The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-03
SENATOR MILLER TALKS
 OF STATES PENSION LAW
Says Old Soldiers Are Now Getting More Than Ever Before and That Every Cent Appropriated Goes to
 Proper Persons
By WALTER HARPER.

The shortage in the amount of money
 maid out in pensions to the veterans of the civil war in the last quarter of the present fiscal year created considerable comment yesterday.
 State Senator Nathan L. Miller issued statement In which he explained the manner of pension appropriations during the present state administration as conn pared with former administrat tions. Sem ator Miller makes 1t plain that the pen sioners are paid all of the funds that ara
 collected and appropriated for that pur' pose and that the shortage for the last quarter Is due to the fact that the mum Der of pensioners has increased more than was anticipated at the time the seed
 ule was made and also some pensioners
 have been advanced to the highest class | increasing the amount of money paid out | to these pensioners.
 | MT. Miller was chairman of the finance | and taxation committee of the senate during the last session of the legislature and spent much time and thought in the | framing of the pension laws and provid- ing TOT the apprOpTlatloHs
 | MT. Miller said yesterday:
 MT. MiIIer,s statement
 Referring to the confederate pension CTS and the amounts now being dis tributed and the suggestion that the amounts of these warrants are short by reason of the fact that the various funds in the state treasury were consolidated, it does seem to me that the facts have been often enough printed to deprive anyone of Justification for the making of such statement.
 "The real facts are, as shown by the dollar appropriated to the veterans Is being each fiscal year paid over to them
 without diminution of one cent by reason of appropriations to any other cause or expense incurred for any other purpose.
 'erhe chief cause of error for many in considering this question is that they ap-
 proach the question backwards. There
 has been no appropriation made of definite sum of money per quarter or per
 year for the pensioners of the several
 classes The appropriation for the years 1907, 1908. 1909 and 1910 was the mill tax | fixed by the legislature, and not by the constitution, as often asserted. plus $4000O
 annually out of the general fund. This constitutes the pension money The mat | ter of quarterly allowance, or of a less or greater amount for the fourth quarter, | is a mere matter of distribution of the
 money actually appropriated and in no sense a diminution of the appropriation. 'In the years 1903. 1904, 1905 and 1906 the appropriation. in addition to the 1
 mill tax, was $50,O0o for each year as an
 absolute appropriation and an additional appropriation of $1O00OO, provided the gov
 ernor. auditor and treasurer thought that
 could be paid without forcing the state
 to borrow money. thus making the total appropriation out of the general fund in
 any event not exceeding $15O,000 per year,
 or s250,0OO less each year during the Jelks
 administration than during the Conner
 administration. Not only is it $250ooO less,
 but the mill tax yielded less during the
 JeIks administration than during the
 Conner administration, the state having
 grown in taxable values in the meantime. Consolidation of Funds
 | For those who are mislead and out o1
 ignorance suggest that the reason that