The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-27
A TERRIBLE WAR.

AS the war with Spain slips further
and further into the past, ii appears
to have been a terrible and more ter
rible conflict. During its continuance
it was not regarded as a very serious
affair. Indeed, in some quarters 1t
was treated as more of a military
practice maneuver than as a real test
of strength on the part of the United
States. There were only about three
battles that amounted to anything; two
on the water and one on land. The
whole thing was over before the new
uniforms of the officers and men be-
gan to show noticeable signs of wear
and tear, and volunteers who had en-
listed at seed-time were being sent
home before harvest. Indeed, two
thirds of the men who volunteered for
the war in the spring of 1898 were mus
tered out in the fall of that year. And
yet, to judge from the records of the
pension Office, that short war with
Spain resulted in a greater percentage
of wounded, diseased and disabled men
than any war the country has ever
engaged in. Probably no war in the
history of the world ever had such
record.
Up to May l, more than % per cent
of the Spanish war volunteers had ap-
piled to the government to be put on
its pension rolls for life, in considera-
ton of alleged disabilities suffered in
the service. The number of applica-
tione for mansions clad IN ~ +bot Jota
was above $1,000. New applications are
being received at the bureau at a rate
that warrants the belief that within an
other twelve months so per cent. of
the volunteers for the Spanish war
will be applicants for pensionsl And
that will not exhaust the possibilities
of the situation, either. The pension
attorneys are active, and will con-
tinue active as long as there is ma
terial to work on.
1t will be recalled that very few of
the volunteer commands saw actual
service during the war. Two or three
of them went to Santiago with Shafter,
and they We're the only ones under fire.
Some others went to Cuba and Porto
Rico for garrison duty, and a few went
to the Philippines. The Philippine con-
tingent, by the way, had a harder time
of it than any of the others; and, odd
ly enough, there are fewer applications
for pensions from the Philippine regi-
ments than from those that never got
out of the detention camps.
When the volunteers were mustered
out, surgeons of the regular army ex-
amined them critically, for the pur-
pose, it was stated at the time, of fore
stalling a possible attempt to raid the
treasury through the pension office
just such an attempt is now apparently
being made. But the pension attorneys
nevertheless are pouring in a veritable
flood of applications.
1t is worthy of note In this connec-
ton that relatively a few of the APP
plications are from the South; the
great bulk of them are from the North
and West. 1t is stated that from a
certain New York regiment applica-
tions have been made for pensions by
more than so per cent. of its enlisted
strength, and there are other Northern
and Western regiments from which 80
TO As per cent. of the men are asking
for pensions.
Seven years after the close of the
Civil War less than per cent. of the
men of the Union army, who had gone
through upwards of four years of ex-
tremely bitter fighting, were applicants
for pensions. Now, less than five years
after the close of the Spanish war
more than % per cent. of the volun-
teers are asking pensions and the pre-
diction is made that 30 per cent. will
be pension applicants within year.
To Judge from these facts, the Spanish
war must have been much more
terrible conflict than the Civil War.