Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-10-07
BIG PENSION CAMPAIGN
General Blacks Plan to Help
 the Veterans.
A LARGE INCREASE FAVORED.

One of From s21 1,0Oo,e to $3o,-
 OO0, 0,OOO-Every Veteran Sixty-two
 Years old Without Pemion Who Had Sixty Days' Actual Service to Receive a Stipend.
 General John c. Black, the new con- the Republic, has begun his admins tration by declaring in favor of an in- crease of the pension expenditures of the government that would amount to from $21 100000 to $30,O0O,00O year and would run the total payments up from the present figure of S140,OO0, 900 to $161, 100000 or $170, 0,000, ,OOO, says the Washington correspondent of the New York Herald.
 General Black has declared that it will be the policy of the Grand Army of the Republic to fight from now on for pension for every veteran of the civil war more than sixty-two years old who saw sixty days of actual serv- ice and for his widow after him. This means that General Black intends to commit the Grand Army of the Re P0bAAS CO Sd NAAApcA5A A0A CAAS 0A0ASAc@A of at least 100000 names to the 1,000,- GOO already on the pension rolls.
 The commissioner of pensions, MT. Ware, estimates the number of sur vivors of the civil war who are not now drawing pensions at more than 100000. He says they may number 225,OOO. If the proportion of widows to survivors is as great as was the pro- portion of widows to survivors at the corresponding date after the Mexican war, there are probably a few more than 100000 widows of civil war vet erans who are not now drawing pen sions It is difficult to estimate what proportion of the survivors are sixty two years old or more, but it is quite probable that enough are of that age to bring the total number of new pen sioners, including the widows, up to about 100000.
 The amount that this would add to the annual pension expenditures would depend upon the rate of pension to be allowed. If a service pension law should be enacted it is safe to say that the rate would not be less than l$6 a LuOuIu, OI ptG q yOt1i. AL tAl1o AclCC thC addition of 3Oo,OO0 names to the roll would add $21, ,6O0,OOO to the annual expenditures.
 Advocates of service pension for the civil war would hardly, however, be contented with such beggarly pit tance as $6 a month, especially in view of the fact that the last congress in- creased the rate of pension for sur vivors of the Mexican war to SIP a month, or $144 a year. 1t is certain that congress would not give the sur vivors of the civil war service pen sion of SIP month
 It is probable that if such pension should be provided for the rate would be $8 month. This would involve in creasing the pensions of 37.748 pension CTS who are now. drawing less than $8 a month and would bring the addition al expenditures up to approximately $30, ,0OO, GOO.
 An idea of how long the civil war pension roll is certain to maintain for midable proportions, whether service pension law is enacted within the next few years or not, can be based on the fact that there are on the pension roll, fifty-five years after the close of the Mexican war, 5,964 survivors of that war and 1910 widows, or total of 13,S74 pensioners on account of the lit tie army of 78,T18 men that partici- pated in it. At the same ratio there will still be on the pension rolls in 1921, or fifty-five years after the date Ill, <f3 3Oo the close of the civil war, no less than 100000 pensioners on account of that war.
 Some further idea of the longevity of pension rolls may be obtained from the fact that there are now on the rolls, eighty nine years after the close of the war Sof 1872, one survivor and 1,115 widows, and, although it is 12O years since the close of the war of the Revo- lution, there are still on the pension roll two widows of soldiers of that war. Tn other words, widows of sur vivors of the civil war in considerable numbers will still be drawing, pensions in the year 1886.
 Many of the future widows of civil war veterans are little girls in pina- flores. Many more of them are being rocked in their cradles. Some of them have not yet been born. It is now thirty-seven years after the official close of the civil war. The younger of the two surviving widows of vet erans of the war of the Revolution, Esther S. Damon of Vermont, was not born until 1914, or thirty-one years after the official close of the war. Within the last few years widows of the Revolutionary war have died who were born more than thirty seven years after the close of the war.
 The willingness of girls to marry old pensioners is proverbial. One Gf the widows of the Revolution who died during the last year was Nancy Jones, who was born in 1S16, or thirty three years after the close of the war, and who married Darling Jones, survivor of that war, in 1882, when he was six weight years old and she was sixteen.