The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-05-20
PENSION SYSTEM ELABORATE
ONE.
Since Civil War Ended Several Acts
Have Been Necessary to Assure
Fair Play for Old Soldiers.

| nave bcen Necessary 20 assure
Fair Play for Old Soldiers.
I'm the fifty years since the civil
war ended the American people have
paid to its survivors of their depend
ents $4,000, 900, 900" asserts, writ
er in the Worlds Works. This sum
is beyond ordinary comprehension,
but it seems large enough to repre-
sent Il fairly adequate return for
the service performed, although graf
itude cannot be measured in money.
The pensioning of wounded and dis
abled soldiers began Immediately
after the war. In 1866 the govern
ment was paying about SIS 100000
annually to survivors. BY 1880 this
| had grown to $56,0O0,000, and in
1889 to 100000. The sums
were paid out under the pension
law, which provided only for inva-
lids, that is, men wounded or other
wise physically disabled during the
war. With each increase of the
pension fund it was predicted that
the country had taken on a financial
| burden that could not be increased
| and borne, but in the light of later
happenings these predictions sound
absurd.
In 1872 it was estimated by Pen
sion Comm issioner Baker that all
veterans entitled to pension had
made application, and that the pen
sion roll had attained its maximum
length. Subsequent developments,
however, showed that only about a
third of the possible pensioners had
taken advantage of the governments
generosity. Many had not applied
for the reason that they looked upon
pension as kind of charity; 9TH
ers maintained that it was pay for
patriotism, which was not a purchas-
able quality; and many more who
were in comfortable circumstances
had never felt the need of the mon
ey, and hence had never tried to get
what was coming to them. But then
began an era when pension doctors
and pension lawyers worked up a
flourishing trade as pension getters.
Try To Reach All.
They advertised extensively and
secured the whole country for eli
gible applicants. Many veterans
reached an age when injuries whieh
had once been thought slight be-
came acute handicaps, and they join
ed the throng Of applicants. Asso-
Citations of veterans also interested
themselves in securing the passage
of more liberal pension laws, and al
most before the country knew how
far the matter had been allowed to
go it was carrying a pension burden
which twenty years before it had
been declared no nation could carry
without inviting bankruptcy
In 1879 law was passed which
provided that veterans who qualifi-
ed as invaded pensioners before
January 1, 1881, would receive full
pensions from the time of their in
juries. Under this law veteran
wounded in 1865, and placed on the
pension list in 1880, received as first
payment back pension for the pre-
ceding fifteen years. There was a
rush to take advantage of this,
which increased the pension appro-
priation from $33,00O,OO0 in 1879
to S55, 600 in 1880, and it has
been estimated that this act has cost |
the government to date $200,O0O,-
900. Another law which greatly in
creased pension expenditures was
that which provided that widow |
should receive a pension from the |
day her husband died. Both of these |
acts encouraged fraud, and it was |
frequently practiced. Widows con-
cealed facts about later marriages |
which they had contracted, and vet
Grams long since dead were imper-
sonated by INSCRIPTIONS persons in |
the employ Of agents. 1t is matter |
of record in the pension Office that |
one man received pension for
having normal heart" and anoth-
err for having ''sallow complexion"
both acquired in the service of their
country
New Principle Introduced.
Beginning in 1890 the govern
ment introduced new principle into
its pension legislation. Until that |
time pensions were granted only to
those veterans Cor their dependents) |
who were actually suffering on ac-
count of injuries sustained during |
the war But in 1880 it was decid-
ed that inasmuch as the veterans
were beginning to show traces of
age, they needed further help. They |
became invalids of natures making, |
and new pension law was passed |
providing pensions for all veterans,
regardless of whether they were dis
abled in service. Pensions of from
six to twelve dollars a month were
awarded all veterans who could not
work. In three years this ran the
pension expenditures from $S6,OOO,-
900 up to $l57,O0O,O0 and increas-
ed the pension list from 4S9,000 to
966,OOO. Now the advocates of a
straight pension of 81 day to all
veterans are multiplying and it is
not unlikely that before many years
the government will be supporting
all veterans of the war