| Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON SAM who Is the head and also all the officers and CB of one of the biggest businesses in the world naturally has some big bills to pay one of the biggest Is the bill which old man mars who 7 deals in war brings around every year and after he has left unde sam finds that be has handed over to this dealer in wars nearly one fourth of all the money which he had laid aside to pay all of the expenses of running this business which operates under the name of the united states of america for instance this year uncle sam will have to pay to old man mars the staggering sum of that Is almost more than the total cost of running the entire federal government bach in it Is more than one half the cost of running the entire nation of france for one year it Is almost equivalent to the anual cost of maintaining the navies of the united states fance and japan back in 1917 when it waa announced that it would require to run our government there were those who shook their heads and wondered what we are coming to now 13 years after that first billion dollar year we are facing the necessity of spending nearly that amount paying for wars which ended long before most of us were born if anyone wants a lesson against war let him talk to gen fank alnes head of the veterans bureau or to col earl D church united states commissioner of pensions and from them learn of the cost in careers lives and money of the mere aftermath of war being more or less intangible it la difficult for us to visualize those first two careers and lives but for the third let these figures from the government budget for 1930 tell their own story WORLD WAR VETERANS BUREAU Eal arlea and expenses it printing and binding and naval compensation and hospital berv acea adjusted certificate fund and naval angur anc hospital and services 17 S life in aranco total PENSION OFFICE army and navy pensions salaries pension office investigation pension census fees of surgeons aso total UNITED STATES SOLDIERS HOMES home of disabled volunteer soldiers ca grand total 8 nor will the paying of old man mars bill this year be the end of the matter next year it will be the same only larger and the next and the next and the next until the estimated peak Is reached in 1985 for van though by that time uncle sam probably will be through paying pen blona for the war of 1812 and the mexican war be probably will still be paying some for the civil war and certainly bome for the spanish american war and then there are the world war pensions yet to be paid we haven t come to those yet but it beema certain that we will come to them aa the number of our world war veterans grow less the needs of the aging survivors and their families and dependents will increase and no one dares predict bow tar in the future uncle sam will be paying out world war pensions the war of 1812 has been over years but during the fiscal year which ended june soi 1029 the government paid 50 a month each to 11 gray haired women whose husbands fought tinder the american flag when it had only fifteen stars in its field of blue the mexican war ended 83 years ago but until september of last year uncle sam was paying a monthly pension to owen thomas edgar who in the navy during that war and when h died at tha ace of ninety eight x I 1 yi yia 1 iii above one of the best known build ings in washington D C Is the pension building which stands an fn judiciary square about halfway between the capitol and the white house it I 1 built of red brick and has a remarkable frieze depicting the various divisions of the army in action which runs all the way around the building four hundred by five hundred feet Is there still were widows of most can war veterans on the rolls of the pension bureau the civil war has been over 55 years but last year pen alons were being paid to sol adlers who served in that war to aj nurses and to widows of vet erans other pensioners last year were soldiers nurses and widows on the rolls by the spanish american war soldiers and widows by the indian wars 45 and 15 widows by the world war and soldiers and 3 COO widows by the regular army these with the pensioners previously mentioned made a total of persons who received a total of from uncle sam there were fewer persons drawing pen alons in 1929 than in 1928 but the total paid the last year was greater because the level of expends ture was raised by new legislation which increased pensions to civil war widows more than seventy five years old the history of pensions for veterans of american wars goes back to the earliest days of the republic on june 20 1770 even before the declaration of independence bad been adopted the continental congress appointed a corn to consider what provision ought to be made tor such as are wounded or disabled in the land or sea service this committee made a prompt report and on august 20 1776 the first national pension act in america was passed by the continental congress that part of the law fixing the amount was as follows that every commissioned officer commissioned noncommissioned non officer and private who shall lose a limb in any engagement or be so disabled to the service of the united states of america as to render him incapable afterwards of getting a livelihood shall receive during hla life or the continuance of such disability the one half of his monthly pay from and after the time that hla pay as an officer or soldier ceases after the constitution had been adopted and the new government had been organized it continued tor a time the pensions which had been previously granted and assumed their payment soon however a strong demand arose for a new pension law and on march 23 1702 the first pen slon law passed by the new government went into effect later there grew a demand for a pension law not based upon disability incurred in the service and in hta annual message to congress on decem ber 2 1817 president monroe recommended such a law A bill was passed by the house on december 24 as a eort of a christmas present to the veterans of the revolution passed by the senate immediately afterwards and approved by president monroe on march 18 1818 the loose wording of this law however made frieds easy and the grant f pensions became a public scandal A law passed in 1820 required all pen stoners already on the rolls and future applicants to file a statement of prop erty as proof of their alleged depend ence upon government bounty tor a livelihood As a result the names of many pensioners were stricken tram the rolls in 1832 a law was passed which granted full pay for life to all who had served at beast two yeara in the revolution and proportional payments to those who had served lesa than two tho size of the building and the office are built around a huge hollow square filing cabinets in this building hold the documents which pertain to the record of every man who ever enlisted in the army from these the pensions of the veterans are computed inset col acarl D church united states commissioner of pensions at his desk years but more than six months in there began the enactment of a long series of pension nets in favor of the widows of soldiers of the revolution restricted at first to those who had married before the close of the revolution these grew more liberal later until pensions were granted to all widows regardless of the date of marriage out of these pensions and similar ones for widows of veterans of later wars grew many abuses of the pension system for it became a practice for young women to marry aged veterans in order to benefit by a government pension after the death of their husbands the pension rolls of the revolution had scarcely grown to their peak when the united states became engaged in another war the war of 1812 to add to its list of veterans and dependents drawing pensions and the sama thing was repeated later at intervals of two decades the mexican war and the civil war the first law pen stoning soldiers of the civil war was a disability pension act of july 14 provided for the disabled survivors for the widows orphan children and dependent members of those who sled because of wounds received or contracted while in the service of the united states and in line of duty rates for total als ability ranged from 8 to 30 a month according to rank and these same rates were applied to the widows of the soldiers successive laws beginning july 4 1864 and culminating in the recent act which increased the pensions of civil war widows more than seventy five years old have increased the rates setting fixed rates tor various kinds of disability the passage of the arrears act in 1879 added greatly to the burden of debt which uncle sam bears because of the wars in which be hai engaged this act prodded ded that all pensions which had been granted or might hereafter be granted should date from the time of disability provided application were made before january 1 1880 the effect of that law Is shown by the fact that the total sum paid for pensions jumped from in 1879 to ac in the greatest increase in any one year la the history of our pension system A bill to establish pensions for persons in dependent circum stances was vetoed by president cleveland in 1886 A similar bill was passed june 27 1890 providing that all persons who had served 90 days in the war and who were suffering from any mental or physical disability of a permanent character which incapacitated them from performing manual labor might receive pen slona ranging from 6 to 12 a month according to alie degree of disability widows of soldiers who bened 80 days who are dependent their dally labor for support could receive 3 a in addition to the pensions granted under the generals laws many claims for pensions some of them rejected by the pension bureau have been passed by act of congress in fact the consideration of pension bills forms a large part of the activity of congress as wll bo seen by an inspection of almost any issue of the congressional record As this article Is being written many such bills are being introduced in the present session of con bresg all of which will add to the staggering total which old man mar has collected from uncle sam for wars long since past |
