Show THE anew PENSION ACT the Do pension act which has passed both houses of congress aud been signed by the president among ether thin provides ahat all persons who served three or more in the military or naval service of thal united states during the itrich ended a quarter of a century ao and who lave been honorably discharged and who may hereafter be suffering suffer ipg from a mental or physical disability of a permanent character not the result of their own vicious habit i which incapacitates them for the performance of manual labor in such a degree as to rendar tha unable to earn a support shall upon making duo proof of the fact be placed upon the list of invalid pensioners of the united states and be entitled to receive a pension not to exceed 12 per month and not less than 6 per month proportional to their inability to earn a support persons already receiving pensions nn dor existing laws are entitled to receive the benefit of the act except that no person shall receive more than one pension for the same period where men who served ninety days or more in the army or navy and have been honorably discharged have died or shall die leaving widows without other means of support than their daily labor or minor children under sixteen years of age the widows are entitled on proof of their husbands death to be placed on the pension roll at the rate of 8 per month during their widowhood and to be paid 2 per month for each child of the soldier under sixteen years of age where a minor child ia insane or otherwise permanently helpless the pension is to continue during the life of the child or during the period of its dis ability how much of the public revenue will be required to satisfy the provisions of this bill cannot be definitely stated at present but it will probably be in the neighborhood of it was thought shortly after the war that in a few years pension ex pend iture would decrease during time he wanted the pensions increased to a total expenditure of about and he then stated that this would be the extreme limit for years to come bradstreets show t ho following rapid increase the expenditures for the year 1864 amounted to only in 1865 they had increased to in 1870 they had grown to in 1875 they amounted to in 1880 they had increased to in 1885 they were and last year they reached the appropriations for pensions for the current year amount to nearly this sum is in round numbers about a third of the total revenues of the government for the year when we further consider the great expense connected with the pension department and that the carrying out of the new law will require an additional force in the pension office of clerks wo can well understand how it is that a halt is wanted by the country at large in the expenditure of the peoples money so recklessly |