Arizona republican., 1903-05-23
PuoENIX. ARIZONA, MAY 2s, 19O
The Spanish War Pensioners.


 The official figures as to pensions for service in the Spanish war are at uactirg general attention. Much sur prise has been expressed that there should be 90 much mere disability, proportiorately for service in the brief ncsuuue5 with Spain than on account of services ia the civil war. Ore explanation, doubtless. is to be found in the fact that service in the tropics was extremely hurtful to the raw volunteers. This would apply, however. to out a small proportion of the volunteer army, for most of the soldiers remained in camp throughout the war. The wretched sanitary condi- tion oi most of the volunteer camps caused epidamics of fever. and this would account to some extent for the many applications from former sol diers. who saw no service in the field. still another explanation is to be found. we suppose, in the greater lib crality of the pension laws now as compared with the laws immediately following the close of the civil war.
 The pension commissioner figures show that seven years after the close of the civil war cnly six per cent Of the soldiers who served in the Union army had applied for pensions. Al ready more than twenty per cent of the men who enlisted in the army for the war with Spain have filed pension ap- plicatioEs. Eleven per cent of the men who fought in the Twentieth Kansas with Funston are on the list of pen sion applicants. But strangely enough, many regiments which saw no actual service have higher percentage than this, but even tFeTwentieth Kansas has a far greater average of men car lied on the application list than the average of civil war regiments at d corresponding time after the close O.: the war.
 Eugene F. Ware, the pension com missioner, has prepared a special state pnt covering the Spanish war pension applications, showing that the number Of applicants under the head of Tn valids" is 57046. and those under the head of Widows and Dependents" is S,39C. There have been allowed 9.2S1 invalid pensions and 3,16O Of the widows and deDcndents' class.
 A total of 131S5 claims have been rejected, leaving 34.21O claims pending on May l. the date to which Cornrlis- sioaer Ware brought down his figures. New applications are coming in daily by the hundreds. Greater precautions were taken in the mastering out pro cess of the volunteer army in 1898 and 1899 than ever before to guard against just the condition that is TOW threat eriag the pension bureau. Wherever it was practicabl surgeons of the reg ular army were detailed to make the examination Of the men mustered out And those surgeons were extremely careful to state the exact physical con- diticn of the men examined with the view Of preventing a too ready and in- discriminate resort by discharged sol diers to the methods advised by pen sion agents.
 But it appears from the number of claims already made that great pro- portion of the men who wore the uni form cf the army between the spring of 1928 and the summer of 1901 has de- termined to ask the government for life pension for the service rendered than any other army ever raised by the United States. Tn the last annual report he made before he left the pen sion commissioners office, H. Clay Evans observed that at the close of the | year 1872 (eleven years after the be- ginning of the civil war and seven years after it's close) onIy about per cent of the soldiers who served in the Union army had filed claims flor inn paired health or disability resulting from their period of service" More l than two-thirds Of the men listed for the Spanish war were mustered cut in | the fall of 1898. Very few of this uum- l Der saw any actual service. A few volunteer regiments participated in the Santiago campaign with Shafter. and only one of these-the presidents rough riders-had the chance to do any hard fighting.
 The volunteer organizations that were kept in the service after the Paris treaty oi peace was agreed to in De - - -------------------- ----