even more per day, with similar rates
for those employed in the harvest fields,
much money as his bounty amounted to.
When, therefore, he turned from this to
make a three years contract with the
Government for $13 or SIG month, he
made great pecuniary sacrifice, and
must have had a very much stronger feel
ing than love of money to actuate him.
The war was the greatest of money max
ing periods for those who remained at
home. Everything was at the highest
price and constantly going up. A man
could not touch anything without making
money In spite of this more than .
100000 young men, the best, the strong
est. the most capable wage-earners in the
country. turned from this alluring pros
pect to enter the service of the country at
the slender pittance of SIS a month with
food and clothing. Let MS see what one
of them actually received for his three
years service, at the time when his home
staying acquaintances were making more
money than they had ever done before, or
have since If he enlisted, let us say in
August, 1861, for three years, and served
out his full term he received:
1876 months, at $13 per mo-. S68
1892 months, at S13 per mo. 156
1852 months, at $13 per mo. 1876
1S64-4 months, at S13 per mo-. 81
1S64-3 months, at SIG per mo-. AZ
Three years clothing money, at
$500 per year. IZI.0U
Der day ..................... 27a75
Bounty ......... 100
Additional bounty ............. lOO
Total .......... .......... s1,os1.25
If he had remained at home, SO vigor-
Gus and capable a workman as he would
have averaged not less than $3.50 n day.
The probability is that his earnings would
have more nearly averaged So day.
There are 313 working days in the year,
and taking the lowest figure he would
have gotten, at least, $7S2.5O year, or
for his three years, $2,347.50. Therefore,
it is clear that every man who served
Government three years must have made
an actual donation to it from the wages
he would have received had he remained
at home of an average of more than
81 600. If we multiply this by the num-
Der 2,320,272 men, to which the War De-
partment reduces the aggregate of three
years. service, we shall find that the men
who served in the armies of the United
States actually presented to the Govern
ment, 1920, 272, 600, or nearly what the
bond-holders lent it, which at its highest
figure was S2,24S,067,3 1897.
Therefore, if the Government today
should give a $12 Service Pension, and
continue to pay that to every veteran of
the rebellion now living to the end of his
days, and then to his widow after him to
to the total of the pension payments to
date, would fall several billions short Of
the amount which has been paid to the
bondholders in principal and interest for
their loans, which were approximately
the sum of the soldiers donations. This
is putting the Service Pension strictly
upon a|business basis, with no sentiment
whatever. 1t is not taking into account
the supreme service rendered in saw
ing the country from destruction, nor the
salvage equitably due the men who did
this and made the present prosperity pos
sible. A Service Pension would be in the
end only payment of most just debt
to long waiting creditors who deserve
everything. It would be simply put
ting the men who gave the Govern
ment the priceless gifts of their
young manhood, their strength, and their
lives, on the same plane with those who
merely lent it few dollars. The Govern
ment very righteously paid its bondhold-
ers several times over the actual value of
every dollar that they lent. In asking
for Service Pension we only ask the
Government to pay back a moiety Of what
the men who saved it from destruction
freely donated to it.
THE POSTAL CHECK SYSTEM.
While the old postal currency of the war
period and the years succeeding was a