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Show B I THE NEW PENSIONS. B The United States must soon adopt a pension system H lor soldiers of the European war. The suggestion is re- M ceived .with, some favor that the government should as- H ' t Bumo a certainimbility similarly to tho principle of work- B m 1 ' " i ' r. i II1" j'a... !- men's compensation, and pay-over given amounts f on death and disability. , The way Civil war pensions have been handled is generally gen-erally admitted to have been a disgrace. The majority of the people favored liberal pension laws. It is not likely like-ly that the people would ever have sanctioned giving pensions pens-ions to a lot of the deserters and bounty jumpers who aro getting them. Also men who served but a few weeks and never saw the front, are in a wholly different class from those who had actual war experience, and should be so treated. Another An-other extravagance is in the case of women who married veterans long after the war was over.. In a great many cases this was done because the veterans looked good for but a few years. It was an easy way of getting money out of an easy mark government. The majority of our people have not begrudged the money that has gone to the old soldiers and they wish it was more. They do begrudge pensions slipped in by personal per-sonal favoritism. It is all wrong that about 30,000 pensions pen-sions have been secured through special acts of Congress. The law is liberal, and when special act pensions are passed, it means that men who, under the principles laid down by Congress, are not entitled to them, have been able to get them through friendship or pull. In the new pension system, Congress should lay down certain principles that certain men are entitled to pensions for death or injuries or ill health due to service. These pensions should be liberal, but the thing should end right with the limits established by Congress, and there should be no special favors. |
