| Show IKNSION JfAYttKNTS The history of pension payments hy the United fctates is interesting It is a tory of national thoughtfulness and generosity towards its soldiers and defenders de-fenders such as no other country can prin Of late years it has came to be a tale of recklessness and extravagance which no other nation would be guilty of Beginning at the tirst the pensions paid between 17o9 and 1791 aggregated only 175 614 from the last mentioned year down to 1861 the pensions amounted to 91273818 or an average of 1303911 a year on account of the Revolutionary war the war of 1812 the Mexican war and the various Indian wars But from 1861 to the end of the last fiscal year June 30th 887 the pension money disbursed was 5383 410808 or an average of about 33 000 i 000 a year As the heavy pension payments pay-ments did not commence until 18645 the average expenditures per year are much larger than the above would indicate The aggregate pension disbursements dis-bursements since the formation of the government up to June 30th 4837 only lacked about 25000000 of a round thousand millions Wha the disbursements disburse-ments will be for the present fiscal year we do not know for it does not end until june 30th 1888 but they will ben be-n excess of last years which were 71815 486 For the decal year ending June 30 1SS9 thepenaion commissioner asked end the House has appropriated 30230 COO la the face of these figures there are men who stand up in Congress and in the public press declare that the na tion has not been fair to its defenders It requires a good deal A gall for a man to charge muer ingratitude or parsimony against the republic and it comes close to hrgpithness ask fir more as some are doing w |
