The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-20
AN EXTRAORDINARY USE OF
POWER.

| adopted without discussion the reso-
luton introduced on Friday by Sem
ator Overman of North Carolina. ask
ing for information in regard to the
! order issued a day or two ago by the
Commissioner of Pensions, granting a
pension to every soldier who served on
the Union side in the Civil War on
reaching the age of 62. 1t would have
been strange indeed if Congress had
taken no notice whatever of this ex-
| traordinary exhibition of the executive
power.
Naturally the Republicans. on the
eve of a presidential campaign. dis
like to do anything calculated to show
lack of confidence in the man who,
in all probability, will be their candi-
date for President. but if Congress
had let this act of the President pass
unnoticed it would have subjected it,
self to criticism of a very severe kind.
For years that body has been impor-
tuned by the Grand ArmySof the Re-
public and by pension attorneys to
provide for a service pension, but it
has never dared to comply with the
request, because the sentiment of the
country was against it. And yet the
President, without consulting Congress,
took it upon himself to do what Con-
gress had not dared to do. Not sat
isfied with exercising executive author
ity he usurped legislative functions. He
practically said to Congress that it
need not bother itself about the ques-
ton of granting a service pension, that
he would attend to that.
Nobody knows what a service PEN
sion win cost. The Commissioner of
Pensions admitted that he couldn't
give even an approximate estimate.
There is good reason for thinking, how
ever, that the cost will not be below
$26, OOO, 900 year for the first few years.
and that it will ultimately reach more
than s5O,OOO,OO0 a year.
And that vast sum is to be taken
out of the treasury annually by a
stroke of the Presidents pen. Ii he
consulted anybody about the matter
outside of the Commissioner of Pen
sions and the Secretary of the Interior
the fact has not been made known.
Doubtless he did talk with some of his
party leaders in regard to it. 1t Is
not improbable that the leaders told
him that there was no prospect that
Congress would pass a service pension
bill at this session, and that If he want
ed to get the full benefit of the sol
der vote in the presidential election
( the course to pursue was to take 1t
upon himself to order a pension for
every old union soldier who had reach
ed the age of 60. whether he was suf-
fering from a disability or not.
OF course there is a semblance of
authority for this pension. 1t is found
in the act of June q. 1890. That
act, together with the act giving every
survivor of the Mexican war a pen
sion thirty-nine years after the close
of that war; was the basis of the order.
At the date fixed for the beginning of
the presidential service pension thirty
nine years will have elapsed since the
close of the Civil War.
The friends of the administration and
the pension attorneys are saying that
for three or four years the cost of this
service pension will not be more than
81, 900, 900 or 100000 a year, but it
will be remembered that the Republi-
cans said when the pension burden had
reached $50, 900 year that it would
never go above that amount. And yet
the country has seen it. under the ne
cessity of holding fast to the soldier
vote, go to $15S, 900 a year. 1t is now
about $1Ss.00O,0OO a year.
1t is impossible to predict what
course Congress will take in regard to
the matter, but it is almost certain that
the minority portion of that body will
express itself pretty freely in regard
to it. 1t will doubtless point out that
man who takes it upon himself to
increase the expenditures of the gov
eminent $25 O0O.0 900 to $50.O00,000 a year,
without consulting Congress, is hardly
the one the people want at the head
Of the government. There is no tell
ing what he would do. Some day the
country might be startled by finding
itself so entangled with foreign ma
tions that war couldn't be avoided, just
as it has been surprised by an increase
in the governments expenditures of
many millions of dollars year for pen
sAons.