Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-08-29
Soldiers Orphans HOme-NO
more DOdging.


James ". Owens, member of the Ohio
State Senate, has stepped to the front as the
champion and defender of the outrage com
mitted by the Sixtythird General Assembly
in the passage of what is known as the
OCOnnor bill for the reorganization of the
Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home This
news will, to say the least OF it, be rather dis.
couraging to certain gentlemen, who have
been endeavoring to pull the wool over the
eyes of the veterans and their friends by tell.
ing them thst the Democratic members of the
Legislature pasted the infamous law without
knowing what they were doing, and that they
will hasten to correct the mistake as soon as
they meet next winter. He says the law is
jnst and right, and intimates that he and bis
Democratic colleagues are proud of what they
did. Now let US hear no more of this damna-
Bile act having been passed Inadvertently
and by mistake.
This learned Senator justifies the action of
the O'Connor Legislature by saying that the
original act establishing the Home allowed the
Trustees, in their wisdom, to admit other
than soldiers orphans to the benefits of the
institution. But he forgets to tell his readers
that when the Home began to fill up; when it
was discovered that there would be no room
for any but the children of soldiers, and that
when an effort was made to induce the Dem
ecratic Legislature of 1874 to change this fea-
ture of the law, the idea was SC uted at, and
it was left for Republican Legislature to
make this change in 1876.
But it seems tnat this sainted gentleman is
the author of the very meanest and most OBJ
jectionable features of the law, and he says
that his object was TO make it q Home for the
children of soldiers exclusively. Well, we
will agree that he has succeeded in making
the law exclusive enough in all conscience.
1t excludes the children OF all soldiers who
were not so unfortunate as to have been kill
ed, or SO badly disabled as to have been placed
on the pension rolls of our Government. The
child of no other soldier need apply for a
place in this Democratic Home, no matter
how poor or how destitute it may be. The
Republican law was too broad and too CON-
prehenslve for these very exclusive patriots
it provided for the admission of the children
of all deceased, INDECENT and permanently dis
G6Ied soldiers.
But this accomplished legislator did not
want to tear the child from its mothers
breast, and thus break her poor heart; hence
he was careful to provide that no child should
be admitted during the life of its mother until
it had arrived at the age of twelve yeaIs-that
she should wash on, rub on, scrub on, and
make living for her dear one until it was
capable of taking care of itself, and then
these reformers would take it and undertake
to receive the benefits of its labor. Provided,
however, that the poor mother Will agree TO
pay to them the pittance she receives as pen
sion in consequence of the death of the child's
father.
But then this immaculate patriot sees
''step-father' in the dim distance, and fearing
that the poor widow may succumb to the
of some modern Democratic
who would squander her little por.
ion in riotous living, he says it will be much
better for her TO pay it over to the men for
whom her son or daughter is working-the
Trustees of the Home. Ye gods, what pic
lure of philanthropy is this
Now that these men are throwing off their
disguise and are entering upon a defense of
heir nefarious: conduct, the people of the
State will no longer be deceived by the cant
and hypocrisy of those who are going about
with lie upon their lips, telling the veterans
hat the passage of the law was mistake,
and calling upon the voters to forgive its au-
.hors for they knew not what they did. 1t is
rue that the attempted defense of Owens is
20 weak that it will disgust every honest man
who reads it, but then it will prevent them
from pleading the baby act any longer. They
must now ''assume the pressure;" as the I'M
mortal ]. N. would say, and we believe that
before they have borne it long they will feel
ike calling upon the rocks and hills to fall
lpon them and hide them from an outraged |
oeople.-[O. s. Journal.