Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1890 — The Disability Pension Measure. [ARTICLE]

The Disability Pension Measure.

The Independent. It is estimated that this bill will add to our pension account about §35,000,000 a year. This is a very large sum, but it is one of the inevitable result of the awful conflict through which we passed a quarter of a century ago. We 1 must make up our minds to pay large pension bills or we must | abolish the pension systems altogether. The pension system is one peculiarly liable to abuse, anddoubtless thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, of the immense sums already paid out, have been paid to those who ought not to have received anything. It is necessary to guard the system in every possible way and to avoid unnecessary and extravagant legislation. Keeping in view the precedent established in'dealing with the survivors of previous wars, it does

not seem to ns that the present legisl - lion is either nnnpc.wsary or extravagant. It is substantially that which President Cleveland vetoed; and we all know how successfully this veto message was used against him in the presidential campaign of 1888. And it -Was again and again declared, on the basis of the Itepublican platform, that the Republican party stood for precisely the sort of legislation which Mr. Cleveland vetoed. Congress, therefore, is simply carrying out in good faith the pledge made by the Republican party in that campaign. The country is dealing .liberally with its old soldiers;’Jet it be careful to maintain all possible safeguards against the abuse of that liberality.' Advance sheets of the first annual report of the State Board of Chanties contained the portion of the report which deals with the county jails, and the reports of the secretary of the board who visited the various jails of the state., Jasper county jail was visited Dec. 2,1889, the'following being the report thereon: “Tile jail fronts on the court lionse square in Rensselaer. It is a small building’of the Paulv pattern. It is heated by steam. Water supply in a tank over the cage. There is one Pauly cage inside an airy room. Bath-tub in the cage. Cells with the Pauly hammock cots, which crowd the men too closely together. No sheets or pillow-slips. Ventilation by the windows only, the ventilation pipes in the cages being too small to be effective. Separate women’s and insane department. Boys use the former. Tramps admitted on trustee’s order only. Sheriff refuses any who are very dirty. This is'a very neat, tidy little jail, adequate to the needs of anjorderly rural community. The present sheriff has had but one ‘drunk brought in to him. The place is scrupulously clean throughout. There were three prisoners waiting trial when the jail was visited.”