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PENSIONS

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 122 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PENSIONS . See also:

Civil Service.—In the See also:English civil service the See also:grant of pensions on See also:superannuation is regulated by See also:statute, the four See also:principal acts being the Superannuation Acts of 1834, 1859, 1887 and 1909. To qualify for a See also:pension it is necessary (i) that a civil servant should have been admitted to the service with a certificate from the civil service commissioners, or hold an See also:office specially exempted from this requirement; (2) that he should give his whole See also:time to the public service; (3) that he should draw the emoluments of his office from public funds exclusively; (4) that he should have served for not less than ten years; (5) that if under the See also:age of 6o years he should be certified to be permanently incapable, from infirmity of See also:body or mind, of discharging his See also:official duties, or have been removed from his office on the ground of his inability to See also:discharge his duties efficiently. On retirement on these conditions a civil servant is qualified for a pension calculated at one-eightieth of his retiring See also:salary (or, in certain cases, of his See also:average salary for the last three years) for each See also:complete See also:year of service, subject to a maximum of See also:forty-eightieths. Civil servants retiring on the ground of See also:ill See also:health after less than ten years' service qualify for a gratuity of one See also:month's pay for each year of service. Previous to the Superannuation See also:Act of 1909 the pension was calculated at the See also:rate of one-sixtieth of the retiring salary for each completed year of service, subject to a maximum of forty-sixtieths. This is still the rate for those who entered the service previous to the passing of the act (See also:September 20, 1909) unless they availed themselves of the permission in the act to take See also:advantage of its provisions, which were more than a See also:compensation for the lowering of the rate. The act gave See also:power to the See also:treasury to grant by way of additional See also:allowance to a civil servant who retired after not less than two years' service, in addition to his superannuation, a lump sum equal to one-thirtieth of his See also:annual salary and emoluments multiplied by the number of completed years he has served, so however, that such lump sum does not exceed one and a See also:half times his salary, while if he retires after attaining the age of sixty-five years, there must be deducted from that lump sum one-twentieth for every completed year that he has served after attaining that age. In the See also:case of those who entered the service before the passing of the act, and take advantage of the act, this additional allowance is increased by one-half per cent. for each completed year served at the passing of the act. The act also provided that where a civil servant died after serving five years or upwards, a gratuity equal to his annual salary and emoluments might be granted to his legal See also:personal representatives. Where the civil servant attains the age of sixty-five this gratuity is reduced by one-twentieth for each completed year beyond that age. On the other See also:hand, where the civil servant has retired from the service and all the sums received by him at his See also:death on See also:account of superannuation are less than his annual salary his representatives may receive the difference as a gratuity.

See also:

Provision was also made in the act for granting compensation on abolition of office, provided that such compensation does not exceed what the recipient might be granted or be entitled to if he retired on the ground of ill health. Pensions are also sometimes awarded in excess of the See also:scale as a See also:reward for See also:special services, as compensation for injury in certain cases, or to holders of professional offices, appointed at an age exceeding that at which public service ordinarily begins. In the estimates for civil services for the year 1909-1910, there was provided for non-effective and charitable services (as pensions and gratuities in lieu of pensions are known as) the sum of £9,625,920; this, however, included an See also:item of £8,750,000 for old-age pensions, leaving a sum of £875,920. There was charged on the Consolidated Fund, on account of pensions and compensation allowance for civil, judicial and other services, a sum of £142,767, while the following sums for civil pensions were provided in the estimates of the several departments: See also:War Office, £158,000; See also:Admiralty, £369,800; Customs and See also:Excise, £412,358; Inland See also:Revenue, £116,c96; See also:Post Office, £649,000; Royal Irish Constabulary, £416,500; See also:Dublin See also:Metropolitan See also:Police, £33,646, making a See also:total of £2,298,167, or a gro3s total for civil pensions oflist of the various pensions. Perpetual or Hereditary Pensions.—Perpetual pensions were freely granted either to favourites or as a reward for See also:political services from the time of See also:Charles II. onwards. Such pensions were very frequently attached as " salaries " to places which were sinecures, or, just as often, posts which were really necessary were grossly overpaid, while the duties were discharged by a See also:deputy at a small salary. See also:Prior to the reign of See also:Queen See also:Anne such pensions and annuities were charged on the hereditary revenues of the See also:sovereign and were held to be binding on the sovereign's successors (The Bankers' Case, 1691; See also:State Trials, xiv. 3-43). By I Anne c. 7 it was provided that no portion of the hereditary revenues could be charged with pensions beyond the See also:life of the reigning sovereign. This act did not affect the hereditary revenues of See also:Ireland and See also:Scotland, and many persons were quartered, as they had been before the act, on the Irish and Scottish revenues who could not be provided for in See also:England—for example, the See also:duke of St Albans, illegitimate son of Charles II., had an Irish pension of £800 a year; See also:Catherine See also:Sedley, See also:mistress of See also:James II., had an Irish pension of £5000 a year; the duchess of See also:Kendall and the countess of See also:Darlington, mistresses of See also:George I., had pensions of the See also:united annual value of £5000, while Madame de Walmoden, a mistress of George II., had a pension of £3000 (See also:Lecky, See also:History of Ireland in the Eighteenth See also:Century). These pensions had been granted in every conceivable See also:form—during the See also:pleasure of the See also:Crown, for the life of the sovereign, for terms of years, for the life of the grantee, and for several lives in being or in reversion (See also:Erskine May, Constitutional History of England).

On the See also:

accession of George III. and his surrender of the hereditary revenues in return for a fixed civil See also:list, this civil list became the source from which the pensions were paid. The subsequent history of the civil list will be found under that heading (Civil. LIST), but it may be here mentioned that the three pension lists of England, Scotland and Ireland' were consolidated in 1830, and the civil pension list reduced to £75,000, the See also:remainder of the pensions being charged on the Consolidated Fund. In 1887, Charles See also:Bradlaugh, M.P., protested strongly against the See also:payment of perpetual pensions, and as a result a See also:Committee of the See also:House of See also:Commons inquired into the subject (See also:Report of Select Committee on Perpetual Pensions, 248, 1887). An appendix to the Report contains a detailed list of all hereditary pensions, payments and allowances in existence in 1881, with an explanation of the origin in each case and the ground of the See also:original grant ; there are also shown the pensions, &c., redeemed from time to time, and the terms upon which the redemption took See also:place. The nature of some of these pensions may be gathered from the following examples: To the duke of See also:Marlborough and his heirs in See also:perpetuity, £4000 per annum; this See also:annuity was redeemed in See also:August 1884 for a sum of £107,780, by the creation of a ten years' annuity of £12,796, 17S. per annum. By an act of 18o6 an annuity of £5000 per annum was conferred on See also:Lord See also:Nelson and his heirs in perpetuity. In 1793 an annuity of £2000 was conferred on Lord See also:Rodney and his heirs. All these pensions were for services rendered, and although justifiable from that point of view, a preferable policy is pursued in the loth century, by See also:parliament voting a lump sum, as in the cases of Lord See also:Kitchener in 1902 (£50,000) and Lord See also:Cromer in 1907 £50,000). Charles Il. granted the office of See also:receiver-See also:general and controller of the See also:seals of the See also:court of See also:king's See also:bench and See also:common pleas to the duke of See also:Grafton. This was See also:purchased in 1825 from the duke for an annuity of £843, which in turn was commuted in 1883 for a sum of £22,714, 121. 8d.

To the same duke was given the office of the See also:

pipe or See also:remembrancer of first-fruits and tenths of the See also:clergy. This office was sold by the duke in 1765, and after passing through various hands was purchased by one R. See also:Harrison in 1798. In 1835 on the loss of certain fees the holder was compensated by a perpetual pension of £62, 9s. 8d. The duke of Grafton also possessed an annuity of £687o in respect of the See also:commutation of the dues of butlerage and prisage. To the duke of St Albans was granted in 1684 the office of See also:master of the See also:hawks. The sums granted by the original patent were : master of hawks, salary, £391, Is. 5d.; four falconers at £50 per annum each, £200; provision of hawks, £600; provision of pigeons, hens and other meats, £182, Ios.; total, £1373, Hs. 5d. This amount was reduced by office fees and other deductions to £965, at which amount it stood, until commuted in 1891 for £18,335. To the duke of See also:Richmond and his heirs was granted in 1676 a See also:duty of one See also:shilling per ton on all coals exported from the See also:Tyne for See also:consumption in England.

This was redeemed in 1799 for an annuity of £1.9,000 (chargeable on the consolidated fund), which was afterwards redeemed for £633,333. The duke of See also:

Hamilton, as hereditary keeper of the See also:palace, Holyrood House, received a perpetual pension of £45, 1os., and the descendants of the heritable See also:usher of Scotland See also:drew a salary of £242, Ios. The conclusions of the committee were that pensions, allowances and payments should not in future be granted in perpetuity, on the ground that such grants should be limited to the persons actually rendering the service, and that such rewards should be defrayed by the See also:generation benefited; that offices with salaries and without duties, or with merely nominal duties, ought to be abolished; that all existing perpetual pensions and payments and all hereditary offices should be abolished: that where no service or merely nominal service is rendered by the holder of an hereditary office or the original grantee of a pension, the pension or payment should in no case continue beyond the life of the See also:present holder and that in all cases the method of commutation ought to ensure a real and substantial saving to the nation (the existing rate, about 27 years' See also:purchase, being considered by the committee to be too high). These recommendations of the committee were adopted by the See also:government and outstanding hereditary pensions were gradually commuted, the only ones See also:left outstanding being those to Lord Rodney (L2000) and to See also:Earl Nelson (£5000), both chargeable on the consolidated fund. Political Pensions.—By the Political Offices Pension Act 1869, pensions were instituted for those who had held political office. For the purposes of the act political offices were divided into three classes: (I) those with a yearly salary of not less than £5000; (2) those with a salary of less than £5000 and not less than £2000; (3) those with a salary of less than £2000 and more than £See also:i000. For service in these offices there may be awarded pensions for life in the following scale: (I) a first class pension not exceeding £2000 a year, in respect of not less than four years' service or its See also:equivalent, in an office of the first class; (2) a second class pension not exceeding £I200, in respect of service of not less than six years or its equivalent, in an office of the second class; (3) a third class pension not exceeding £80o a year, in respect of service of not less than ten years in an office of the third class. The service need not be continuous, and the act makes provision for counting service in See also:lower classes as a qualification for pension in a higher class. These pensions are limited in number to twelve, but a holder must not receive any other pension out of the public revenue, if so, he must inform the treasury and surrender it if it exceeds his political pension, or if under he must deduct the amount. He may, however, hold office while a pensioner, but the pension is not payable during the time he holds office. To obtain a political pension, the applicant must See also:file a See also:declaration stating the grounds upon which he claims it and that his income from other See also:sources is not sufficient to maintain his station in life. Civil List Pensions.—These are pensions granted by the sovereign from the civil list upon the recommendation of the first lord of the treasury.

By I & 2 Viet. c. 2 they are to be granted to " such persons only as have just claims on the royal beneficence or who by their personal services to the Crown, or by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in See also:

science and attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious See also:consideration of their sovereign and the gratitude of their See also:country." A sum of £I2oo is allotted each year from the civil list, in addition to the pensions already in ,force. From a Return issued in 1908 the total of civil list pensions payable in that year amounted to £24,665. Judicial, Municipal, &c.—There are certain offices of the executive whose pensions are regulated by particular acts of parliament. See also:Judges of the Supreme Court, on completing fifteen years' service or becoming permanently incapacitated for duty, whatever their length of service, may be granted a pension equal to two-thirds of their salary (Judicature Act 18i3). The lord See also:chancellor of England however See also:short a time he may have held office, receives a pension of f5000, but he usually continues to sit as a See also:law lord in the House of Lords—so also does the lord chancellor of Ireland, who receives a pension of £3,692 6s. Id. A considerable number of See also:local authorities have obtained special See also:parliamentary See also:powers for the purpose of superannuating their officials and workmen who have reached the age of 6o–65. Poor law See also:officers receive superannuation allowances under the Poor Law Officers Superannuation Acts 1864–1897. Ecclesiastical Pensions.—Bishops, deans, canons or incumbents who are incapacitated by age or infirmity from the discharge of their ecclesiastical duties may receive pensions which are a See also:charge upon the revenues of the see or cure vacated. See also:Navy pensions were first instituted by See also:William III. in 1693 and regularly established by an See also:order in See also:council of Queen Anne in 1700. Since then the rate of pensions has undergone various modifications and alterations; the full regulations concerning pensions to all ranks will be found in the quarterly Navy List, published by the authority of the Admiralty.

In addition to the See also:

ordinary pensions there are also See also:good-service pensions, See also:Greenwich See also:Hospital pension and pensions for wounds. An officer is entitled to a pension when he is retired at the age of 45, or if he retires between the ages of 40 and 45 at his own See also:request, otherwise he receives only half pay. The amount of his pension depends upon his See also:rank, length of service and age. The maximum retired pay of an See also:admiral is £85o per annum, for which 30 years' service or its equivalent in half-pay time is necessary; he may, in addition, hold a good service pension of £300 per annum. The maximum retired pay of a See also:vice-admiral, with 29 years' service is £725; of See also:rear-admirals with 27 years' service £600 per annum. Pensions of captains who retire at the age of 55, commanders, who retire at 50, and lieutenants who retire at 45, range from £200 per annum for 17 years' service to £525 for 24 years' service. The pensions of other officers are calculated in the same way. according to age and length of service. Thegood-service pensions consist of ten pensions of £300 per annum for See also:flag-officers, two of which may be held by vice-admirals and two by rear-admirals; twelve of £150 for captains; two of £200 a year and two of £150 a year for engineer officers; three of £100 a year for medical officers of the navy; six of £200 a year for general officers of the Royal See also:Marines and two of £15o a year for colonels and lieut.-colonels of the same. Greenwich Hospital pensions range from £150 a year for flag officers to £25 a year for See also:warrant officers. All See also:seamen and marines who have completed twenty-two years' service are entitled to pensions ranging from See also:Tod. a See also:day to a maximum of Is. 2d. a day, according to the number of good-conduct badges, together with the good-conduct See also:medal, possessed. See also:Petty officers, in addition to the rates of pension allowed them as seamen, are allowed for each year's service in the capacity of See also:superior petty officer, 15s.

2d. a year, and in the capacity of inferior petty officer 7s. 7d. a year. Men who are discharged the service on account of injuries and wounds or See also:

disability attributable to the service are pensioned with sums varying from 6d. a day to 2s. a day. Pensions are also given to the widows of officers in certain circumstances and compassionate allowances made to the See also:children of officers. In the Navy estimates for 1908–1909 the amount required for half-pay and retired-pay was £868,800, and for pensions, gratuities and compassionate allowances £1,334,600, a total of £2,203,400. See also:Army.—The See also:system of pensions in the See also:British Army is somewhat intricate, provision being made for dealing with almost every case separately. As a general See also:rule officers can retire after eight years' service on a pension of £100 per annum for ten years, provided that they take commissions in either the Imperial See also:Yeomanry or Special Reserve and attend the annual trainings during that See also:period. The other pensions are as follows: 2nd lieutenants, lieutenants, captains and majors after 15 years' service (or 12 years in the See also:West See also:India See also:regiment), £120, if 45 years of age £200; majors, after 25 years'service, £200. Royal See also:artillery or royal See also:engineers if commissioned, after 21 years of age, £300, if 48 years of age, £300; See also:lieutenant-colonels, after 3 years as such, with 15 years' service, £250, with 27 years' service, £300, with 30 years' service, £365, after See also:term of employment as lieutenant-See also:colonel commanding a unit, or See also:staff See also:appointment as lieutenant-colonel, or after 5 years as lieutenant-colonel See also:cavalry and See also:infantry, £420. Royal artillery, royal engineers and army service See also:corps, £450; Colonels, after 5 years as colonel, cavalry and infantry, {420. Royal artillery, royal engineers and army service corps, £450, after completing the term of command of a regimental See also:district or a regiment of See also:foot-See also:guards, or employed in any other capacity for three years, £450–£500 according to age; See also:Brevet-colonels, with the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, receive, cavalry or infantry, £420; royal artillery, royal engineers and army service corps, £450. See also:Major-generals retire at the age of 62 with a pension of £700; lieutenant-generals at 67 with £850; generals at 67 with £i000.

Officers whose first permanent See also:

commission bears date prior to the 1st of See also:January, 1887, retire with a gratuity in lieu of pension. Officers of the departmental corps retire either with pensions ranging from £1125 yearly to Ios. daily, or with gratuities ranging from £2500 to £1000. Warrant officers with 5 years' service as such, and 20 years' total service, receive 3s. 6d. per diem if discharged from the service on account of disability, reduction of See also:establishment or age. On discharge for any reasons (except misconduct or inefficiency) they receive from 3s. 6d. to 5s. per diem, according to length of service and corps. If they have less than 5 years' service as warrant officers, but not less than 21 years' total service, they receive at least 3s. per diem; and if discharged at their own request after 18 years' total service, 2s. 71d. Additional pensions are given at the rate of 6d. per diem for gallant conduct, and TId. to Is. per diem for re-employed pensioners on completing their second term of employment, with 3d. per diem extra if promoted while so serving. Special pensions are also granted in exceptional cases. For the purposes of pensions, non-commissioned officers are divided into four classes, corresponding roughly to quartermaster-sergeants, See also:colour-sergeants, sergeants and corporals. With not more than 21 years' total service, and with the following continuous service in one of the above classes, the rates of pensions (per diem) are: Class.

12 years' 9 years' 6 years' 3 years' Service. Service. Service. Service. s. d. s. d. s. d.. s. d. I. 2 9 2 6 2 3 2 0 II. 2 6 2 3 2 0 19 IV. I 8 I 6 I 4 T O Privates (Class V.) receive the following pensions:— 21 years' 20 years' 19 years' 18 years' 14 to 18 years' Service. Service. Service. Service.

Service. I Is. Id. Is. od. Id. Tod. 8d. to Tod. For service in excess of 21 years, the following amounts are added to the pensions enumerated above:— ' For each complete year in excess of 21 years. Classes I. to III. Id. per diem to 9d. per diem. Classes IV. and V. id. per diem to 5d. per diem. A See also:

man promoted to higher rank within one year of his completing 21 years' service, receives, on his discharge in the higher rank, an extra 3d. per diem, provided that he has completed 25 years' service in all.

An additional pension of 6d. per diem is awarded for gallant conduct, as in the case of warrant officers. N.C.O.'s and men disabled through military service are granted the following pensions: If partially capable of earning a livelihood Per diem. Class I. to III Is. to 3S. IV 9d. to 2s. V ; bd. to I s.. 6d. If totally incapable of earning a livelihood Per diem. Class I. to III 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. ; IV. . .

2s. od. to 3S. od. V. . . . Is. 6d. to 2S. 6d. Pensions may also be granted to N.C.O.'s and men who are disabled by causes other than military service, according to circumstances. United States. . In the ordinary sense of the word, pensions in the United States are confined to federal judges and officers of the army and navy, but the United States " Pension Fund " is so singular a feature of the See also:

national See also:budget, that it is desirable to give an account of the different classes of allowances which are granted. In the United States allowances for services in See also:wars prior to the 4th of See also:March 1861 are called " old war " pensions, and may be divided into three classes, viz.,(I) invalid pensions, based upon wounds or injuries received, or disease contracted in the course of duty, (2) " service " pensions, and (3) See also:land bounties, both granted for service irrespective of injuries. The first provision made by See also:Congress for pensions was a See also:resolution passed on the 26th of August 1776, promising invalid pensions to officers and men of the army or navy who lost a See also:limb or were other-See also:wise disabled is the War of See also:Independence, at a rate equal to half of their monthly pay as officers or soldiers during life or continuance of the disability, those not totally disabled to receive an adequate monthly pension not to exceed half of their pay. Then followed various Acts of Congress enlarging the provisions for invalid pensions and extending them to those who had been in the war of 1812, and to the widows and children of those who died in the war or from wounds received in the war.

The act of the 3rd of May 1846, provided for the See also:

prosecution of the war with See also:Mexico and for pensioning those See also:volunteers wounded or otherwise disabled in service. Other acts were subsequently passed making further provision for pension on account of service in the Mexican war. The first general law granting " service " pensions was not passed until the 18th of March 1818, See also:thirty-five years after the termination of the War of Independence. Its beneficiaries were required to be in indigent circumstances and in need of assistance from their country. Two years later Congress became alarmed by See also:reason of the large number of claims filed (about 800o), and enacted what was known as the " Alarm Act," requiring each applicant for pension and each pensioner on the rolls to furnish a See also:schedule of his whole See also:estate and income, clothing and bedding excepted. Many pensioners were dropped who were possessed of as much as $150 See also:worth of See also:property. Numerous acts were, however, passed from time to time liberalizing the law or dealing more generously with the survivors of the Revolution. Service pensions were not granted to widows of the soldiers of this war until 1836, and then only for a period of five years and on See also:condition that the See also:marriage of the soldier was prior to his last service, and that the soldier's service was not less than six months. In 18J3, seventy years after the See also:close of the war, the See also:limitation as to the time of marriage was removed. The rolls in 1901 contained nine and in 1908 two pensions based upon service in the War of Independence. The last survivor was See also:Daniel F. Bakeman, who died on the 5th of See also:April 1869, aged 109 years and 6 months.

The first law granting service pensions on account of the war of 1812 was passed in 1871, fifty-six years after the close of the war. This act required sixty days' service. Widows were not pension-able unless the marriage to the soldier had taken place prior to the treaty of See also:

peace of 15th See also:February 1815. On 9th March 1878, sixty-three years after the war, an act was passed reducing the requisite period of service to fourteen days and removing the limitations as to date of marriage. In 1908 the pension rollscontained the names of 471 widows of this war, the last male survivor having died in 1905, at the age of 105 years. Service pensions were provided for those who served in the See also:Black See also:Hawk war, See also:Creek war, See also:Cherokee disturbances and the See also:Seminole war (1832 to 1842), on the 27th of See also:July 1892, fifty years after the period embraced in the act; they were granted to those who had served for thirty days and were honourably discharged, and to their widows. In 1908 there were 182o survivors and 3018 widows, pensioners of the See also:Indian wars. Service pensions were granted to the survivors of the war with Mexico by an act passed on the 29th of January 1887, thirty-nine years after the See also:Guadeloupe-Hildalgo treaty. The pensions were granted to those who were honourably discharged and to the widows, for service of sixty days, if sixty-two years of age, or disabled or dependent. This law was liberalized by the acts of the 5th of January 1893, 23rd of April 1900, 6th of February 1907, and 19th of April 1908, increasing the pension to $15 for those who have reached the age of seventy years, and to $20 for those seventy-five years and over. In 1908 the pension rolls contained the names of 2932 survivors and 6914 widows on account of service in the Mexican war. To give See also:title to See also:bounty land, service must have been for at least fourteen days or in a See also:battle prior to 3rd March 1855; and if in the navy or See also:regular army, must have been in some war in which the United States was engaged.

Bounty land warrants are issued for 16o acres, and over 70,000,000 acres have been granted under the different Bounty Land Acts. For services rendered in the Civil War (1861–65) in the army or navy of the United States, or in their various branches, the law provided two distinct systems of pensioning—(1) the general See also:

laws, granting pensions for wounds or injuries received, or disease contracted in service in the See also:line of duty, the pensions ranging from $6 to $too per month; and (2) the so-called Dependent Pension Act and amending acts, granting pensions for permanent disabilities regardless of the time and manner of their origin, provided they were not the result of vicious habits, the pensions ranging from $6 to $12 per month. What is known as the general law for disabilities incurred in service and in the course of duty was constituted in the act of the 14th of July 1862, as amended by the act of the 3rd of March 1873. Under its provisions the following classes of persons are entitled to benefit, viz. any officer of the army, navy or marine corps, or any enlisted man in the military or See also:naval service of the United States, whether regularly mustered or not; any master or any See also:pilot, engineer, sailor or other See also:person not regularly mustered, serving upon any gunboat or war-See also:vessel of the United States; any acting assistant or See also:contract surgeon; any See also:provost-See also:marshal, deputy provost-marshal or enrolling officer; subject to the several conditions in each particular case prescribed in the law. This law also embraces in its provisions the following classes, each class being subject to certain specified conditions, viz. widows, children under sixteen years of age, dependent parents, and See also:brothers and sisters. This act has been the subject of numerous amendments along more liberal lines. As an See also:illustration a case may be cited where a soldier lost both hands in the service in the course of duty, and was discharged in 1862. He is entitled to a pension of $8 per month from the date of his discharge. Under subsequent acts he is entitled to $25 per month from 4th July 1864; $31.25 from 4th See also:June 1872; $50 from 4th June 1874; $72 from 17th June 1878, and $See also:ioo from 12th February 1889. Under the general law a widow or dependent relative could not be pensioned unless the cause of the soldier's death originated in service in the line of duty; if it were so shown, a widow might be pensioned whether she were See also:rich or poor. Upon the death or remarriage of the widow the See also:minor children of the soldier under the age of sixteen years become entitled to pension. If the soldier died of causes due to his service, and left no widow or minor children, his other relatives become entitled, if dependent, in the following order, viz; first, the See also:mother; secondly, the See also:father; thirdly, See also:orphan sisters and brothers under sixteen years of age, who shall be pensioned jointly.

In 1908 the number of invalids pensioned under the general law was 142,044, and the number of widows and dependent relatives was 81,168. The so-called Dependent Pension Act was based upon an Act of Congress approved 27th June 189o, which was amended on 9th May 1900. Properly speaking, it might be called " dependent " only as regards widows and parents. The See also:

main conditions as to the soldier or sailor were, ninety days' service, an See also:honourable discharge, and a permanent disability from disease or otherwise, not the result of his own vicious habits, to such an extent as to render him unable to maintain himself by See also:manual labour. The rates of pension under this act were $6, $8, $10 and $12 per month. Widows became entitled under this law if they married the soldier or sailor prior to 27th June 1890, provided they were without means of support other than their daily labour, and an actual See also:net income not exceeding $250 per year, and had not remarried. Claims of children under sixteen years of age were governed by the same conditions as applied to claims of widows, except that their dependence was presumed, and need not be shown by See also:evidence. If a minor See also:child was insane, idiotic or otherwise physically or mentally helpless, the pension continued during the life of said child or during the period of disability. Further acts made more liberal provisions. That of the 6th of February 1907, granted pensions) to persons who had served ninety days or more in the military or naval service in the civil war, or sixty days in the Mexican war, and were honourably discharged, no other conditions being attached. The rate of pension was fixed at $12 per month when sixty-two years of age, $i5 per month when seventy years of age and $20 per month when seventy-five years of age. The act of April 1908, fixed the rate of pension for widows, minor children under the age of sixteen and helpless minors on the See also:roll or afterwards to be placed on it at $12 per month, and granted pensions at the same rate to the widows of persons who served ninety days or more during the civil war, without regard to their pecuniary condition.

In 1908 there were 140,600 invalids on the roll, and 4294 minor and helpless children. In the same year under the act of 1907 there were 338,341 dependants, while under the act of 1908, 188,445 widows were put on the roll. All See also:

women employed by competent authority as nurses during the Civil War for six months or more, who are unable to See also:earn a support, are granted a pension of $12 per month by an act of the 5th of August 1892. In 1908 the pension rolls contained the names of 3110 pensioners under this act. There were on the roll in 1908 on account of the See also:Spanish war, 11,786 invalids and 3722 dependants. The total amount paid in pensions in 1908 on account of that war and the insurrection in the Philippine Islands was $3,654:122. The See also:grand total of pensioners on the roll for all wars was, in 1908, 951,687. In addition to pensions, the United States government grants the following gratuities: First: If a soldier lost a limb in the service, or as a result of his service in line of duty, he is furnished with an artificial limb See also:free of cost every three years, or commutation therefor, and transportation to and from a place where he shall select the artificial limb. Second: An honourably discharged soldier or sailor is given preference for appointment to places of See also:trust and profit, and preference for retention in all civil service positions. Third: There are ten National Soldiers' Homes situated at convenient and healthy points in different parts of the country, where comfortable quarters, clothing, medical attendance, library and amusements of different kinds are provided free of all expense; government providing the soldiers free transportation to the See also:home, continuing payments of pension while they are members of the home, and increasing the same as disabilities increase. See also:Fourth: There are thirty homes maintained by the' different states, which are similar in their purpose to the National Homes, the sum of $See also:loo per year being paid by the general government for each inmate. Many of these state homes also provide for the wives and children of the inmates, so that they need not be separated while they are members of such home.

Fifth: See also:

Schools are established by the different states for the See also:maintenance and See also:education of soldiers' orphans until they attain the age of sixteen years. From the close of the Civil War in 1865 to 1908, the government of the United States paid to its pensioners for that war the sum of $3,533,593,025. The payments on account of all wars for the fiscal year ended on the 30th of June 1908 were $153,093,086. Over $17,000,000 has been paid to surgeons for making medical See also:examinations of pensioners and applicants for pensions. The total disbursement for pensions from 1790 to 1908 amounted to $3,751,108,809. No other nation or government in all time has dealt so liberally with its defenders. The See also:money appropriated by Congress for the payment of pensions is disbursed by eighteen pension agents established in different parts of the country. Pensions are paid quarterly, and the agencies are divided into three classes, one of which pays on the 4th of every month.

End of Article: PENSIONS

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