Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-08
inducements to Mendicancy.

SuCn cases OF pension lFdu6 dis tllt
following, too numerous to specify, art
| ON record and have, in course of recent
debate been brought to the notice oi
Congress. A responsible man, him
self a veteran of the war, wrote from
a town in Ohio that he could name a
least twenty men in the same com
pany to which he belonged who are re-
ceiving under special pension acts S2a
a month, and who never stood in line
of battle" Still another case was
specified on the floor of the last House
of a man 'who enlisted in 1864, got a
big bounty; stayed in the hospital I'M
til discharged; never fred gun or
did a days duty at tHe front; came
home: was examined, was pensioned
at s12 per month for the last stages
of consumption, and is living yet. A
system under which such abuses ex-
list. and are practically eonnived at, is
one not improperly characterized as a
"sy stem which offers every possible
inducement to mendicancy and con-
eeals every possible inducement to
fraud. Charles Francis Adams,
Worlds Work.
on the other hand thousands of
brave men who saw the real carnage
and suffering of long marches, hard
" food to keep soul and body togeth-
err imprisonment and its horrors, and
a thousand and one other things of
which the present generation has no
conception, went down to the grave,
long years after, without recognition
by the government. Some of these
We're too proud to ask aid from the
government which they had preserved,
others having asked, died destitute
and disappointed because of the slow
grinding processes at Washington and
the pension sharks who robbed them
Here is a still more modern version,
the true story of a Somerset county
veteran who lost his eyesight while
ON the Ship Island sands. Years after
the war was over he applied for a
pension and years after that ii was
granted Later he was granted an in
crease. At last he was given $40
month and finally 500. In these years
and processes of examination, oaths
and recommendation his case must
cover record in which almost count
less witnesses. physicians, experts and
officials figure.
But that is not all of the story. Not
many months ago, when this veter-
ans hair and beard had turned snow
white. some one in the business of
spite caused such communication to
be sent to Washington that the case
was investigated" A wise guy"
called upon the veteran one day and
talked, from his seat in a carriage, on
various topics. Then, as if by acct
dent, dropped to the ground a pearl
handled pen-knife. He asked the vet
eran (who was drawing pension for
practical total blindness') to pick 1t
up for him. The old man stopped and,
unfortunately. CROPPED fatally. The
sunlight struck the glintering white
handle and he returned the knife.
The wise representative of Uncle
Sans pension bureau drove away and
next came the announcement that the
veterans pension had been stopped
That, in brief is the story. All the
years of careful inquiry and certitica-
ton suddenly set aside on the report
of one officer, at time when the vet
eran who saw actual service was
most in need of aid. The absolute in
Justice and idiocy of the performance
is 50 astounding as to be almost I'M
believable: yet should this come to eye
of one who has the interest of the
veterans (who Fought at heart, and
any power or pull that would avail
for careful investigation of the
facts, the editor of this newspaper
would be glad to furnish sufficient in
formation to locate the veteran and
verify the facts given above.
The system may be at fault, dalnna-
BILE, but denunciation does not relieve
the distress i'll old age of those who
fought the battles.