CIVIL WAR PENSIONS IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 254, 15 July 1918, Page 6

CIVIL WAR PENSIONS IN AMERICA

AN AMAZING GROWTH

UNCLE SAM STILL PAYING

In his brilliant "Land of tho Dollar," written in 1697, G. W. Steevens Made a prediction that reads curiously to-day, writes "H.W.H." in tho "Manchester Guardian." Tho United States Government at that lime was paying 13S million dollars a year to pensioners in the Civil War. "As the men die," said Mr. Steevens, ".!-e=o pensions fall in at the rate of five to eight millions annually; in twenty years or so the pension list will be a white sheet of paper. That moans over 26 millions sterling a year, paid already for a military purpose, which can be directed to armaments without a cent of extra taxation. In twenty years this country will easily bo able to turn out a dozen battleships a vear without taking a cent out of anybody's pocket. And that means the naval supremacy of the world." Well, the "twenty years or so" liave passed, and in tho meantime the annual chargo on the American Exchequer on account of Civil War pensions has risen from 13S million dollars to more than 150 aillions!

When one remembers that it is now more than half a century since the Civil War came to an end, these figures become the more amazing. For an explanation one must turn to the history of pension legislation in Jhe United States. At the beginning *of the war Congress undertook tliat men disabled by disease or wounds should be supported. This promise was redeemed by an Act of lSli2 which granted pensions of from 8 dollars to 30 dollars per month to men disabled in the service and to their widows after their death. In 1879 the annual payments were r early doubled by tho passing of a new Aot which authorised any person entitled to a pension to claim arrears from the date of his discharge. In .1886 Congress endorsed a much broader princinle by passing a Bill which gave pensions of 12 dollars a month to nil persons who had served in the Army during the war if they were un : able for any reason—whether wounds or disablement" in the ordinary souse or not—to earn their living. President Cleveland vetoed the Bill', but it was passed in 1690, and included a provision which gave pensions to widows of all the old soldiers, no matter what the causo ot death. This measure added-500 million dollars to the cost of pensions within the next ten years. Tho next extension was brought about by an executive order by President Roosevelt, subsequently confirmed by an Act of Congress in 1907, according to which pensions can be claimed from the age of 62 by all persons who served an the war for'ninety days or more. Tho scalo of payments now in force varies according to age and length of service, and ranges from 13 dollars a month for a man of 62 who served ninety days, to b0 dollars a month for a man of 75 who served for two years or more The net result is that in the last fiscal year recorded in the year-books America was paying in military and naval pensions a. sum of 159 million dollars, of which 150 million dollars arc on account of tho Civil War. (The war with Spain is so far, responsible for a mere trifle of less than 4,000,000 -lois.) The highest figure reached was 175,000,000 dols. in 1913. The expenses of the Pension Office in disbursing the pension fund amount to no lass than 1,656,722 a vear. Of the pensioners now on the roll, 3(>2,27? were Civil War soldiers and 286,080 Civil War widows. The admitted pension claims in the files of the Pension Offico fill twenty-seven rooms and weigh, more than 1000 tons.

While tho old beneficiaries are, of course, dropping off, new claims are still boing presented at the rate of over 50,000 a year. In addition, Congress has ft considerable part of its time mortgaged by tho_ consideration of private pension legislation. In the session ending March, 1917, the total number of bills passed was 2399, of which 2193 were pension bills. Bills of this class are introduced to meet special cases not provided for by tho set regulations. In some of these cases the claim is morally valid, the necessity for a private Bill being duo to tho lack of some legal evidence that is normally required. Some other in-, stances are sheer exploitations of tho Treasury, as .in the instance of a Bill granting a pension to the widow of a former soldier who was accidentally shot by a neighbour in the effort to kill an owl. These Bills are brought in by members of Congress to oblige their constituents, and it is seldom that they are very closely scrutinised.

In his book on "Actual Government) as Applied under American Conditions," Professor' A.. Bushnell Hart, of emphasises the unsatisfactory character of the pension system. Not only is it very costly—it is "estimated that the sum spent in pensions since the war exceeds the actual cost of the war itself—but pensions are freely granted to men who aorved but a few weeks, who never saw a battle, and who never suffered from wounds or disease. "It is right," ha 6ays, "that the old soldier should bo preserved from want, and that the wife of his youth should be cared for < if lie is taken away; it is not right' that men able to care for themselves should be receiving tho bounty of Government. Some of the pension rases border on the ludicrous; as, for instance, that of'a man who was receiving 100 dollars a month for total disability, and also a salary of 5000 dollars n year as Senator of the United States, nnd of a man who received a pension for total deafness and was employed in one of the departments in Washington to attend the <6lephone.'" Professor Hart's reference to "the wife of his yonth" points the conuast with the young adventuress who haunts the neighbourhood of a soldiers' home until eho van entangle some veteran—perhaps at death's door—into a marriage, and thus at one stroke provide for her own.livelihood for the rest of her days. It is generally ndmltted that political motives have had a groat deal to do both with tho presentation of individual claims' and with the lavishness of pension legislation. The enlargement of the qualifications to include a ninety days' service was severely criticised at the lime as an electioneering move. There exists (Mi organisation called the Grand Army of the Republic which, if one may )udgo from the record of its political activities, existe largely in order to secure more and bigger pensions. The influence of the actual or prospective pensioner nnd his friends is a political force that no candidate for Congress can afford to despise.; A further example of the demoralisation produced bv the system is mentioned by Lord Brvce, who suggests, ill his "American Commonwealth," that one purpose of the lavish granting of pensions ir, past year* has been so (o deplete tlu- Treasury as to remove ono rc:i6on for reducing tho protective tariff. Perhaps the worst effect of nil has been The endorsement the system has given to (he principle of "honest graft""and tho tinite unnecessary encouragement it has nrovided for the belief that there is nothing to bo ashamed of in getting all that one can out of the public treasury as long as one keeps within the forniu of the kw.