| OCR Text |
Show "ffl 1 y. ELMO SCOTT WATSON ffh M,S tNCLE BAM. who is th. j f AS fiW'-C" offlceTwd'Jmplo'yees '''' - .. of one of the biggest .' jsJ K5er S' Z'5Z'' J- businesses In the world.. JZ naturally has some big . , .f'"-'. jfcTT- bills to pay. One of the , ;inJ$ZV &mxi8ttwitm biggest Is the bill which Itlrl Van Xfnre vhn By ELMO SCOTT WATSON fNCLK SAM, who Is the head and also all the officers and employees 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 1 deals In war, brings around every year and after he has left Uncle Sam finds that he 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 nav to Oltf Man Mara Above One of the best known buildings build-ings In Washington, D. C, is the Pension Pen-sion building which stands In Judiciary Square about halfway between tha Capitol and the White House. It is built of red brick and has a remarkable remark-able frieze, depicting the various divisions di-visions of the army In action, which runs all the way around the building. Four hundred by five hundred feet Is the size of the building and the offices 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 theae the pensions of the vaterana are computed. Inset Col. Earl D. Church, United States commissioner of pensions at his desk. 8,099 widows by the regular array. These, with the pensioners previously mentioned, made a total of 477,015 persons who received a total of $229,-890.1S9 $229,-890.1S9 from Uncle Sam. There were 18,279 fewer persons drawing pensions pen-sions in 1929 than in 1028 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. Ou June 20, 1770, 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 6, 1770, the first national pension act in America was passed by the Continental congress. That part of the law fixing the amount 1 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. Up to September, 1822, as many as 18,800 claims had been admitted, ad-mitted, although at that time there were actually only 12,331 pensioners on the rolls because of the effect of the law of 1820. In 1832 a law was passed which granted full pay for life to all who had served at least two years tn 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 Itha staggering sum of $828,000,000. That Is almost $100,000,000 more than the total cost of running the entire federal government back In 1910. 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 of 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 w born. If anyone wants a lesson against war, let him talk to Gen. Frank Iilnes, head of the veterans' bureau, or to CoU 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 Uvea but for the third, let these figures from the government budget for 1930 tell their own story : (WORLD WAR) VETERANS' BUREAU Salaries and expenaea t 4, 500,000 Prlntlna and binding- 125.000 Ullltary and naval compen- aatlon 191.450,000 Medical and hospital services serv-ices 81,850,000 Adjusted service certificate fund 112,000,000 Ullltary and naval Insurance Insur-ance 116,250,000 Hospital facilities and services serv-ices (,000.000 V. 8. government Ufa In-auranca In-auranca fund 17,400,000 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." The resources of the Continental congress, however, were very meager, and therefore It asked the states to make payment of the pensions and Incorporated In-corporated the following provision In the law: "That It be recommended 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 tn another war the War of 1812 to add to Its list of veterans and depeudents 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, 1802, 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. Bates for total disability dis-ability ranged from J8 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, 1SG4, and culminating In the recent act which Increased the pensions of Civil war widows more j than seventy-five years old, have In- j creased the rates, setting fixed rates for various kinds of disability. The passage of the arrears act tn 1879 added greatly to the burden of debt which Uncle Sam beurt 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, 1830. 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 1880, the greatest Increase In any one year In the history of our pension system. A bill to establish service pensions for persons In dependent circumstances circum-stances was vetoed by President Cleveland Cleve-land . in 1SS0. A similar hill was passed June 27, 1890, providing that the law: "That It be recommended to the assemblies or legislative bodies of the several states to cause payment to be made of ail such half pay or other allowances as shall be adjudged due to the persons aforenamed on account ac-count of the United States. The Continental congress also placed the burden of administering the law upon the states. As the states were to pay the pensions, It was perhaps only fair thnt they should have the right to determine who were to receive re-ceive pensions under the law. The states, however, were also at times In a precarious flnunclnl conditlqn, and payments were uncertain and Irregular. Irregu-lar. Many of the pensions were soon far In arrears and remained so. 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 grunted and assumed their payment Soon, however, a strong demand de-mand arose for a new pension law, and on March 23. 1732, the first pension pen-sion law passed by the new government govern-ment went Into effect. The main provision pro-vision of that law was as follows: That any commissioned officer, not having- received tha commutation of half pay, and any noncommissioned officer, of-ficer, soldier, or seaman, disabled In tha actual service of tha United States, during- tha lata war, by wounds or Total 1597,175,000 PENSION OFFICE Army and navy pensions. .. 1221,000,000 Salaries, pension office 1,225,000 Investigation pension census 105,000 Faaa of examining; surgeons 450,000 Total $222,780,000 UNITED 8TATES SOLDIERS' HOMES National homes of disabled volunteer aoldlera f 8,689,100 Grand total ...-fS2S.S44.100 Mor 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 uutll the estimated esti-mated peak Is reached In 19GS. For, even though by that time Uncle Sam probably will be throngh paying pen-slons pen-slons for the War of 1812, and the C 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 wsr veterans grow less, the needs of the aging survivors and their families and dependents will Increase. And no j one dares predict how far In the future Uncle Sam will be paying out World war pensions. all persons who had served 00 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 $0 to $12 a month, according ac-cording to the degree of disability. Widows of soldiers who served DO days who are dependent upon their dally labor for support could receive $8 a month. The War of 1812 has been over 115 years but during the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1929, the government ; paid $50 a month each to 11 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 83 years ago but until September of last year Uncle Sam was paying a monthly pension to Owen Thomas Edgar who served In the navy during that war. And when be died at the age of ninety-eight there still were 730 widows of Mexl-can Mexl-can war veterans on the rolls of the pension bureau. The Civil war has been over 53 years but last year pensions pen-sions were being paid to 50,045 soldiers sol-diers who served In that war, to 89 nurses and to 181,235 widows of veterans. vet-erans. Other pensioners last year were 178,-. 178,-. 804 soldiers, 414 nurses and 28,043 widows placed on the rolls by the Spanish-American war; 0,574 soldiers and 4,000 widows by the Indian wars ; I 45 soldiers and 15 widows by the I World war and 14,758 soldiers and i other known cause, who did not desert from tha said aervice, Khali be entitled to ba placed 00 tha pension lift of the United Stales, during Ufa or the continuance con-tinuance of auch disability, and shall also ba allowed such further sum for tha arrears of. pension, from the time of auch disability, not exceeding the rate of the annual allowance, In consequence con-sequence of his (Usability, as the Circuit Cir-cuit court of the district In which they respectively reside, may think just. Later there grew a demand for a pension law not based upon disability Incurred In the service and Id his annual an-nual message to congress on December Decem-ber 2, 1817, President Monroe recommended recom-mended such a law. A bill was passed by the bouse 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 18, 1818. The loose wording of this law, however, how-ever, made frauds easy and the grant of pensions became a public scandal. A law passed In 1820 required all pensioners pen-sioners already on the rolls and future applicants to file a statement of prop- In addition to the pensions granted under the generals laws, many clulms 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 nctlvity of congress, as will be seen by an Inspection of almost any Issue of the Congressional Record. As this article Is being written writ-ten many such bills are belug 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 foi wars long alnca past |
