Carl Schurz
Harper's Weekly Editorials by Carl Schurz
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066408558
Table of Contents
The Arbitration Treaty in Danger
The Campaign Against Civil Service Reform
Qualifications for High Office
Governor Black's Balance-Sheet
Republicanism and the Civil Service
Wanted—A Republican Form of Government
Mr. Henry George in the Municipal Campaign
More About the Municipal Problem
Civil Service Reform and the People
Hawaii and the Partition of China
Annexing Hawaii by Joint Resolution
THE PENSION SCANDAL.
OUR pension system is like a biting satire on democratic government. Never has there been anything like it in point of extravagance and barefaced dishonesty. Everybody knows this; but the number of men in public life who have courage enough to admit that they know it is ludicrously small. Whenever the general assertion is put forth that, in view of the immense size of the pension roll and the notorious laxity that has long prevailed in the administration of the law, a large number of the pensions paid must be fraudulent, the answer is: “Vague assertions prove nothing. Give us specific cases.” The New York Times has done the American people an excellent service by furnishing the thing thus demanded. It has, indeed, not undertaken the gigantic task of overhauling the whole pension roll, but it has laid before the public a demonstration sufficiently conclusive. It has sent its reporters to several inland towns in this State to inquire into the cases of individual pensioners living there,