The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1914-10-24
WIVES Of
SOLDIERS
SUFFERING
BRITISH PARLIAMENT AND
RED TAPE HOLD UP
WIDOWS PORTION
(By Associated Press.l


week to the soldiers wife who has
lost her husband in fighting his coun-
try's battles.
With this exclamation one OF the
leading London papers attacks edi-
torially the governments pension sys-
tenn which it says is due to the old
tradition summed up in Wellington's s.
assertion that his troops in the Span
ish campaign, we're only 'the scum
Of the earth " The war office, ac-
cording to the writer fails to realize
that times are different now and the
vast majority of volunteers are men
who i'm civil life earned good wages
in factory, field, office and shop.
In dignation has also been express
ed in parliament, so that it is not
unlikely some reform in pensions
may follow.
In the Bristih army the pay of of
officers and men is dependent ON the
regiment There dis no tsandard scale
of pay las in America. Commission
ed officers, as a rule, receive a sum
impossible to live on-about $35
month. They must have independent
means, and in the crack regiments,
such as the Scots Greys or the Gren-
adler Guards they must be wealthy,
with polo ponies, wallets and eXpens-
i've uniforms. But i'm certain of the
colonial troops doing police duty in
lands bordered by savages, they get
as good pay as American officers and
do not have to keep up expensive es-
The ordinary infantrymen in the
new volunteer army of a million men,
pledged to foreign service, are start
ed off at $165 week, clear of ex-
penses. Married men are allowed in
addition separation pay for their fam
lilies at the rate of $190 a week for
the wife and two pence a day-or 2S
cents a week-'for each child. la the
county of London they are given a
further sum of so cents a week, ow-
ing TO the higher cost of living.
All married soldiers serving abroad
are obliged to allot at least S5 cents
a week to their families out of their
own pay. Worked out on this scale
the lowest sum a soldiers wife with
out children, can receive is % shil-
lings a week in the case of a warrant
officer. p of a regimental quarter
master sergeant, 16 shillings six pence
for corporal or private If the wife
has four children to support, she will
receive on the same scale, sum
ranging from "a to % shillings.
Widows of those who die in active
service receive from five to ten shil-
ings a week according to the rank
md pay of the husband. But the mass
If them will not get ofevr five shil-
ings. An extra allowance varying
rom forty to fifty cents a week for
ZACH child is given, however.
While there are no government
ZONES for old soldiers in Great Brit
in, as in the United States. there
re certain homes maintained by pr {
ate charity. or these. the largest I
nd most famous is in Chelsea, Lon :
on. The garden party given at the
lhelsea home for its benefit is one
L the big social events of I.ondon's i
pring season.
Much suffering was caused by the
overnment defewing the payment of
eparation allowances to soldiers {
lives during the first two months of
he war. Not until October i was
his money put into the hands of the
destitute women. War office red
ne also held up pay allotments.