Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-11-09
CONFEDERATE PENSIONS.

The cutting of Confederate pen
P,S0s by the State of Virginia was
EzEEW1lf those blind -1lishaps that can
IN e g Is justification, and for the
modification of which there can be
no palist;sn. When did Virginia
re~en such stage of poverty that
= the little pittance to the men, and
their widows, who gave themselves
and their all to the defense of the
State, must be cut? 1t is a skele-
ton IN the closet of the Common
wealth, and to stir it at all makes a
rattle of dry bones that may be
heard all over the land.
Virginia is prosperous; its reve-
nues increasing by bounds and the
pltltul pensions of Confederate vet
Grams cut 10 per cent. A shame"
Yes, and who has brought this shame
upon the Commonwealth? The raven
Gus politicians who have been appropri-
ating for themselves an undue portion
OF the revenues. Forty-five thousand
dollars more would, when added to the
$3.50, 900 appropriated, have paid every
pensioner in full. That $40, 900 given to
Mcdonald Lee and his ''band of pirates
would have covered the entire defici-
ency. The ten thousand dollars given
as 'job" for special counsel for the
State would have paid one-ffth of the
deficit. The fifteen thousand dollars
paid to school examiners would have
paid one-third of the amount. The
amount paid to examiners of records
would have paid one-half of it. But the
hungry members of the tribe had to be
taken care of. This deficit of s45. 900
IN the pension fund is not the only ugly
thing connected with it. An act of the
General Assembly provides that the
State shall pay sum not exceeding S25
for the burial of veterans. On this
burial fund claims amounting to So. 600
or $40, 900 remain unpaid. So. the Com
monwealth has become delinquent not
only to the living but also to the dead.
In news account of the situation the
Richmond Journal of the October 31st
said:
And the Legislature, it seems,
has lately had strange way of mis-
calculating the demands that would
be made upon the pension funds"
According to the Journal these mis-
calculations have been knowingly made.
for the Journal SAYS:
Some time before the session of
the last Legislature, it became
known that the then appropriation
for pensions would fall $50, 900 short
of what was needed, and, as if this
lesson were not enough, there now
comes the announcement that the
fund set aside by the last General
Assembly has also proven insuffici-
ent to pay all the beneticiaries in
FULL
The last Legislature appropriated
twelve millions of dollars for expenses
of government for the years 1910 and
1911. That is $4,000, 900 for each of
these years. This is double the amount
expended under the old constitution.
and the revenues were not more than
half what they are now. Yet, during
the administration of Governor Monta-
que, under the old constitution, sur
plus of nearly million dollars accumu-
lated in the State treasury. Not only
have the reckless raiders of the treas
ury expended the six millions dollars of |
annual revenue of the State, but they
have gotten away with the large sur
plus turned over by Governor Montague
to Governor Swanson. And we find
that this year and last year when the
pensions became payable
that the treasury was bankrupt. Last
year the auditor managed to tide over
BY borrowing $3.50. 900 and by inducing
he railroads and other corporations to
nay their taxes in advance of the period
required by law. This year no money