Pension

pen'shun, a monthly allowance paid by the government in recognition of past services. The pension system of the United States is the most liberal known. It is modeled on that of England. The pension bureau at Washington is the largest office maintained by the government. It is in charge of a commissioner of pensions. Counting medical experts, chiefs of divisions, examiners, clerks, messengers, watchmen, and laborers, it employs 1,739 persons. Salaries, printing, stationery, and other costs of office maintenance mount up to $2,500,000 a year. The allowance to old soldiers and sailors for total disability is $8 a month for enlisted men; $13 for second lieutenants; $17 for first-lieutenants; $20 for captains; $25 for majors, surgeons, and paymasters, and $30 a month for lieutenant colonels and officers of higher rank. There is a schedule of pensions for specific disability. One hundred dollars a month is allowed for the loss of both arms; $72 for the loss of both feet, etc. The widow of a soldier or sailor whose death resulted from service, and who has not remarried, receives $12 a month. The law also directs an allowance for each minor child of a deceased soldier. This class of pensioners, however, is not large. In 1901, there were 997,735 names on the pension rolls. Classified by wars, there were nine Revolutionary pensioners; 1,528, War of 1812; 4,565, Indian Wars; 15,677, Mexican War; 970,352, Civil War; and 5,604, Spanish War. At the date June 30, 1901, the total amount paid out by the United States government on account of pensioners reached the vast total of $2,763,350,033.

In 1905, four years later, the pension roll had grown to 1,004,196, one person out of every 830 of the total population. This proved to be the maximum number. Payments on account of the Revolutionary War ceased, and the last veteran of the War of 1812 was laid at rest in that year. The pensions for that year were $141,142,960, and the grand total had reached $2,844,000,000.

The following table shows the number of pensioners on the roll in each class at the close of the fiscal year 1908, June 30: Revolutionary War:

Total . . . . . 951,687

The total disbursements for the year were $153,652,329. The payments for the year ended June 30, 1909, amounted to $161,973,703, the largest sum ever disbursed in one year. The total disbursements counting from the beginning of the system to June 30, 1910, cost of agencies included, exceeds $4,000,000,000, a sum unprecedented in the history of the world. If the cost of pensions be included, the war budget of the United States is greater than that of any other country. The cost of agencies is almost $3,000,000 a year.

Pensions are granted usually by general acts. Congress has granted special pensions to the widows of Presidents Polk, Tyler, Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.