The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-03-31
c0yNT VETS AND WIDOWS
.,rE PENSION DEPARTMENT
WANTS TO KNOW HOW MANY
0F THEM THERE ARE.

,TT.ANTA.-1Ow many confeder-
,+a veterans and the widows of vet
vans are there in Georgia today?
T5is question has led Colonel ]. w.
Lindsey, state pension commissioner,
- nlan an extensive investigation.
within the next week he will issue
circular letter to the county or
,inaries. tax receivers and the COM
handlers of U. G. V. camps, asking
that they cooperate with him in de-
termining just how many survive.
commissioner Lindsey wants the in
formatiOn to lay before the next gen
oval assembly, when the proposition
to broaden the states pension laws
will probably be up. Under an
amendment to the constitution adopt
Cd at the last session, and approved
bv the people in October, the state
now has power to pay pensions to all
veterans and the widows of all vet
Grams owning not more than fifteen
hundred dollars worth of property.
In the case of widows the wedding
must have occurred previous to 1870.
An effort will be made to deter
mine Just how many persons would
probably ask for pensions in case the
provisions were put into law, for
which an effort will be made when
the legislature convenes. 1t is the
desire of Colonel Lindsey to be able
to place authoritative figures before
the two houses, for upon his esti-
mates whatever legislation is adopt
ed will be in large part based.
At the present time about 5000
persons are drawing pensions from
the state government. A large part
of these are the widows of veterans.
Many estimate that if the pension
laws were brOadened so as to cover
practically all old soldiers or their
widows the present pension digest
would be at least doubled, the es-
innate being based on the present
$50 annual pension of general char
acter Advocates of the amendment
declared that in the long run the
state would be put to no more ex-
pense than at present in the matter
of pensions, claiming that the old
soldiers are dying so rapidly that
differences would soon even up.
Remarkable Fact.
1t is remarkable that so many vet
Grams of the confederate army still
survive, when it is remembered that
all must be over so years old The
war closed in 1865, and it's youngest
members were not less tnan Is years
of age. The forty-fifth anniversary
Of the close will soon be here. A
year hence all veterans who were no
more than fifteen at the close will
necessarily be sixty. Few of those
who served through the entire Strug-
gle can be less than siXty-fve, and it
is natural to presume that very few
of the fOur-year survivors are that
young
Commissioner Lindsay is authority
for the statement that there are no
surviving veterans under sixty, eX-
cepting possibly members of the state
militia who were never enlisted into
the regular service of the confeder-
acy
Yet it is estimated that there are
between 10000 and $4,000 men alive
in Georgia today who saw actual SER
vice in the struggle between the
states. AS evidence of their most
unusual hardihood is the fact that
many of them are doing active, re-
sponsible work, just as we'll, in many
cases a great deal better, than is
done by the average young men of
the day
Twenty Per Cent. Die Annually.
General Mickle, adjutant, and
Gen. Clement A. Evans, commander
Of the national U. V. c., estimated
sometime ago that there are between
$4,000 and 10000 survivors, all
told, of the armies that followed Lee
and Jackson. They estimated fur
Their that these were dying at the
rate of 20 or 25 per cent.
Mr.. Lindsey has tried to arrive at
an appropriate estimate by means of
the Insurance casualty tables; but
the veterans have outlived the fig
ures of the insurance companies,
which deal with ages up to 60 alone.
According to insurance tables about
all the veterans should be dead.