New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-11
For Those Who Bear the Battle

caring 1OT QlSdDleO SOluI0io oiAH 'i'~'A
dependents is going to be one of the great
administrative problems of the war. In
this field we must break away from ham,
pering presidents. Our present pension
system is an outworn survival. 1t repre-
sents ineficiency and prodigal waste. The
fact that the peak Of expenditures for
Civil War relief was not reached until
fifty years after the Civil War ended
shows how badly that relief was distrib-
uted. Politics vitiated our pension meth
DDS and magnifed the pension burden.
This happened because we had from the
outset no ineligible, workable relief plan.
When the Civil War overlook US we did
not realize what it was going to mean in
effort and losses. We postponed relief for
the disabled and their dependents until the
fighting ended and for many years there
after. The first dependent pension act was
not passed until 1890, twenty-five years
after Appomattox The chief outlay for
Civil War pensions has been incurred since
1895. A great part of the money has gone
to persons whose dependence status has
been remote and dubious.
We must begin at the beginning in
+bis war. The government had learned
nothing up to 1898, when the Spanish war
broke out. 1t again pushed off into the
future its debt to the men who fought that
war-fortunately a short one, with a
trivial list of casualties. We shall prob
ably still be paying Spanish war pen
sions at an increasing ratio in 1885 or
1910. Now we have seen the folly of such
shiftlessness at the outset and such costly
settlements generation later.
Nothing could be more sensible than the
governments present plan to write lnsur-
ance on every soldiers and sailors life. He
and his dependents are thus absolutely pro-
tected. If he falls they can realize at once
on his policy and will not have to wait un-
til political pressure forces Congress to
vote them compensation. Insurance against
disability is as important as insurance
against death. When we provide imme-
date relief both for the man at the front
and for his family we shall have solved
the pension problem by reducing it to one
Of ordinary insurance, operated on basis
of accuracy and equality and Invested en-
tirely of political and personal favoritism.
Hundreds of millions of dollars would have
been saved if the government in 1861 had
lad the inspiration to devise pension sys-
ten. resting on a strict actuarial basis.
The War Departments policy just now
is to exclude from the selective draft all
men with genuine dependents-that is to
say, with wives, children or other near
relatives who look to them absolutely for
their support. That policy cannot be fol
lowed very long. If we continue to raise
large armies we shall have to stop exempt
ing men merely because they have depen-
dents. Then some other provision for de-
pendents must be made. The British gov
eminent has granted separation allow
ances on a liberal scale. We shall I'M
doubtedly do the same thing as soon as SER
vice is demanded of men with families.
1t is wise TO look ahead to that situa-
ton. AS an alternative to allowances
scheme for land distribution has been put
forward in a bill recently introduced in the
Senate by Mr.. Curtis, of Kansas. This
measure creates a Board of Administra-
ton Of Rural Colonies, whose duty it shall
be 10 establish standard for rural colo
MES and to create such colonies for the
benefit Of disabled soldiers and their
families.
Such plan would dovetail into the food
conservation movement, since it would give
many people a chance TO produce an equiv
alent of the food which they consume. It
would increase the acreage under cultiva-
ton; for these colonies would probably be
established on the public domain as far as
practicable Land would be given to those
who wanted 10 take title 10 1t in lieu of
allowances or pensions, thus reviving the
practice of the Congress Of the Confedera-
ton. which distributed vast tracts Of hand
20 the soldiers Of the Revolutionary War.
Few Of those patentees could make use of
their land grants, because the latter were
in the wilderness, cut of from easy COM
munication with the coast. The land now
10 be disposed of TO disabled soldiers and
their dependents would be accessible and
workable. II could produce crops within
a short time, instead Of lying uncultivated,
as 70 many Of the Revolutionary grants
did, for one or two generations