The National tribune., 1910-12-01
"OVERHAULING THE PENSION
IJSTy

Harper's Weekly is about the only
paper of National circulation which
has given the Worlds Works Pension
| Carnival serious consideration and be-
| lief. 1t says editorally:
"Mr. William Bayard Hales articles
in the Worlds Work about pensions
are pretty dolefUl reading. Hardly any
one questions that pensions have been
shockingly overdone and that our pen
sion system is hOneyCombed with poll
tics and fraud and that the great eH-
tensions have been planned and carried
thru with too little purpose to afford
relief to veterans and their dependent
ones who deserve and need it, and too
much desire to keep up a vast eXpendi-
ture to enrich pension agents, to rivet
high protection upon the country, and
to hold the old-soldier vote to the Re-
publican Party. Pensions this year Will
cost the people about 151 millions. The
laws under which these pensions are
paid will stand. To repeal any of them
is not suggested. The sums paid out
under them will fail Oft rapidly in the
course of the next 10 years, provided no
wholesale new pension legislation is en-
acted. What is to be done is to induce
a critical attitude on the part of Con-
gresS and the Administration and all
future Administrations toward pension
legislation. 1t ought to de damned,
strong and tight. Further than that.
it may ne possible. if the. inspiration
is strong enough. to overhaul the PEN
sion list and excise from it the swim
dIers, of whom there must be an enor-
nous number. No merited pension is
grudged, no lawful pension under ex-
isting laws, good or bad, is in any dam
tl,a ct ,trr1,t
properly he examined. and further reck-
less legislation should be stopped. The
pension iobberS doubtless feel that they
and their clients have now vested
right in about O.O0O. 900 of the tax
payers money, and that the rate of in
crease must march with diminishing
numbers. For that idea they are like
ly to find plenty of backing, tho there
is encouragement in the recollection
that the next Pension Committee in |
the House will not be named by Uncle |
Joe"
If much in this were not hypocritical
we should give it cordial support. I'm |
men who talk about mo !
merited pension is grudeed, no lawful /
pension under existing laws, good or
bad, is in any danger of attack" are
too frequently men who are opposed to
pensions of any kind. The veterans of
the Grand Army of the Republic have
not the slightest objection to the pen
sion list being carefully overhaulcd by
the most expert scrutiniZers that can
be put at the work. They do decided
ly object however. to any such an on
slaught as Cleveland made. where the
pensioners were dropped and compelled
after a long lapse of years and the
death or removal of witnesses made It
to reproye claims. There
can be 40 successful contradiction Of
the fact that the pension list is con-
stantly receiving closer and moro severe
by any other Department Of the Gov
expenditures. The fact which
Harper's Weekly and the Worlds Work
are ignorant of, whether innocently or
is that it requires more proof
10 get on the pension roll than would
be necessary to convict a man in a
criminal court of serious crime. This
every one KNOWS VINO KNOWS anything
about the administration Of the Pension
Bureau. When man raises a shrek
over the ease with which pensions can
De Obtained he simply exposes his own
ack of knowledge of the difficulty Of
getting on the pension list. We should
nave no difficulty in pointing out thou
'ands OF mcritOrious men and women
Who deserve a place on the pension
list, but are dcbarred by the strict ex-
.cution of the law. The concluding
ling that the next Pension Commit
ee will not be named by Uncle Joe 1
canon is on a par with the rest of the
irticle. The next Pension Committee
Hill probably be made up largely from
he present membership, with the rank I
ng Democrat on the Committee ap-
pointed as Chairman. Such is the prac-
ice, and il is an excellent one, as it ;
ssures continuity of policy and an ex- !
pert knowledge of the subject.