52831 The following articles published from time to time in the New Haven Register substantially as they now appear were commenced when the enormity of pension legislation was beginning to attract public attention. They were written as much for the purpose of marking and defining reading on the subject as for imparting information. They are now published as an individual contribution to the general movement for reform. New Haven, Conn., March, 1893. D. CADY EATON. With the permission of The Register I propose commencing with its readers a careful study of the pension laws. I use the word study advisedly, because I have found by experience that one of the best ways to study a subject is to write about it. I also use the word study for the additional reason that my own knowledge of the subject is as yet superficial and limited, and because I may change my views and may come to other conclusions from those to which I seem tending. At present I have the notion that pension laws are unconstitutional; that Congress had no power to pass them, has no legal power to exercise them; that they are not only in opposition to the letter of the fundamental law of our government, but in opposition to its spirit; that they are unrepublican and autocratic, and that they are unwise and injurious in the highest degree. |