Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1890 — The Dependent Pension Bill. [ARTICLE]

The Dependent Pension Bill.

The pension business will yet bring the Harrison administration to grief. "Pensions for all” was the rock of its salvation in the last Presidential election, and “pensions for all” will be the rock on which it will split in the next Presidential election. It will be impossible for it to satisfy the Grand Army without offending the people, and impossible to satisfy the people without offending the Grand Army. It njust make up its mind to lose the Grand Army or the people at large three years hence. Of the two horns of the dilemma the administration will, of coarse, choose to satisfy the Grand Artny first, because that is now the clamorous party. Accordingly, the President, has recommended and Senator Davis, of Minnesota, has reported a bill providing for the payment of sl2 a month to every man who was in the army or navy for three months and was honorably discharged, and who is now dependent and incapacitated, not through his Own vicious habiis. There is yery little doubt that this bill, or some similar bill, will pass Congress and become a law. Of course it will cost a good deal of money to pay these pensions. The nation is payingout about $100,0(10,000 for that purpose now, and as soon as this new pension law gets into operation the amount will have to be doubled. When the Government has got well started in the payment of $2D0,000,000 a year for pensions, and when its other running expenses have increased considerably, as they mcessarily will within a year or two, there will be no more anxiety to get rid of the surplus. If there is anything left of it, the building of ninety new war ships, which is Also on the programme, will more than absorb it. So that the prospect is that within two or three years the nation will not be troubled to spend its money, but will be troubled to meet its expenses, and that, instead of seeking how to reduce taxation, the administration will have to'find some way to,increase it, in.qrder tokeep the wheels of government turning. The people are busy making money now, and are giving fid heed to what Con-' gross isdoinw. The people will give no heed to it until the, harm is dona and the damage begins to befell. But when it will be too late for this administration* to retreat or to retrieve people will wakejip auditive it put of .The popular however, sb far as pensions are ikmcerned.wiHbe founded not ou thO iamount of treasure ex,W fftcj. that it is expended indiscriminately . and. on undeserving ’ pef Bifiatdr D Avis’ <' bill’’ should - have/ been - entitled, “A bill to put a premium on fraud and pauperism.” It is a matter of impossibility, in the majority of cases, to determine what the disability of an old man is the result of. His vices may be known and they may not be . known. An old soldier may have got drunk in Vermont, and fallen down and hurt his knee, in 1870. Then he may have moved to Kansas, and now be may have rheumatism in that knee. But no human skill can «ver find out the /truth about it' if he choo es to lie about it. Consequently, in many cases, he will put in a fraudulent claim. So it will bi with a majority of the c.aimants under this bill. It is o well-known fact that die people of this country, including a great many of the really pairiotic soldiers of the last war, regard the pension business, even as it is conducted now, a sickening fraud. But what will they think of it when this dependent pension bill gets into operation? It is morally ce ta n that they will feel so indignant that they will drive into life-long obscurity every man who plunged the country into such a quagmire of extravagance and corruption. Time makes all things even.— Chicano Herald.