OCR Text |
Show TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS IN PENSIONS. A dozen years ngo there were confident con-fident predictions of diminishing expenditures ex-penditures on pensions. The high-water high-water mark. JIS? '"0.000. had been reached In 1593. There was a decline to $139.010.000 aud the probabilities were cited to show that it would continue. con-tinue. But there was a new high-water mark In 19'"o $1 62.000.000. And now the Houe Committee on Pensions has agreed on a bill which, it is estimated, would Increase the expenditure to nearly (200,000, 000 annually by increasing in-creasing the service nenslon rare Fnder the proposed law ihe applicant appli-cant would not have to furnish proof of disability. Every honorably discharged dis-charged soldier who served net Ies6 than ninety davs In the Civil War or Plxty davs In the Mexican War would 1 entitled to a pension on reaching the age of 62, and the rates are graded grad-ed nt SIC. $20, $25 and $36 a month, according to age. not rank, as against old rates of ?12, $15 and $20. It Is obvious that the recipient of a pension tinder such a law might have soon no service whatever in the strict sense of the term, that his experience ex-perience in the war might have consisted con-sisted of an intereftlnp diversion of three months from the routine of business. busi-ness. He would be pensioned at a high rate Tor having been available, so to speak, and he might or might not need the money. If he should need It, compassion for him because ci Ms age and want must bo considered an element of no little Importance In sustaining the legislation, and It is a pertinent question ques-tion whether that we are working toward to-ward is not a discriminatory system of old age pensions at very high rates. If f, there are many indlgnent old men who may feel aggrieved at the discrimination and cry out that their need is much greater than that of many fairly well-to-do recipients of pensions tinder the law. Chicago Record Rec-ord Herald. |