Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-12-23
THE PENSION zn.L+ocroPUs

1t needed but an hour or less Of con-
gressional debate last week to pass
federal pension bill carrying the enorm-
GUS sum of s15s 5000, oOO This is the annual
sum authorized and 1t must come every
year. The civil war closed in April, 1850
-45 years old-to be exact, 40 years and
months These pensions are supposed TO
be paid to the survivors Of the grand
army the Federal forces that overrun
the now defunct Confederacy.
/ 1t is clearly evident that these pension
ers will never die, or at least there are
people who certainly step Into their
places and continue to draw the money.
Every taxpayer in the union is forced
to pay tribute to these pensioners, IN
greater or less degree. II they have but
little they must part with some of what
they do have. II they have considerable
they must run down deep in their pock-
cts and pay 1t out. nilly-willy. There is
no option in this matter. This money,
this tribute money. has got to come.
Southerners as well as the northerners
and westerners must bring in tithes to
the Federal soldier, nearly so years after
the close of hostilities.
| This $156OO0,000 goes only to Federal
soldiers In addition, Georgia (and the
former seceeding states) has to pay an
other enormous pension bill every year,
and 1t is a well known fact that an am
bilious politician win vote for any sort
of pension bill, even though he knows
that the honest labor Of this country will
be taxed thus numerically for another 30
years to come
| we also know that thousands of names
, of pensioners should be eliminated from
the pension rolls because they do not
come up to the requirement, do not be-
long there in Justice and In right. There
has been a violent and incessant scram-
BILE among pension attorneys to put on
names that should not be there, and It
costs every prominent politician his Of
hcial position If he attempts to weed out
the fraudulent names.
Hon. H. Clay Evans, of Tennessee, is
case In point. He Is dead now. but
he as a United States pension commits
sioner. did attempt to revise these pension
rolls and the people who are thus sup
ported from the United States treasury
demanded his official head and got IT,
Like the head of John the Baptist,
which Herodias demanded-he was polit-
ioally decapitated and became a martyr
to that extent. l well remember meet
ing Pennsylvania federal soldier, who
was among the first Volunteers and was
three months soldier under President
Lncoln's frst call for troops. He told
me he only served three months and
was mustered out before the first battle
of Manassas. He never volunteered
again. and his war experience was sim
ply picnic, as he expressed it.
Said 1: What a pity you did not stay a
little longer. so you might have had a
pension
"oh." and he laughed merritly. "All
the same I got It. and also arrears Of
pension" (Which carried HIS service back
to the beginning OF the war;. How so7'
persisted. "Oh." said he, they handed
it to me and I took it..
Here you are. That's where II works.
little false swearing didn't feaze man
who thus imposes himself on a tax ridden
community.
Some years ago was appealed to to
testify that a certain colored woman
who married one of our former slaves,
was really the person she claimed to be.
Imagine my surprise when 1 found out
she was seeking soldiers widows pen
sicn-claiming that this former slave
served in the war. To my certain knowl-
edge he was not in the war at all, and
he did not take the woman, to wife,
until many years later This is one case