The National tribune., 1882-12-21
IincrS of the Press.

NipS'S w viz 1850
To read the false and evidently malicious
statements concerning pensions which are
daily put forth by otherwise reputable and
reliable newspapers is enough to make one
exclaim with Falstaff: Lord, how this world
is given to lyingw The audacity of some of
these journals is simply astounding They
do not content themselves merely with
making false charges, but actually invent
statistics to give them the appearance of
truth. Presuming upon the credulity of the
public, they do not even hesitate to garble
official reports to fit their arguments, and
they seem to think that the more mud they
throw the more likely some of it will be to
stick. But they are making stupid blunder.
A lie, like the hare in the fable, is apt to get
the start of truth in the race but truth, like
the tortoise, is sure to overtake it in the end.
The American public is too intelligent to be
gulled in this fashion, and it is too patri-
otic to be seduced from its loyalty. The cry
of fraud" may frighten the weak and
timid, but men of sense and reason will wait
to see the proofs, and they will not be forth
coming.
AS rule we have paid but little atten-
the daily press, for the reason that theirs is
one of the cases where poison and antidote
are found together. To any person &C
quainted with the pension laws and the
workings of the pension system the charges
that are brought forward in the newspapers
against the Pension Office must seem
like the incoherent rawlings of lunatic
and a proof merely of the authors in
tense ignorance while to the public gen.
orally it must be apparent that either
actual hate of the soldier or the desire to
make a cheap sensation, is the motive for
their illumination. Some of our readers.
however, have had their indignation so
deeply stirred by these publications that they
have announced their purpose to discontinue
their subscriptions to the offending journals
"A very effectual way, too, of bringing
editors to their senses-and have appealed
to THE TRIBUNE to reply to the slanderers.
The article which seems to have been the
cause of offense to the largest number is one
which appeared on the 18th inst, in the
columns of the Utica IN. Y. Morning Herald
owned and edited by ex-Congressman Ellis
H. Roberts, and we must admit that it is
very we'll calculated to excite the ire of loyal
and honorable men. Perhaps the most of
fensive passage which it contains is the fol-
lowing:
at is estimated at the Pension Office that
nearly one half of the men who participated in
the war of the rebellion on the side of the North
are now represented on the pension-rolls. We
cannot increase the number without making
more conspicuous the discrimination against
those who remain unprOvided for. We cannot
pension all without mortgaging the country
We had better stop than go on. Particularly
is this the case when we know that as the bars
go down, the temptation to fraud increases, and
the fraud attempted also increases. The pres
ent pension roll must be Sifted, by the instru-
mentality of publicity, and even then further
additions to it are not to be tolerated"
1t would be an act of charity on our part
to assume that the writer of this paragraph
never saw Commissioner Dudley's report,
but we fear that would be an unwarranted
assumption. The fact is, that so far from it
being estimated at the Pension Office, that
nearly One-half of the men who participated
the North Funny way of putting it, isn't
it, considering how many thousands of SOL
York ? are now represented on the pension
rolls" the last report states explicitly that
only t,oenty-sis per cent have ever applied
for a pension. According to the army
records there were 100000 enlistments
the 30th of June last, contained the names
of only 265,000 persons, all told. Does the
cuilol VI tho HcutU iilaSIio enab CNoiy pouy
is as ignorant as himself, that he ventures
to manufacture lie out of the whole cloth e?
1t would seem so, for he actually has the
effrontery to declare that further additions to
the pension roll are not to be tolerated, when
the veriest school-boy knows that the only
reason why the pension roll is as small as it