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Show 'y7 C&Va? P I V;, ft ,,'',', " ' ' 7 . ? rr r- ? -- i ' ' ' . 1 i r i- ' U . 1 ' ' I ' i ! - v' ' ".'ill " I " ' . ' : " J7 L X i ' !. ; ' 1 i r , . V' "AXr M-h, - --- - ' 7 V j 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON f 1,. 1 A tNCLE SAM, ho Is the A' ',J , k 3 l,ead-and also all the i't A,. ' omcen and ep.ov- I , . f! ! of one of the biggest 4 " r - fi-M huslnees In the world, ',,0 &W--tf SaiJj ,H . naturally ha3 some bi? ! - ?JW. J bills to pay One of the .lff a'tS ,42LffigL .....JTx 4 TlT?HSrT J By ELMO SCOTT WATSON tNCLE SAM, who Is the head and also all the ollscers and empiayrD of one of the biggest businesses In the world, naturally has some bl? 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 be has left Uncle Sam finds that he has handed over to this deuler In wars neurlf 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 i United Stntes of America. For instance, this year Uncle Sara will have to pay to Old Man Mars the staggering sum of $328,000,000. That Is almost $100,000,000 more than the, total cost of running the entire federal government back In 1010. It Is more than one-half the cost of running run-ning the entire nation of France for one year. It is almost equivalent to the anual cost of maintaining the navies ef the United States, France and Japan. Back in 1917 when It was announced that It would require $1,000,000,000 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 fac-ing 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. Frank Hines, head of the veterans' bureau, or to Col. Earl D. Church, United States commissioner of pensions, and from them learn something of th;. cost In careers, lives and money of the mere ' aftermath of war. Being more or less Intangible, It Is difficult for us to visualize those first two careers Dd lives but for the third, let these figures from the government budget for 1030 tell their own story: (WORLD WAR) VETERANS' BUREAU Salaries and expenses $ 43,500,000 Printing and binding 125.000 Alilitary and naval compensation compen-sation 191,450,000 Medical and hospital services serv-ices 31,650,000 Adjusted service certificate fund 112.000.000 Military and naval Insurance Insur-ance 115.250,000 Hospital facilities and services serv-ices 6,000.000 TJ. S. (government life Insurance In-surance fund 97,400,000 Total $597,375,000 PENSION OFFICE Army and navy pensions. .. 5221.000.000 Salaries, pension ofllce 1,225.000 Investigation pension census 105.000 Fees of examining surgeons 450,000 Total $222,780,000 UNITED STATES SOLDIERS' HOMES National homes of disabled volunteer soldiers ) 8.6S9.100 Grand total $823,844,100 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 esti-mated peak Is reached In 19G5. For, even though by that time Uncle Sam probably will be through paying pensions pen-sions for the War of 1S12, and the Mexican war, he probably will still be paying some for the Civil war and certainly some 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 seems certain that we will come to them. As the number of our World war veterans grow less, the needs of the aging survivors and their fiimilies and dependents will Increase. And no one dares predict how far In the future Uncle Sam will be paying out World war pensions. The War of 1S12 has been over 115 years but during the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1029. the government paid $50 a month each to 11 gray-haired gray-haired women whose husbands fought under the American flag when It had only fifteen stars In Its field of blue. The Mexican war ended S3 years ago but until September of last year Unci Sam was paying a monthly pension to Owen Thomas Edgar who served In the navy during that war. And when he died at the age of ninety-eight Above One of the best known build- the ize of the building and the office! ings In Washington, D. C, i the Pen- are built around a huge hollow square, sion building which stands in Judiciary Filing cabinets in this building hold Square about halfway between the the documents which pertain to the Capitol and the White House. It Is record of every man who ever enlisted built of red brick and has a remark- In the army. From these the pensions able frieze, depicting the various dl- of the veterans are computed, visions of the army in action, which Inset Coi. Earl D. Church, United runs all the way around the building. States commissioner of pensions at Four hundred by five hundred feet Is his desk. $ there still were 730 widows of Mexican Mexi-can war veterans on the rolls of the pension bureau. The Civil war has been over 55 years but last year pensions pen-sions were being paid to 59,045 soldiers sol-diers who served In that war, to 39 nurses and to 181,235 widows of veterans. vet-erans. Other pensioners last year were 178,-804 178,-804 soldiers, 414 nurses and 28,6-13 widows placed on the rolls by the Spanish-American war; 5,574 soldiers and 4,000 widows by the Indian wars ; 45 soldiers and 15 widows by the World war and 14,758 soldiers and 3,699 widows by the regular army. These, with the pensioners previously mentioned, made a total of 477,915 persons who received a total of $229,-890.1S9 $229,-890.1S9 from Uncle Sam. There were 13,279 fewer persons drawing pensions pen-sions In 1929 than In 1928 but the total paid the last year was $924,517 greater because the level of expenditure expendi-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, 1776, even before the Declaration of Independence had been adopted, the Continental congress appointed a committee com-mittee to "Consider what provision ought to be made for such as are wounded or disabled in the land or sea service." This committee made a prompt report, re-port, and on August 245, 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 com-missioned officer, non-commissioned officer, and private soldier who shall lose a limb in any engagement, or be so disabled In the service of the United States of America as to render him Incapable afterwards of getting a livelihood, shall receive, during his life or the continuance of such disability, dis-ability, the one-half of his monthly pay from and after the -time that his pay as an officer or soldier ceases." After the Constitution had been adopted and the new government had been organized, It continued for a time the pensions which had been previously pre-viously granted and assumed their payment. Soon, however, a strong demand de-mand arose for a new pension law, and on March 23, 1792, the first pension pen-sion law passed by the new government govern-ment went Into effect. Lnter there grew a demand for it pension law not based upon disability incurred in the service and In his annual an-nual message to congress on December Decem-ber 2, 1S17, President Monroe recommended recom-mended such a law. A bill was passed by the house on December 24, as a sort of a Christmas present to the veterans of the Revolution, passed by the senate immediately, afterwards and approved by President Monroe on March IS, ISIS. The loose wording of this law, however, how-ever, made frauds easy and the grant of pensisns became a public scandal. A law passed in 1S20 required all pensioners pen-sioners already on the rolls and future applicants to file a statement of property prop-erty as proof of their alleged dependence depend-ence upon government bounty for a livelihood. As a result, the names of many pensioners were stricken from the rolls. In 1S32 a law was passed which granted full pay for life to all who' "iad served at least two years In the Revolution and proportional payments to those who had served less than two years but more than six months. In 1836 there began the enactment of a long series of pension acts in favor of the widows of soldiers of the Revolution, Revo-lution, 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 d$atb 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 same thing was repeated later at Intervals of two decades with the Mexican war and the Civil war. The first law pensioning pen-sioning soldiers of the Civil war was a disability pension act of July 14, 1862, which provided for the disabled survivors, for the widows, orphan children and dependent members of those who died because of wounds received or disease contracted while in the service of the United States and In line of duty. Rates for total disability dis-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 begin-ning July 4, 1804, and culminating in the recent act which increased the pensions of Civil war widows more than seventy-five years old, have Increased In-creased the rates, setting fixed rates for 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 he has engaged. This act provided that all pensions which had been granted or might hereafter be granted should date from the time of disability, provided application appli-cation were made before January 1, 1SS0. The effect of that law Is shown by the fact that the total sum paid for pensions jumped from $32,000,000 in 1879 to $56,000,000 in 1SS0, the greatest Increase In any one year In I the history of our pension system. I A bill to establish service pensions ' for persons in dependent circumstances circum-stances was vetoed by President Cleveland Cleve-land in 1SS6. A similar bill was passed June 27, 1890, providing that ail 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 In-capacitated them from performing manual labor might receive pensions ranging from $6. to $12 a month, according ac-cording to the degree of disability. Widows of soldiers who served 90 days who are dependent upon their daily labor for support could receive $S a month. 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 will be seen by an inspection of almost any Issue of the Congressional Record. As tills article is being written writ-ten many such bills are being Introduced Intro-duced in the present session of congress, con-gress, all of which will add to the staggering total which Old Man Mars has collected from Uncle Sam for wars long since past |