"THE PENSION BUDGET.
[TO THE EDITOR OP • THE SUN.']
Sie,—In an editorial entitled The Pay of the Army' in the Sun of February 7th you have stepped aside to strengthen the public prejudice against the veteran of the Civil War by charging to him the annual Pension Budget of approximately $140,000,000, while knowing full well that of this enormous sum less than 50 per cent. is due to the existence of, or is paid to the actual veterans, the men or the families of the men who smelled powder and were shot at in the field.' No one knows better than does the Sun that pensions are to a great extent a matte of pull, political and otherwise, rather than of merit; that while one pensioner receives for his wounds $12 a month, another, with similar and slighter wounds, receives $20 or more; that in viola- tion of our pension laws and regulations many are in receipt of the prohibited additional pension for a minor wound' ; and that thousands of the . relatives and friends of influential officers and of others are in receipt of pensions to which under a proper interpretation of the law they have no shadow of right. By Acts of Congress, by special pension bills, many of them in favour of applicants whose claims have been rejected by. the Pension Bureau, and by grants of large pensions to those already possessed of ample means but having no right to a pension other than that conferred by special Acts, the pension budget, not- withstanding the rapid passing of the veteran and through no fault of his, yet greatly to his discredit, still holds its own, and will continue to do so indefinitely. That our pension laws need revision and the pension-list a careful and thorough pruning is evident, but it is equally evident that it carries altogether too many unworthy but influential persons to permit a hope that the pruning process will ever be undertaken. With all these facts and a knowledge of the total sum annually paid to the actual veteran before it, or easily obtainable, the Sun dare not urge the necessary revision and pruning, but instead hesitates not to charge up the burden with all its attendant evils to the veteran, to educate the public in that belief and constantly to keep it before the public eye. I am a veteran, fortunately far removed from want, with no interest in pension enactments, and I speak only for justice to and in behalf of my comrades. VETERAN."
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