The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-07
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When Commissioner Ware had com pleted his annual report and got his provisional proofs he gazed with some satisfaction on one sentence. This sen tence was we'll finished and it showed the Commissioner, even under the stress of official cares. had not lost mordant humor that characterizes both his verse and his prose. He had been moved to say: If so many young wo- men were not attracted by the charm of an old soldiers pension and had not married old soldiers. the death rate would show a pleasing regularity in the diminution of the pension roll" The phrase, pleasing regularity" was too much for the robust phalanx of men and women crowding about the trough of the Treasury. They proved their vigor by such an instant and genuine outburst of wrath. that the Commis- sioner, who is a verse-maker with d mentally wooden leg outfit. stumped in great haste back into his office and re- wrote the passage. In the revised yer sion he drops abundant tears over the sad fact that so many. many of the old veterans are being carried of by death.
 We are not inviting the sheer. that Is commonly enough in use, at the ex- pense of any Southern man or news paper when the corrupt pension system of the Government is criticized, how well aware that the system is as perma- nent almost as the Washington monu- ment, and that the South Is compelled by the necessities of the situation to acquiesce in one of the worst systems of plunder that ever afflicted a country. civilized or uncivilized. We are privi- legged, however, to look on, as we help foot the bill, and obtain what amuse ment we may out of the struggling awkward conflict that is waging all ways, between the sense and conscience of good Northern people and the never lessening band of the rapaciously needy combined for an assault upon the treas ury.
 There has never been popular Com" missioner of Pensions and there never will be. The appetite of the pension crowd Is incapable of satisfaction. They drove Evans under a cloud of contumely from the office of Commissioner, and sacrificing to their hatred and to q sounder public opinion at the same time, he was sent as Consul General Ao .b service of the Government. Commis sioner Ware Is one of the Presidents own discoveries. He is more or less capable lawyer, of marked individuality and with a strong inclination for a Republican, to honest mental opera tions. Of course he Is growing more and more unpopular with the pension gang and there are rumors repeated over and over again. that he has de- cided to quit in disgust. He holds on waiting for the impossible successor that will bring contentment to the mill lion now on the rolls, desiring increases and the tens of thousands standing ex pectantly by awaiting some relaxation Tn the law that WILL dSSuTo tHcH h bountyfed existence.
 It Is not the least comic feature of the whole deplorable business, that the famous .r bit of usurpation, Executive order number 7S, by which 1t was de- signed to swell enormously the list of pensioners in view of an approaching election, has been received by the Grand Army of the Republic, sullenly and despondently. They look on 1t as a deliberate effort to thwart the united efforts of many years to secure a ser vice pension, The service pension, they think, has suffered a back-set and many years of labor must be again devoted to bringing the plunder system to a point as near realization as it was. in poodle opinion, when order 7S was promul- gated.