The National tribune., 1904-05-26
A METHODIST PAPER
ON PENSIONS.
A Splendid Plea for His Comrades by
the Editor of the Christian Advocate.
From the Christian Advocate, April Z,
1904

1904
Much excitement has been created by
an order of the Pension Department which
enlarges the pension act Of June q. 1890
by making a convenient rule Of decision
and REPUTABLE presumption of fact, that
one who is otherwise entitled to pension
and is 60 years old, is partially disabled
from earning livelihood by his hands;
that one who is IS years old is more dis
abled for manual labor; that one who is
SO years old is in still greater degree in
capable of earning support in that way:
and one 20 years old is completely dis
abled in this regard.
1t has been affirmed that this is a
usurpation Of power on the part of the
Secretary of the Interior and of the Pres
ident of the United States. who approves
it. To explain it the Secretary directs
attention to the fact that under the act
of June q, 1890, disability, partial or
complete, to perform manual labor is the
sole measure of the right to a pension"
He shows that in the adjudication of the
pension claim, "if it shall be determined
that the applicants pensionable disabil-
tiles render him wholly incapacitated for
manual labor, his pension rating will be
accOrdingly;"-even though the applicant
may then be occupied, with distinguished
usefulness, i'm some field of intellectual IN
deavOr. All the decisions under that :"t
have uniformly recognized the primer Q
that disabilities which are due to old age
alone are pensionable. He proves this by
an order of September. 1893. under which
the age of Is years entitled the applicants
to a maximum amount, and mentioned
three cases of the kind
We have always been interested in the
subject of pensions; more particularly as
regiment of 1, 900 of which the writer was
appointed Chaplain was by imprisonment
disease. wounds, and death reduced to less
than $50 men.
Our propositions on pensions i'm general
and on this phase are these:
Proposition 1. That this country at the
time of the civil war had but the skeleton
of standing army"
=. A great patriotic uprising furnished
material for the formation of as powerful
an army as any Nation ever put into the
field.
3. The pay of soldiers was small. by
no means sufficient to support their fam
lilies or to admit of their saving much ii
they sent any home.
4. The sacrifices that many made were
extremely great inflicting untold suffering
upon parents and upon wives and chill
dren.
5. The sacrifices of business interests
and the loss of skill in business by Austen
ton therefrom, especially in expert artisan
work. were very great.
6. Most who were imprisoned, whether
wounded or not, were subjected to suffer
ings the effect of which upon the cOnstitu-
tiOn would never cease
{. Many who were neither in prison nor
had wounds suffered such exposures and
contracted such fevers and other maladies
as never thereafter to be as vigorous as
they were before.
8. OF actual disqualifying wounds it is
not necessary to say anything. Each
wound has tongue of it's own, as a thou
sand orators and poets have said.
9. Whether or not soldier was wound
ed. when he entered the army he took all
the risks. and no human being is compe-
tent to say whether as the effects of old
age come on they have not come sooner
than they would had it not been for his
exposures in the army.
10. Of course as the war progressed and
the need of soldiers increased, bounties
were paid. and after bounties began to be
paid no doubt many men waited before
they enlisted until bOunties had become as
large as they were likely to be. Such per-
sons could hardly prove that they were ac
tuated by such patriotic enthusiasm as led
many of the first volunteers to respond to
the Nations call. On the other hand, many
who waited for the bounty had domestic
circumstances and personal obligations i'm
the way of debt, that would have made it
brutal toward their families and dishonest
toward their creditors for them to serve
for the pay that was at first offered to the
soldier. This being matter incapable of
settlement. the practice of giving pensions
in old age to all who were honOrably dis
charged is in harmony with common sense
The earlier enlisters had only vague
knowledge Of war and its horrors. The
later enlisters knew, and many Of them
had felt, directly or in their friends, all its
evils
II. Who that contrasts the cost of the
standing armies of Europe and the terrific
burden placed upon the population of Rus
STA. Austria. Germany, and other nations
where the young men are cOnScripted
into the army-with the situation of the
American citizen. and the Government of
the States and Of the United States, will
hesitate to express preference for our
methods. including both bo,Inties and pen
slons! A country must depend either on
great standing armies or the responsive
ness of its citizens. A country sure of the
latter need not assume the burdens of the
former.
II. The manner i'm which the Govern
ment of the United States has dealt with
it's volunteers makes it certain that i'm case
of defensive war. or of any war that ac-
tually involved the sympathies and con-
scientious beliefs. of the people, it could
rely upon a response which, notwithstand-
ing all that has been done already in our
not inglorious history, would astonish
every existing monarchy.
In view of these considerations we sym-
pathize entirely with the extension of the
rule to veterans 62 years of age The Act
ing Commissioner of Pensions, Davenport.
says that there are supposed to be living
to-day about $4,000 ex-Union soldiers OF
the civil war. Of these are pensioned un-
der the act of July IA. 1862. about 265. 600
and under the act of June q. 1890, about
42S,OOO These two estimates give to-
tai of $4,000. There remain 1872. 900 who
have not applied for pensions.
1t is not known how many failed to
serve the required 80 days and receive
final honorable discharge The Acting
Commissioner says that one-fourth seems
to be a fair estimate, and this reduces the
number to 136.50O. He also states that
to say that $1,000 Of these have reached
the age of SO and will apply seems a rea-
sonabe estimate. If these $4,000 are all
placed on the rolls at So month, or $40
year, the output for pensions will be