YANKEE WAR PENSION PRODIGALITY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

YANKEE WAR PENSION PRODIGALITY.

WHEN THE U.S. WENT PENSION MAD. After the war, if not before then, Great Britain seems likely to become a strong candidate for the biggest pension-paying nation on earth. Hitherto this position has been unassailably held by the United States. Graft, greed, and generosity, mostly vicarious, have contributed to earn the distinction. There was a time, not so very long ago when citizens and pseudo citizens 'of the U.S.A. were not asked but compelled to accept pensions. Turned down I>y the Pensions Committee or Executive, claimants were urged, and sometimes even bribed, to come up again and again until their "rights were recognised-—and the plunder shared. Pension "attorneys," grafting politicians, municipal tosses, and a vast army of professional crooks made pension-getting their lifes work. And the "getting" was in a very literal sense. Commission and "expenses," ranging from about 10 to 50 per cent, of the amount of pension granted to Clients," was the reward obtained, Often on demand, by the philanthropists so interested in Uncle Sam's war veterans. Helped by lavish legislation, anfl a looseness in administration remarkable even for America, the pension traffic reached* trvly amazing lenghs. Organised fraudv'and specific cases by the bfcndred'were constantly being exposed, particularly by the adherents of President Cleveland, who made strong efforts at reform, out "istill the sdandals teontinued. . Indeed, these grew and flourished. Bills, because of their lavish provisions,, vetoed by one President, were assented to by his successor almost immediately he had assumed office. Private bills were passed wholesale. On a single day as many as 700 such bills became law, while one day in April, 1886, 500 were passed in two hours by the House of Representatives. These went through solely on the recommendation of the Pensions Committee, without discussion or the recording of a single vote. Up to the year named, not a pension bill had ever been rejected, and few even modified before passing. Cleveland brought about something of a change, though it proved very temporary. In the second year of his Presidency—lßß6-7—750 pension bills were passed by Congress, and of these he vetoed 101. Among the measures negatived was the comprehensive one providing a pension to all "veterans" who had served for ninety days or over in the Northern armies during the war, and to their dependant parents, and others in addition. Clevelfand had scarcely left office when Congress and his successor reintroduced and passed a bill almost identical with that he had rejected. Subsequently, political America went pension mad. At the beginning of the fiscal year 1891-2 the Commissioner of Pensions demanded — cr "desired" —that one thousand pension certificates be issued for each working day during the year. This resulted in 311,570 new names being added to the pension role. Moreover, encouraged and incited by outsiders, thousands of older pensioners applied for an increase, and mostly got it with ridiculous ease. Naturally the expenditure bounded up alarmingly. In 1887, when Cleveland made his bid for economy, the figures stood at about 77 million dollars. Six years later, in 1893, they struck 159 millions! In 1878, when there must have been many more war survivors, less than 2 8 million dollars sufficed for all needs. Right here might be offered an interesting contrast. The South did not participate in this pension prodigality. What little monetary aid her disabled soldiers received came from other sources, mostly local. Impoverished or utterly ruined, several Southern States had the utmost difficulty in affording any kind of help Both for pension purposes and to assist in re-establishing industry and agriculture Louisiana promoted a State lottery, and secured for it a legislative monopoly extending over 25 years. In the North numerous attempts were made to have the lottery suppressed, but despite these it continued to flourish. In 1893, the year when its charter was to lapse, its receipts per postal paper alone were authoritatively said to average 40,000 dollars daily. As most of this sum came from persons and places outside of the South, and a certain animosity had not altogether died away, stronger efforts than ever were made against a renewal of the privilege. Northerners pressed Bills through Congress, only to see these ignored or annulled by the lottery people and their supporters. Then compromise was tried. In exchange for its lottery franchise, Louisiana was offered a grant of a million and a quarter dollars, annually. Of this sum. 50,000 dollars were to be ear-mark-ed for war pensions. The dole was rejected with scorn. Nevertheless, politicians who were both engineering and encouraging pension graft as just described, were determined to exterminate this wicked lottery. Eventually, after numerous abortive attempts, in 1894 a Bill was passed which sealed its doom so far as concerned American soil. The controlling company, however, simply packed off to an island off the coast of Honduras, which Republic obliged with a monopoly of the lottery business for fifty years.