The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-02-11
A Sacred Duty.

The bill now on the House Calendar, author
ling the Government to accept title to the
Marine Hospital building at Erie, Pa, and to
establish there home for INDECENT soldiers and
sailors, has opened up an important question
touching the duty of the General Government
towards such of it's late defenders as are no
longer able to earn living by their own labor.
The bill in question has been twice reported
favorably from the House Committee on Military
Affairs-once in the last Congress was
never before reached on the calendar. The
building which the State of Pennsylvania pro-
poses to donate to the General Government was
originally erected at a cost of $4,000, and is
said to be large enough to accommodate two
in the midst of park of 1902 acres and
commands a fine view of Lake Erie. In
deed. from the description given by the spon-
sor of the bill-Mr. Bayne, of Pennsylvania
it must be admirably adapted for the purpose to
which it is proposed to devote it. One might
suppose that no objection would be offered to
the bill came up for consideration in Committee
of the Whole on the 31st ultimo it provoked one
of the most vigorous debates of the session,
during which the whole history of pension legis-
lation came under review. The Democratic
members by whom the measure was most
actively antagonized, took economy" of course,
for their text They declared that if the General
Government accepted this building and estab
lshed soldiers home in Pennsylvania it was in
duty bound to do as much for every other loyal
State and that it would, moreover, be COM
mitted to the general policy of supporting indi-
gent soldiers and sailors of the late war with
out regard to whether or not they received
bodily injury in the service-a policy which
thew took pains to announce would put the
Government te enormous expense. 1t was
also intimated that this was simply device to
relieve the State of Pennsylvania from the cost of
supporting its own paupers, but this point was
abandoned when it was explained by Mr.. Bayne
that soldiers from other States would be eligible
for admission. The enemies Of the bill contended
further that the States themselves should estab-
lish and maintain the necessary soldiers homes,
and they cited the action of New York and Mas
sachusetts as worthy of imitation, although, as
Mr. Bayne took occasion to remind the House. it
is difficult to see how that can relieve the Ma
tional Government of the duty to take care of its
soldiers.
The debate, indeed finally developed the fact
that the hostility to the bill was not founded in
any desire on the part Of the Democratic Mem
bers to compel the States to care for the veterans
of the war, but to prevent any further recogni-
ton of the General Governments obligation to
provide for them. The true spirit of the Opposi-
ton was manifested when Mr.. Reagan, of Texas,
formerly postmaster general of the confederacy,
denounced the Arrears of Pensions Act as a
monstrosity."
be better defined than in the words of Mr.
Browne, of Indiana, who said in the course of an
eloquent speech in support of the measure:
"This is only question as to whether the
States, the communities, shall maintain these
paupers, or whether the men who were engaged
in the common defense shall become the recipi-
ents of the whole bounty, the common bounty
of the whole people who appreciate their circum-
stances. They have to be maintained under the
provisions of this bill. The people of the States
the communities, maintain them now, and this
proposes that the people of the whole country
shall assist in maintaining them. 1t makes but
little difference, MI Chairman, which way you
pay the expense It takes so much money to dc
it; and | want to see the men, now paupers IL
the poor-houses in this country, placed IN sol
diers homes, in asylums, where they will not fee
hourly, day by day, the reproach of the people
who placed them in these common lazar-houses
in all parts of the country"
1t is of course impossible to foretell the ult
mate fate of this particular BILL but there can bt
no dispute as to the preponderance Of public sen
timent touching the justice of the policy which
it enunciates 1t is greatly to be desired, o
course, that the several States should make
proper provision by the establishment of soldiers
homes for the care of our impoverished veterans
but they cannot be coerced into doing So They
are not under the same obligation as the Genera
Government tie support them, except as common
paupers, and we do not believe that economy
yet requires that they should be abandoned t.
the squalor filth, sickening food and genera