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The Pension Building
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
HAT is the most expensive thing
in the world?
No, it is not a rare metal, nor
a8 precious stone, nor any of the
other things which we common-
Iy think of when the adjectives
“expensive” or “costly” are ap-
plied to them,
The most expensive thing in
the world Is war!
For war, while it Is In prog-
ress, not only exacts a fearful
toll of lives, careers and money,
but long after the last gun has been fired and
the battle flags have been furled, a nation en-
gaged in it continues to pay and pay and pay!
The occasion for these reflections upon the
costs of war Is the fact that March 12 of this
year marks the one hundredth anniversary of
the establishment of the United States pension
burean and during that institution's career of
nearly a century, it was the medium through
which there were paid out staggering sums of
money in pensions to veterans, their widows and
their dependents. And these staggering sums
were only a small part of the actual expense of
the wars in which Uncle Sam has been engaged.
Here are the latest available fizures on the
amounts of pensions paid out from 1700 to 1032,
but as will be seen later in this article even
these figures do not tell all the story :
War of revolution T0.000.000.00
War of 1812 §.202.720.40
£8
29
24
71
61
42
54
Indian wars
War with Mexico
Civil war EN
War with Spain cones
Regular establishment
World war
Unclassified
TREE
-
DW - @
-~ Ww om
MN;
UN ee DL
Total 187.622.19
It will be notie r small fig.
ures are cited for the World war pensioners,
Obviously this does not include the vast sums
that have been paid out in one form or another
to these veterans and the explanation is that
there was a different set-up for compensating
those who served in this conflict.
Since the close of the World war the gov-
ernment has paid out approximately £6,318,
108,733 on account of relief of World war vet-
erans and their dependents—an average of about
$451,300,000 annually. Some of this money was
paid in insurance premiums by the veterans
themselves, but the greater portion came from
the treasury. Appropriations made by congress
for the financing of weterans’ rellef in the fiscal
year 1033 total 2027 840.000,
Seven forms of relief have been provided and
all are in operation. They are: Adjusted service
compensation, medical care and treatment, dis
ability compensation, United States insurance,
term insurance paid for permanent and total
disability, disability allowances, and emergency
officers’ retirement pay,
On June 30, 1931, the veterans administration
was set up, the old pension bureau was absorbed
in It and all veterans’ activities and operation of
homes for veterans are now concentrated In this
federal organization which is headed by Brig.
Gen. Frank T. Hines as administrator,
The adjusted compensation law, changed by
the act of 1931, made it possible that compensa-
tion certificates, maturing in 20 years, should be
available to all below the rank of captain who
had served In the military service more than
60 days. At maturity these certificates will vary
in value from £150 to $1,505, depending on the
length of the veterans’ service, and meantime
money may be borrowed on them. Certificates
issued up to March 1, 1031, totaled 3.498376,
and had a total maturity value of $3.528.022.777.
Loans made upon them approximated about
$243,000000 during the same period,
Under the hospitalization plan all veterans
are entitled to free treatment of hospital nature
either In or out of government hospitals, 51
hospitals being operated In 1031, five more be-
ing built and ten more authorized hy congress.
The cost of operating these institutions and ear-
ing for the patients is In excess of $450,000,000
to January 1, 1081,
The government relief program includes death
and disability compensation, disabled emergency
officers’ retirement pay and disability allowance
which have cost $2,205,215,659 up to July 1. 1032,
Anothey relief activity Is the grant of low-cost
insurance against death or permanent disability
in any multiple of $500 from £1,000 to £10,000 to
any henlthy veteran who has previously applied
for or has been eligible to apply for annually
renewthle war-time insurance or United States
rover Cleveland
government life (converted) insurance, The
total amount paid on these items is $1,670,157,
400,
Many thousands of claims have been filed un.
der the law providing monthly payment of term
insurance and government life Insurance for total
and permanent disability, and relief was being
given In 20,105 cases on June 30, 1082.
The disability allowance plan, which went into
effect July 1, 1880, provides monthly payments
to veterans permanently disabled to the extent
of 25 per cent or more, even though their dis
abllity was not incurred In or as a result of
their terms of service. Another new relief law
provides for the pensioning of emergency offi.
cers who are 30 per cent or more disabled or in-
capacitated as a result of their World war serv.
ice on the same basis as retired officers of the
regular army.
The history of pensions for veterans of Amer.
ican wars goes back to the earliest days of the
republie On June 20. 1778, even before the
Declaration of Independence had been adopted,
the Continental congress appointed a committee
to “Consider what prewision 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 26, 1776, the first national pension act In
America was passed by the Continental con
gress. That part of the law fixing the amount
was as follows: “That every commissioned offi
cer, 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 after.
wards of getting a livelihood, shall receive, dur-
Ing his life or the contimuance of such disabil)-
ity, 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 con-
tinued for a time the pensions which had been
previously granted and assumed thelr payment.
Soon, however, a strong demand arose for a
new pension law, and on March 23, 1702. the
first pension 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 De.
cember 2, 1817, President Monroe recommended
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 18, 1818.
The loose wording of this law, however, made
frauds easy and the grant of pensions hecame
a public scandal. A law passed In 1820 required
all pensioners already on the rolls and future
applicants to flle a statement of property as
proof of their alleged dependence upon govern.
ment bounty for a livelihood. As a result. the
names of many pensioners were stricken from
the rolls
In the early days of the Republic, pensions
were distributed by the secretaries of war and
navy. But on March 12, 1833, a commission
of pensions was set up under the direction of
the secretary of war. In 1840 the pensions dis
bursed by the secretary of the navy were also
placed under the administration of the commis
sion of pensions, which In the same year was
transferred to the department of Interior and be
came the pensions bureau, There it remained
until 1931 when the United States veterans’ ad-
ministration was established and absorbed the
pensions bureau,
In 1536 there began the enactment of a long
James Monroe
series of pension acts in favor of the widows
of soldiers of the Revblution, 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
government pension after the death of thelr hus
bands,
veterans In order to benefit by a
The pension rolls of the Revolution had scarce
ly grown to their peak when the United States
became engaged in another war-—the War of
1812-—t0 add to
ents drawing pensions
its list of veterans and depend.
And the same thing was
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. 1882 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 dizability ranged from $8 to £30 a month,
according to rank, and these same rates were
applied to the widows of the soldiers
laws, beginning July 4, 1564, 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
Rucceasive
The Civil war changed a number of things as
regards the pension treatment of war veterans
In the first place, the veterans of that war were
numerically of large political importance. They
were able to make their influence felt In Wash-
ington; consequently the march of pension leg-
islation quickened after the close of the war.
The passage of the arrears act In 1870 added
greatly to the burden of debt which Uncle Sam
bears because of the wars in which he has en.
gaged. 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 pald for pensions jumped from
£32000000 In 1879 to $56,000000 in 1880, the
greatest increase in any one year In the history
of our pension system,
From time to time during the course of the
pension history of the country various Presidents
have attempted to stem the tide of pension pay-
ments. Outstanding in this effort was President
Grover Cleveland. A bill to establish service
pensions for persons in dependent circumstances
was vetoed by President Cleveland in 1888 A
similar bill was passed June 27, 1500, providing
that all persons who had served 90 days in the
physical disability of a permanent character
which Ineapacitated them from performing man-
ual labor might receive pensions ranging from
$6 to £12 a month, according to the degree of
disability. Widows of soldiers who served 00
days who were dependent upon their daily labor
for support could receive $8 a month,
The most carefully worked out attempt to fore.
stall the expensive and somtimes wasteful re
sults of the pension system wag made when we
entered the World war. It was the first time
that our government had ever tried to find a sys
tem at the outbreak of a war to deal with dis
abled veterans in some manner other than by
pensioning them,
After the war, too, efforts were made to pre.
vent the beginning of a pension system by giv.
ing the veteran some government assistance in
establishing himself. What the recult has been
in the long-drawnout dispute over bonus legisla
tion and other matters connected with veterans’
compensations too well known from recent
events to require further comment in this article
© by Western Nawspaper Union,
READING OF TODAY
AND THE LONG AGO
It Is curious how long-forgotten
things come floating Into the mind
from nowhere, Once there was a
story In a popular magazine written
on the installment plan. The same
story was given each month, as it
might have been told by some well
known writer such as Howells or
James, but the name of the author
was withheld until after the tenth
number when the list of authors wns
given, and you could compare it with
your own guesses, I believe that 1
was not absolutely sure of many of
them except the one by Henry James,
whose long, precise and sometimes
involved sentences were not to he
disguised. As an exercise In the
story writers, It was Interesting
Few children of today have ever
heard of the “Prudy
“Dottie Dimple,” series.
ut we knew them all by heart
and could tell you how they put
P'rudy In a great hogshead when she
house on a painter's ladder, in search
of heaven: how she followed sister
Susie to school, and amused herself
by trying to see if her knitting
needle would come out the other side
if pushed through her seat-mate's
ear. There were many stories about
these little folk of Portland, Maine,
and we read them over and over, 1
have heard many oblections to sto
ries in series, prob
go beyond the period of childhood
and approach courtship and mar
riage, hut the Prudy books commit
ted no such unseemly indiscretion.
One of the enthusiasms of my
youth was “The Princess of Thule”
because they
by William Black, who wrote many
other novels, among then “The
Strange Adventures of a Phaeton”
(some one asked the other day, what
was a phaeton) 1 have lately re
newed my acquaintance with his
“Judith Shakespeare,” which Is a
good portrayal of the environment of
the poet. Akin to the “Princess of
Thule” was “Thelma” by Marie
Corelll,
“Peg Woflington,” by Charles
Reade, was the story of an Eight
eenth century actress, a friend of
David Garrick. I do not recall the
story, but might ask a certain rela
ative who makes a point of reading
once a year the novels of Charles
Reade and Anthony Trollope. 1
think he regards the Barsetshire
people as personal friends, especial-
ly those of the little house at Al
lington,
In my youth detective stories were
in ny sticate!
inch
unsoeph
gloating over yellow backed paper
books, my own harmless favorites
requiring no such secrecy. At school,
we were obliged to read the “Gold
Bug” and the “Murders of the Rue
Morgue,” as being the ploneers of
Not be
inclined, 1 did not
like them, though it was heresy to
say so, and later | could not see why
anyone should want to harrow up her
soul, and freeze her young blood by
poring over the “Moonstone,” by Wil-
kie Collinge. We domestic ones wore
out the “Last
“Lorna Doone,” “Joh: aitfax, Gen-
tleman,” “Jane
others, Incl
“Red as 8 Ro
and the like
have been, but hs w8 compared
8 read by girls
in the Indian-
the current detective novels
’ sre §
Pompeil,
to some of the
of today.—M. ©.
apolis News
r™
2
Crush and Dissolve i
3 Bager Aspirin Baci:,
Glass of Water.
Trickle
Modern medicul science now throws
an entirely new light on sore throat.
A way that cases the pain, rawness
and irritation in as litUe as two or
three minutes.
Results are among the most
extraordinary in medical science.
On doctors’ advice, millions are fol-
lowing this way . . . discarding old-
time “washes” and “‘antiseptics.”
For it has been found that only medi-
cine can help a sore throat,
Simple To Do. All you do is
crush and dissolve three BAYER
Aspirin Tablets in half a glass of
water. Gargle with it twice—as
pictured above. If you have any
ndicalion of a cold — before gar-
gling take 2 Bayer Aspirin Tablets
with a full glass of water. This is to
combat any signs of cold that have
ne into your system. Keep on
aking if cold has a “hold.” For
Genuine Bayer Aspirin will not harm
you. Your doctor will tell you, it
does not depress the heart. Get a
box of 12 or a bottle of 24 or 100
at any drug store.
Reduces Infection, Eases Pain
Instantly. Gargling with Bayer
Aspirin will do three things: Relieve
soreness al once. Allay inflamma-
tion. AND—reduce infection; which
is the important thing in fighting a
sore throat.
It requires medicine—like BAY-
ER ASPIRIN ~—1to do these things!
That "is why throat specialists
throughout America are prescrib-
ing this BAYER gargle in place of
old-time ways. ont are quick
and amazing.
Be careful, however, that you
t real BAYER Aspirin Tablets
or this purpose. For they dissolve
completely enough to gargle with-
out leaving irntating particles.
Watch this when you buy.
REA
%
JONM 1. WEST, Moseger