The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1918-01-29
HOW MUCH DO We
PAY OUR SOLDIERS7

Ask the first ten people You meel
what Uncle Sam pays his soldiers
It will be safe bet they won'i
know.
Half Of them have some hazy
idea about dollar a day." and
you will find lots of people who
think. Uncle Sam still pays the old
scale Of $13 a month, but few out
side the army know the ins and
outs of the wage scale, even for
private soldiers.
The whole pay system of the
United States army has been revo-
lutionized since the war started.
A private in Uncle Sans armies,
regular, National Guard or Nation
al Army, receives in cash, as long
as he is in the United States, 500 a
month, in addition to food, cloth
ing and medical attendance.
When he is sent to Europe he
gets 20 per cent. extra, whether
in training or in the trenches, which
brings the minimum cash pay up to
5000 a month, or $1.30 a day.
The revolutionary part of the
pay system, however, about which
most people are ignorant, is the
scale of allowances made by the
government to the soldiers de-
pendents. We are. thus breaking
away from the old theory of paying
soldiers a fat wage for fighting to
the new theory that the nation is
responsible for the welfare not
only of the man in service, but for
the dependents whom he left be-
hind him. -
Under this new scheme if there's
wee wife waiting" she receives
each month direct from Uncle Sam
$15 month, which is virtually an
addition to the fighting mans wage
and brings his total compensation
up to $4S month while he is in the
United States and to $54.60 abroad.
If there is one child with the
wife, the allowance is $25 month;
two children, $3.50, and so on up
the point, where with a wife and
six children Uncle Sam pays $50 a
month in cash to the family.
1t may not be enough to support
them, even with what the enlisted
man can send home out of his
wages, but it is at least a recogni-
ton of Uncle Sans responsibility
and bulwark against dependence
on charity.
Allowances are also provided for
dependent parents, $40 month for
each, and for brothers, sisters and
grandchildren, So month for each,
with the proviso that in any ease
the government will not pay to the
dependents of any man more than
$50 a month.
No mawkish prudery entered in
to the drafting of these provisions;
by acknowledging his illegitimate
child a soldier may secure for it
the full governmental allowance, the
only provision being that if it is
born after December 81, 1917, it
must be born in the United States.
So in the case of wife, there need
to be no legal marriage if there is
proof that they have lived together
as man and wife for two years prior
to enlistment.
Uncle Sam also sees to it that his
soldiers do not throw all the bur-
den of caring for dependents on
his broad shoulders, by making it
compulsory for each who has left
a wife or child behind to pay over
to them through the treasury at
least SIS a month and as much
more as will equal the allowances
which Uncle Sam makes up to half
mans pay. Thus for the man in
service abroad who has left a
wife and child behind, the man will
have TO assign to them at least
$3.50 a month to which the govern
ment will add $25, making a total