The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1913-02-27

the story Of this Congress. IL will
pronounce this the mosg lneon-
petent and useless Congress that
ever sat under the dome Of the
capitol"
It VAS only q few days ago that
Mann. the Republican minority lead
er In the House. declared that IL was
clear that the business OF the Govern
ment was in the hands OF IAN unor-
CANNED mob"
The FrightfsI Pension Last
In this connection IL should be no
tieed that the pension bill prepared
and passed by this Democratic House
carries an appropriation OF over
S1so.ooo.e0e. This In by far the iarg-
est pension bill ever passed. Outside
Of the small amount of these pen
sions that 90 to soldiers and sailors
in the late Spanish War. all of IL goes
to supposed sailors and soldiers In
tie War Between the States. which
ended nearly fifty years ago.
A boy VINO was twenty years old,
"a a soldier In that war. would to-day
be nearly seventy years of age. A
soldier who was thirty years of age.
would to-day be eighty. and there are
not living to-day but a handful of
soldiers In that war. who are eighty
af xuyh~ A.~ 81
30 impaired by the war that they
should be entitled to a pension. The
average age of the soldiers In that
war was certainly not far from forty
years OF age, and to-day every man
who was forty years of age then 10
dead. and yet the pension roll grows.
and the greatest increase in Ii has
been made by this Democratic Con-
gress.
What President Garfield Said About
Pensions.
In 1872 the late President Garfield.
then one of the leaders on the floor of
Congress. himself a soldier in that
war. protested against the size of the
Pension Appropriation Bill of that
year because 1t had reached the sum
of s34,000,000. Mr.. Garfield at that
which was over forty years ago, said,
In a speech on the floor of the House.
that there was no excuse for a pen-
sion bill reaching such an enormous
figure as $34.00O,O00. He said that
1t was not possible for there to be
enough men living at that time who
We're entitled to pension to run the
appropriation to that figure. He said
in that speech that it was the duty of
Congress to see to it that the pension
roll was never increased, and that
then the natural death-rate of those
who were on the pension roll would
rapidly reduce the amount of the ap-
preparation so that within twenty
years the sum would not amount to
more than fifteen Or twenty million
dollars, and that at the end of forty
years it would practically be wiped
out.
Ii is now forty-one years since
that speech was made, and instead
of the pension roll dwindling to al
most nothing, 1t has to-day grown
until 1t is almost five times bigger
than it was when Garfield made that
speech; and the shame of 1t all is that
this last great increase In pensions
was made by Democratic House
just before the last campaign open.
ed, which was bold theft of money
in the public treasury, to be used in
trying to buy the old soldiers vote.
Mr.. Bryan Not Candidate.
~ Word has just reached Washington
that Mr.. Bryan has declared that he
would not be Democratic candidate
for the Democratic nomination four
years from now, and that he was In
favor of Mr.. Wilson being renomi-
mated. This decision on the part of
Mr.. Bryan must have been brought
about by his study of the awful rec
ord which the Democratic Congress is
making. He, no doubt, sees clearly
that a Democratic nomination four
years from now will be an empty and
honor and he Is willing
to throw that to Wilson