The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-03-12
THE GENERAL BENEFIT OF PENSION PAY
MENT

Every student of political economy will say
at once that it is not so much the amount
of money in a country as its general dlfu'
sion. and the facility Of its movement
which are of benefit to the people. Money
in country is like its water. All the Wa
ter may be gathered into ponds, and lie
there diseasebreeding and useless, while
the soil few yards away is parching I'M
der the intolerable heat of Summer. The
water is only beneficial to the land when
it is constantly moving-falling upon the
dry uplands, percolating slowly through
them back to the ponds, to be again raised
from them, to shower upon the uplands
in a rain which reaches every particle OF
the earth.
The tendency of the money of the couIl-
try to stagnate in the hands Of the lew is
as strong as that of the water to seek the
lowest levels and remain there. 1t re-
Guircs efforts as persistent as those OF the
sun and winds upon. the water to prevent
this congestion and force its constant cir
culation.
One of the most powerful agents in this
work is the payment of S14O,OOo,ooO a
wear in pensions. This is over S11,6W,oo0
for every calendar month, making con-
slant. strong. equable diffusion Of great
body of money.
For various reasons and purposes the
Government collects every year about
5000, 100000 from the people. That is. it
gathers UP by its various agencies-inter-
nal revenue, customs service, and other
agencies-about $3.50 a head for every
man, woman and child in the whole coun-
try. 1t does not take this directly from
them, but it draws it almost wholly from
those who are absorbing the money Of the
people. 1t gets about 100000 year
from the big brewery combines, into whose
fills run constantly an immense Missis-
sippi River of the peoples nickels and
dimes. 1t exacts S121 100000 from the
colossal Whisky Trust, which has a NIL
lion nimble hands gathering in the peo-
pies dimes. quarters and halves. 1t de-
mands So 100000 from the mammoth To-
bacco Trust, which battens on the profits
of furnishing men with cigars and smok-
ing tobacco and callow youth with
cigarets. 1t tries to stop the imposition
upon the people of bogus butter and coun-
terfeit cheese by collecting $3,OOO,OOO
yearly from the oIeomargarine manufac-
turers and dealers. 1t protects American
mechanics and farmers from injurious
competition by collecting $255,OO0,OOO in
duties at its custom houses upon foreign
products of the farm and factory, which
iniuriously compete with our own.
Though it collects $91, 100000 more than
it needs for any purpose, public policy de-
mands that it shall continue to do so, and
the last Congress refused to make any
considerable reduction in the revenue.
Getting by these various means all these
hundreds of millions of dollars annually
into the Treasury, it pays the money out
again by tens of millions to support its
army and navy, to build new ships of
war, to meet the interest on its bonded
of exceeding $1,000, 100000,
to erect new public buildings, to pay the
railroads for carrying the mails, for the
salaries Of an army of officials and en-
ployees, etc, etc.
Last year it spent S112, 272, 900 on the
army, $6S,O00,O00 on the navy, $113, 469,-
600 ON "Sundry Civil" expenses, S10O00,-
900 on the Indians, and $50, 000,0 inter-
est on the public debt.
But in none of these is there that pre-
vention of congestion, that healthful stimu-
lus to business, that lifc-giving force of
circulation that there is in the pension
payments.
The money paid out for the army and
navy goes largely to contractors, manu-
facturers and great trusts, which furnish
food, clothing, coal, armor plate, iron and
steel, and guns, powder and lead and
leather goods. Great corporations gulp in
the millions paid out for river and harbor
improvements, public buildings, and carry
ing the mails, while the interest on the
bonds fills the Golfers Of the great banks.
All these millions flow more or less direct
ly into Wall street, TO increase the con-
gestion there. 1t requires the greatest
tiers back to the people.
1t is wholly different with the $40. O0O.-
OCD paid out for pensions. That has no
brand of Wall street upon it. 1t is as
free from the trammel and control of the
financial magnates as the sunshine in the
skies. Hence their bitter hostility.
The pension money goes, a few dollars
at time to each, to men and women scat
tered all over the country. No matter
how small the community, it gets its full
share of it every three months, for every
has its due proportion of pen
sioners. One out of every so men and
women in the country is a pensioner, and
gets on an average about S33 every three
months. That $33 is in health-giving eff
feet on business life equal to any 10 times
the amount expended by the Government
in any other direction. 1t is not boarded
up, it is not invested in bonds, it is not
kited in speculations. 1t is not taken TO
Europe to be squandered in Injuries. 1t