Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-20
WAR BOUNTIES AND u. S.
PENSIONS DISCUSSED
Daily Letter by Frederic j.. Haskin

majors 400, captains 800, ~lieutenants
200 and non-commissioner officers
and enlisted men 100, while major
generals received LOO acres ana
brigadiers $50 acres. Four thousand
square miles or ~2,500,0OO acres, IN
cludIng some twelve counties In
northern Ohio, were set aside to tale
care of these grants.
Four million acres of bounty lands
were given to the soldiers OF the
War of 1912, while to survivors or
the Mexican and Indian wars 3d.
652,450 acres of the public domaln
were distributed under 530,2O3 war
rants. Then came the Civil War n
under the Act of 1862 land scrip
worth SIPS per acre was distributed
for $500, 600 acres.
Bounty Jumping a Business
Volunteers in the Northern Army
during the Civil War received cash
bounties, cities and states competing
with each other and with the fed.
! eral government, while many 1ndl-
viduals hired substitutes. to take
their places at the front. BY 1860,
/ owing to the magnitude of the war
and the difficulty of getting recruits,
the gratitudes which a volunteer
could gather in amounted to as
much as $500 and "bounty-jump-
ing" had become a business. A mar
would enlist in one place under one
name. hurry to the front, collect his
bounty, desert and then go to an
other locality and repeat the per-
Torrance under another name. ASIDE
from what the government PAID out
it is estimated that local and state
bounties in this var amounted to
more than $500, 10000 .
When we come to the matter OIL
pensions which are deferred boun-
ties or bonuses it is found that prior
to the World War the government
had disbursed a grand total OF So
22O.935,393, in addition to establish
ing and maintaining soldiers homes.
The number of soldiers n sailors
in the several wars covered by, this
expenditure was: Revolutionary War
1S4.O3S: War of 1912, 2S6,730; Mex
lean War, 7S,71S; Indian wars. So
49,: Civil War, 2,213S63: Sanish War
$4,000; Philippines and China, 49,
ISL; total, 3,3O4.99S. The average
pension paid to each enlistment has
been 1919.
Official records show that 5,016.532
men and women participated in the
World War. OF these ~4,350,467 were
in the army, OoO,oVA "CiS 80 r
navy and SO,063 were in the marine
corps. If the pensions and bonuses
which will eventually go to this great
! fighting force average substantially
the same as the pension payments
for other wars it is apparent thal
| the total bill will aggregate some
! thing like fifty billions of dollars.
That pensions are 10
I longevity may be doubted, out 1t is
A fact none-the-less that pensioners
cling to the rolls a surprisingly Ions
| time. The last survivor of the Kew
dictionary War did not die unit
1869, and on June 80, 1910, the pen
sion lists still contained h name OF
one daughter of a REVOLUTIONARY
| soldier. the daughters having beer
pensioned by special acts of the con
gress. At the close. of the fiscal year
1915-1916 there were lis widows OF
veterans of the War of 1872 still
/ drawing pensions from the govern
ment. while on the same date there
were 4,29S Mexican War pensioners
on the rolls, ,513 of these being sur
vivors and the others. widows, As
for Civil War veterans and their wild
, ows and dependents who are still
pensioners. their name is. legion, ano
the government is disbursing ap'
proximately s240, O00,0 900 to then
each year.