The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-10
pENs1oNINa THE NEGROES.

varied comment He gives IL out thal he introduced the bill by request and | intimates that he cares nothing for IL, put that statement may be taken cum grano
 sails. As Dickens says of Joey Bag stock. He's tough, ma'am-tough Is J. B.; tough and devilish sly" ' So Is Mark Hanna in politics. He is both tough and sly when there is any | thing to be gained by it. All this talk about his Presidential candidacy is not | mere Idle gossip. There Is something be- hind it and back or it. To assume that 1t is all without his consent is a violent | assumption. If he did not actually origi- | nate the sentiment 1t is safe to say that l he is not trying to stop 1t. It is a case
 where "Barkis is willn'," and he would be a bold man who would assert that Hanna is not secretly pleased at the boom he is getting.
 What stronger card could he play in his own interest than this pension scheme? We think it may safely be taken for granted that the Southern delegations to the next national Republi-
 can Convention will be of the usual stripe. There is great deal of talk about the Lily White" movement, and
 many and strong asseverations to the
 effect that the South will send only
 white men to that convention, but 1t is
 all wind. The great body of the Repub-
 lican party is bound, both by pledge and
 precedent. to admit colored delegates. and
 the convention can't go back on 1t and hope for negro votes. North or South. for their ticket. The color line will not
 be drawn in the Convention. and Han mas proposition is of the right kind to bind all the colored men to him. Noth- ing appeals to the average negro with greater force than money. and no more potent argument could be used by
 putting them on the pension list. The
 bounty that is to be paid under this bill
 would catch ninety per cent of them. to say nhothing of a life pension.
 The Kansas City Journal, while not | opposing or advocating the bill in direct terTnS says or II:
 By the census of 1860 there were 3,953.- 760 slaves in the United States. The ac- tual number freed by the emancipation proclamations of September 22, lS6S. and December IS. 1885, cannot be given, but it must have been over 100000. How many of these negroes still live is problematic. But using a basis for calculation the fact that thirty-six out of every 100 of the Civil war veterans are now on the pen- sion rolls. it might reasonably be asserted that there are at least 1,4o0,000 old slaves yet living who would eventually all be granted by Senator Hanna's bill, should 1t become law. Perhaps half of them are over 50 years of age. So disburse- 1 ments for pensions would be at once in- creased by S69, 600,000 annually, about one half times greater than the sum they az gregate now. These figures do not take into account the bounties provided for, which would reach considerably over the sum of S145,0O0,0o0
 We do not remember whether this bill
 has been printed in full or not but under its provisions colored persons over 50 years of age, and less than 60, male or female. shall receive a cash bounty of $1O0 and monthly pensions of $s per month; persons between to and 70 years
 old. bounty of $500 and pension of yl2 per month, and persons over 70 years old a bounty of $500 and a pension of $l5
 per month. The bill also provides for the payment of the bounty and pensions to relatives who may be charged with the care of ex-slaves.
 This, as will be seen is a sweeping measure, and would be wealth, in the eyes of the average negro. To those over 70 years of age the bounty would
 buy a good home and the pension would support them if they had the capacity to use 1t properly, which a majority of them have not. That the passage of the
 bill would be the signal for the pension sharks to get to work is beyond doubt. They would bleed the negroes with as much facility as they would swindle the Government. The amount of fraud that
 would be perpetrated, the number of fraudulent claims that would be filed, and the many ways which would be de- groes of their money can only be con- jectured, but 1t would be a rich field, not only for conscientious pension agents but for the larger body of takers and swindlers.
 To the white people of the South there are strong arguments both for and against the bill. In its favor would be the fact that 1t would turn loose in the South an immense sum of money an- nually. Even admitting that no advant- age would be taken of the pensioners in any way they would have to spend their money just as others do, whether they are white or black. They must purchase farms and farm stock, provisions and clothes and other necessaries just as the white people do, and most of the money would be spent at home. To say noth- ing of the bounties, the turning loose each year of fifty to seventy-tive million dol lars in the South would be a welcome addition to our circulating medium. This, too, if the negroes are all treated with absolute fairness and justice.
 For more than a generation the peo- pie of the South have been paying out millions of dollars annually to pension the Union soldiers Even if all these pensions were absolutely deserving and fair 1t would make no difference in the result. The money is paid by our peo- pie and very little of 1t comes back. The amount which would come South under