Pensions.
According to an official statement by United States Pension Commissioner Evans, on Aug. 17, 1901, high-water mark in the history of the Pension Bureau was reached on June 30, 1901, when the number of pensioners on the roll was 997,735.The pensioners on the rolls were classified as follows: Survivors, 8,655; invalids, 739,994; widows, 249,086. These comprised 13,124 widows and the 8,655 survivors on account of wars prior to 1861; 297,675 invalids, and 88,802 on account of general laws, disability of service, origin, mostly Civil War; 438,114 invalids, and 145,111 widows on account of the June, 1890, act, Civil War disability not due to service; 650 army nurses, and 3,555 invalids and 2,049 widows on account of the war with Spain.
The total amount paid to pensioners as first payments on the allowance of their claims in 1901 was $9,934,764, or $106,238 more than the first payments in 1900. This amount represents the arrears of pension, aggregating 675 claims allowed, to an average of nearly $1,500 each.
At least 100,000 of the medical examinations held in the year resulted unfavorably to the claimants. The amount paid to pensioners under the general law in the year was $67,867,233, a decrease of $1,790,253 from the amount paid last year. The Spanish war pensioners received $1,175,225, an increase over the previous year of $842,320, and the pensioners under the act of 1890, as amended on May 6, 1900, received $66,975,481, an increase of $1,207,402.
In the preceding thirty years the survivors of the War of 1812 and their widows received $44,841,640; Mexican War, $30,201,187; and Indian wars, $5,402,054. The total disbursements for pensions from July 1, 1790, to June 30, 1901, aggregated $2,763,350,033.
The statement gives the following amounts of money paid pensioners under different administrations:
| President Grant's first term | $116,136,275 |
| Average per year | 29,034,064 |
| President Grant's second term | 114,395,357 |
| Average per year | 28,598,839 |
| President Hayes's administration | 145,322,489 |
| Average per year | 38,330,622 |
| President Garfield's administration | 237,825,070 |
| Average per year | 59,456,263 |
| President Cleveland's first term | 305,636,662 |
| Average per year | 76,409,165 |
| President Harrison's administration | 519,707,726 |
| Average per year | 129,926,931 |
| President Cleveland's second term | 557,950,407 |
| Average per year | 139,487,602 |
| President McKinley's first term | 560,000,547 |
| Average per year | 140,000,137 |
people's party
