espread disregard of truth and good faith,
stimulated by those who as agents undertake to establish claims for
pensions heedlessly entered upon by the expectant beneficiary, and
encouraged, or at least not condemned, by those unwilling to obstruct
a neighbor's plans.

In the execution of this proposed law under any interpretation a wide
field of inquiry would be opened for the establishment of facts largely
within the knowledge of the claimants alone, and there can be no doubt
that the race after the pensions offered by this bill would not only
stimulate weakness and pretended incapacity for labor, but put a further
premium on dishonesty and mendacity.

The effect of new invitations to apply for pensions or of new advantages
added to causes for pensions already existing is sometimes startling.

Thus in March, 1879, large arrearages of pensions were allowed to be
added to all claims filed prior to July 1, 1880. For the year from July
1, 1879, to July 1, 1880, there were filed 110,673 claims, though in the
year immediately previous there were but 36,832 filed, and in the year
following but 18,455.

While cost should not be set against a patriotic duty or the recognition
of a right, still when a measure proposed is based upon generosity or
motives of charity it is not amiss to meditate somewhat upon the expense
which it involves. Experience has demonstrated, I believe, that all
estimates concerning the probable future cost of a pension list are
uncertain and unreliable and always fall far below actual realization.

The chairman of the House Committee on Pensions calculates that the
number of pensioners under this bill would be 33,105 and the increased
cost $4,767,120. This is upon the theory that only those who are
entirely unable to work would be its beneficiaries. Such was the
principle of the Revolutionary pension law of 1818, much more clearly
stated, it seems to me, than in this bill. When the law of 1818 was upon
its passage in Congress, the number of pensioners to be benefited
thereby was thought to be 374; but the number of applicants under the
act was 22,297, and the number of pensions actually allowed 20,485,
costing, it is reported, for the first year, $1,847,900, instead of
$40,000, the estimated expense for that period.

A law was passed in 1853 for the benefit of the surviving widows of
Revolutionary soldiers who were married after January 1, 1800. It was
estimated that they numbered 300 at the time of