Show MR 1 m z V T ila mii 0 ff 11 1 1 11 J SRI I 1 M MF 1 un 2 11 w I 1 1 I i by ELMO SCOTT WATSON SAM who Is the head and also all the officers and of one of the biggest businesses in the world w naturally has some b big ig bills to pay one of the biggest Is the bill which old man an mars who 7 deals in war brings around every year and after lie he has left uncle sam finds that lie 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 back in 1010 1910 it Is more than one halt 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 france and japan back in 1017 1917 when it was announced that it would require to run nin our government there were those who shook their heads beads and wondered what we are coming to now 13 10 years after that first bill billion ion do dollar I 1 lar year we are facing the necessity of spending nearly that amount paying for wars which ended long before most of us were born it anyone wants a lesson against war let him talk to gen frank nines head of the veterans bureau or to col earl D church united states commissioner of pensions and from them learn something of the 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 and 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 1 I printing and binding military tary and naval compensation medical and hospital services adjusted service certificate fund military and naval insurance hospital espita and d services IJ S government life in urance aurance fund total PENSION OFFICE army and navy pensions salaries 0 a pension office investigation pension census fees of 0 examining surgeons total UNITED STATES SOLDIERS HOMES rational national homes of disabled volunteer soldiers Bold lers S S grand total nor will the paying of old man mars liars bill this year be the end of the matter next year it will be the name earne only larger and the next and the next nest and the next nest until the estimated peak Is reached id in 1005 for even though by that time uncle sam probably mill be through paying pen mons for the war of 1812 and the mexican war he probably will still be paying some tor for the civil war and certainly some tor for the spanish amer ican war and then there are the world war pensions yet to be paid we come to those yet but it seems certain that we will come to them As tile 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 how far 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 30 1 1029 the government paid bald 50 a month each to 11 gray haired women whose husbands fought linder the american flag when it had ad only fifteen stars in its field of blue the mexican war ended 83 years ago but until september of last year ancl sain was paying a monthly pension to owen thomas edgar who served in the navy during that war and when died at tag ax ot of ninety eight I 1 N RV above ono ona of the best known buildings the size of the building and the offices in washington D C Is the pension are built around a huge hollow square 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 abas frieze depicting the various dl di of the veterans are computed visions of the army in action which inset col earl D church united runs all the way around the building states commissioner of pensions at four hundred by five hundred feet la is his desk there still were widows of aleal can war veterans on the rolls of the pension bureau the civil war lias has been over 55 53 years jears but last year pensions were being paid to soldiers who served in that war to 39 nurses and to widows of veterans other pensioners last year were soldiers nurses and widows placed on the rolls by tile the aberlean an erlean war soldiers and widows by the indian wars 45 soldiers and 15 widows by the world war and soldiers and 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 pensions in 1020 1929 than in 1023 1028 but the total paid the last year was greater because the level of expenditure 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 had been adopted tile the continental congress appointed a committee 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 and on august ag X 1770 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 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 the one half of his monthly pay from and after the time that ills 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 granted and assumed their payment soon however a strong demand arose tor for a new pension law and on march 23 1702 the first pen felon 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 his annual message to congress on december 2 1817 president monroe recommended such a law A hill bill was waa passed by tile the house on december 24 as a sort of a christmas present to the veterans of the revolution passed pas sod by the senate immediately afterwards and approved by president monroe on march 18 1818 the loose wording of tills this law however made frauds easy and the grant of pensions became a public scandal A law passed in 1820 required all pensioners already on the rolls and future applicants to file a statement of property as proof of their alleged dependence upon government bounty for a livelihood od As a result the names of many pensioners were stricken from the rolls to in 1832 a law was passed which granted full pay tor for life to all who iad biad served at least two years in the j revolution and proportional payments to those who had served less than two years but more than six months in ISM 1830 there began the enactment of a long iong series of pension acts in favor of the widows of soldiers of the revolution Iti lution tion restricted at first to those who lad had married before the close of the revolution these grew more liberal later until pensions were granted to all widows regardless of the date ot 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 same thing was ivas repeated later at intervals of two decades with the mexican war and the civil war the first law pensioning soldiers of the civil war was a disability pension act of july 14 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 ranged from 8 to 30 a month according to rank and these same rates were applied to tile the widows of the soldiers successive laws beginning 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 the rates setting fixed rates for various kinds of disability tile 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 tills this act provided 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 in 1880 the greatest increase in any one year la in the history of our pension system A bill to establish service pensions tor for persons in dependent circumstances was vetoed by president cleveland in 1880 1666 A similar bill was passed june 27 1800 1890 providing that all persons who had served 00 days in the war and who were suffering from any mental or physical disability of a permanent cliar character acter which incapacitated them from performing manual labor might receive pensions ranging from SO 0 to 12 a co etli according cording to the degree of disability disa billt Y widows of soldiers who served go 90 days who are dependent upon their dally labor for support could receive sa S a rino month nth in addition to the pensions granted under the generals laws many claims for pensions some of them rejected by the pension bureau have beep passed by act of congress in fact the tha consideration of pension bills forms a large part of the act activity lifty of 0 congress tig as will be seen by an inspection of almost any issue of the congressional record As tills this article is being written many such bills are being introduced in the present session of congress all of which blell will add to the staggering total which old man mars fars I 1 has collected from uncle S sam am tor for wars long lone since apas past ta f |