ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 231 



those cases. Then a general law was enacted increasing 

 the Mexican service pensions to $12 where the soldier 

 was dependent, but for disability contracted in that war 

 it was not necessary to show dependence. 



Now I do not care to detain the committee longer upon 

 this question. I regret to see this old straw thrashed 

 over again by gentlemen on the other side of the House 

 as it has been session after session in the past. The 

 pension roll will grow small soon enough. It must of 

 necessity become smaller rapidly from this time on, for 

 the hand of death took 31,960 pensioners from the roll 

 last year. This rate of death ought to satisfy the greatest 

 pension hater in the land. The total number of pension- 

 ers dropped last year from all causes was 41,122. Among 

 the pensioners now on the roll are 65,869 minors who 

 will soon pass the pensionable age. The average age of 

 the soldiers of the late war is now fifty-six years. In 

 fourteen years their average age will be seventy. It is 

 true that as to widows the pension will continue for a 

 long time. That involves another question, as to which 

 a measure has been proposed in the House, and I believe 

 also in the Senate, to limit the rights of widows to the 

 law actually in existence at the time of their marriage. 

 The passage of that law would of course put out perhaps 

 ninety per cent or more of the widows of the soldiers of 

 the late war, because the great bulk of those soldiers 

 were too young during the time that the war was going 

 on to be married. Whether that would be a wise meas- 

 ure or not there will be time enough to discuss when it is 

 brought before this body. As to the present appropria- 

 tion, if it is not ample, an increased appropriation can be 

 allowed. The amount embraced in this bill is precisely 

 what the secretary of the interior has asked for. 



