Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/70

750

The following comparative statement will exhibit the number of pensioners with the annual amount of pension of each of the principal classes of pensioners, June 30, 1872, and June 30, 1873, together with the amount paid to each class during the fiscal year terminating on the above dates:

While the general rule of annual increase which has characterized the yearly disbursements of pensions during the past ten years has been maintained in the payments to certain classes of pensioners dining the past year, the marked feature of the expenditures for the year 1872-73 has been the large decrease in disbursements to the great class of widow and dependent-relative pensioners.

The amount paid to Army invalids was $410,680.02 greater than the year before; to Navy invalids, $11,529.13; to Navy Widows, $7,750.14; to survivors of the war of 1812, $101,191.14, and to widows of soldiers of the war of 1812, $353,310.06, but, to more than offset this, the payments to Army widows and dependent relatives fell off $1,877,511.87, by which the total disbursements for pensions for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873, were reduced to $29,185,289,62, being $984,051.38 less than the preceding year, ($30,169,341.)

Of the unexpended balance of the appropriation for Army pensions there was in the hands of the pension agents on the 30th of June $14,511. (See table appendix.)

Of the unexpended balance of the appropriation for Navy pensions there was in the hands of the pension agents on the 30th of June $14,511.(See appendix.)

These balances have been covered into the Treasury under act of July 12, 1870.