The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-02-26
UNITED STATES
WAR PENSIONS
They Now Amount $40,
100000 Or One Fourth Of
the Expense Of the Gov
ernment <.,-s
SPANISH WARS BIG LIST
IT EXCEEDS THE WHOLE NUM-
BIER IN sHAFTER's ARMY CIV
IL WAR AND REVOLUTIONARY
RELICS

On the pension roll of the United
States to-day are pensioners from every
war in which this country has ever en-
gagged, from the Revolution down to the
present day, including the Philippine in
surrection. All but about "a LOCO of the
million recipients of our national pension
fund are a heritage from the war for
the Union Think of it. Forty years
after the close of that war, nearly $780,
900 people are still drawing pensions
based upon the services of themselves or
others in that struggle. Twenty years ago
it was commonly asserted that forty
years after the war there would be few
old soldiers left, and that the appropria-
tions would begin to decline. As mat
ter of fact. the falling off in the amount
of Civil War pensions is less than a mil
lion this year from the average of the
past fifteen years. The old boys who
fought for the country in the sixties
were certainly hearty lot of men, and
they didn't seem to have any race sui
eide ideas. either.
How stupendous some of these pension
figures are can only be realized by COM
parison. The valet of all the property in
the United States at the beginning Of the.
Civil War was computed at Sic. 600. GEO.,
COO. of which $4,000, 100000 was put
down as the value of the slaves. The
cost of the war was about $6,000.000,-
GEO. Since the close of the war we have
paid out over $4,000, ,ooO, 900 in pensions
on account Of that struggle. We are
still paying out more than a hundred
millions year on its account. 1t has
been officially estimated that the last
Civil War pensioners will not disappear
from the lists before 1890, and that by
that time the total Civil War pensions
will have. amounted to a sum equal to
the first cost of the war. In other words,
the total cost of the war for the preser-
vation of the Union, including the pen.
sions, will have been as much as the en-
tire wealth. in the country at the time
the war was begun.
1t is 123 years since the close of the
War. of the Revolution, but there were,
at the close of the last fiscal year, five
Revolutionary War pensioners left on the
lists. The last survivor of the War of
1912, Hiram Cronk, died last May. but
there are 776 persons still drawing PEN
sions because of that war. Pensions We're
paid last year to 4,540 survivors of the
Mexican War, and to 1868 Mexican War
widows and children; to 2,269 Indian
War survivors and 3,461 widows and de-
pendents of soldiers who served in the
Indian Wars.
How comparatively small is the pen
sion list from the regular army Is shown
by the fact that there were paid in the
last fiscal year 81. .723, ,O17.24 to S,1s5
army and 1886 navy pensioners, and
$696, ,56S.49 to widows and pensioners in
the class of widower etc, being 1852
from the army and 1,161 from the navy.
It viii be seen that the total pensions to
widows and others from the regular es-
tablishment was less than the sum paid
in pensions to widows and other surviv-
ing dependents of Mexican War soldiers.
The rami6cations Of the pension list,
and the length of time surviving pension
ers remain away from any war may be
roughly GUESSED at by the fact, as shown
by these figures, that ffty-eight years
after the Mexican War there are Il, ,239
pensioners remaining from war begun
before the present President of the
United States was born. The endless
chain isn't in it with the pension system
for everlasting and big figures.
1t is a peculiar fact that the increase
in pensions has Just about kept pace with
the decrease Of the public debt since the
close Of the Civil War. The interest and
principal of the war debt reached their
maximum in 1857 Pensions in that year
amounted to $40, ,98s. .551, and interest to
$143, ,7s1, ,591, total of s164,715. .142.
Last year the combined sum of the PEN
sion list and the interest on the public
debt was s1e6,S84, ,9oS, or only about
million and half more than the COM
bined amount Of these two items thirty
Headaches and Neuralgia sroma Colds
Laxative Bromo Ouinina, the world wide