The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-02-18
machinery for the prompt adjustment of pension

puD1c treasury should be pald TO men VINO oo Hot
deserve it and in violation of the rights OF the
people, than that so per cent of it should be with
held from the who entitled to 1t, as 1t has
been for years Upon the claim-list OF the Pension
Office are found thousands of claims that have been
there for six or seven and ten years. They have
gone into the of that office for the want
of sufficient clerical force, and the men have gone
down to their graves who were entitled 10 thelr
money certainly as you and are entitled TO the
compensation allowed us for services IN TINS Cham
ber Every day they going in that way; the
children of soldiers who entitled to pensions are
growing up in ignorance because we withhold from
the soldiers family that which ultimately we shall
admit is his just and proper DUE and we do 1t be-
cause there is an idea in this body and the other
that the people of the United States will not sus.
tain us in voting large appropriations for clerical
force in this city. | do not believe 1t. believe
the public sentiment of this country is that the
pensioners shall be paid, and there is sentiment
which demands that they shall be paid promptly
and without any unnecessary delay; and whenever
the Senate shall come up to that idea and resolve
that the officials put over the Pension Office shall
have ample and sufficient facilities for determining
the character Of these claims and If they are doubt
full to their honesty send out their clerks as the
statute provides, to make an investigation in the
neighborhood where the soldier lives; then they
will readily know whether there is 10 per cent. or
per cent. any other per cent. of frauds as near
at least as human knowledge can determine queS-
tions of that character.
% | only say this, Mr.. President, partially in de-
tense of the committee of which | am the chair
man. very recently promoted to that position L
want to say one other thing. 1t has been claimed
repeatedly in the public press within the last few
days, since the Commissioner of Pensions sent here
his little document entitled Executive Document
No 52" by which it is shown that some day we
shall have paid thirteen hundred and tOrty-seven
million and some odd dollars of PENSIONS saw it
in a metropolitan journal yesterday, that that was
to be charged up the of pension act that
it was wholly and solely to be attributed to the fact
that the pension law amended as 1t was by the
act of January 25 1879. There can be nothing more
false, nothing untrue: and yet nine-tenths of
the clamor that has been raised in the country
about that law arises from the simple fact that the
people have been imposed upon to the cost Of the
execution of that law.
But, Mr.. President, after having paid out such
vast sums of money the legitimate results of the
war, if it was true that it took thousand million
dollars and more to pay these arrears OF pensions,
if they justly and honestly due, the people Of
the United States are not disposed IN my judgment
to question whether it ought to be done or ought
not be done with reference to the amount that it
may cost.
Senator Garland, of Arkansas took the same
ground as Senator Vest. Said he:
This is huge sum of money, to be sure, but the
issue was huge one; the results were overwhelm-
ing in their Importance 1t made the world IN fact
change front. | have been taxed for bills of pains
and penalties under the form of reconstruction
laws; I and my people have been taxed for other
expenses growing out of this war. [ know of none
more deserving and more meritorious than the SOL
diers who fought the battles of this country; and
there is not soldier of the confederacy that know
of but what is willing to see these men paid and see
them paid not grudgngy but freely and cheerfully.
That Mr.. President, is the sentiment of the
country that | represent. As stated yesterday by
the Senator from Missouri Mr.. Vest if the tide of
battle had gone in the other direction if our flag
had foated forward instead of backward we would
have voted anything to those soldiers who won that
fight; and if our soldiers not pensiOned, if they
have no bounties and lands it is the fate of war.
1t is risk which they took with the rest of u.s. and
they bear their fortune manfully in this as they
bore their hearts to danger during the war;
Senator Brown, of Georgia, endorsed the senti-
ment expressed by Senator Vest, and recorded him
self in favor of the resolution. Said he:
1--WE have now reached the point where Southern
men are ready do all that is proper to be done to
honor and pension the Union soldiers"
Senator Maxey, on the 10th inst. made rousing
speech in favor of Senator Buffers amendment that
the survivors of the Mexican war ought to be pen
stoned, in the course of which he said
Mr. President. | have seen the criticisms in a
few newspapers; but when you come to the great
toilng masses about whom much has been said
when you come to the American people, honest
men, true men, men of courage. men who believe
that man who has upheld the flag of his country
when called upon by his Government to do So these,
with accord, say he should not, when needy and
disabled drag out his lingering days in poverty and
distress, but that his Government should come to
his aid. The taxpayers, the people, say it,"
FOREIGN ITEMS.
ABROAD the week has been comparatively
eventful. Much interest is manifested in England
touching the probable result of Mr.. Gladstones
attempt to force the adoption of his clOture Tor
closure( by Parliament. The closure is intended to
serve the same purpose the previous question
in Congress-to limit debate, so to action
on important measures-and is especially aimed at
the Irish abstractonists, who, under the skillful
of Parnell, gave the ministry vast deal
of trouble at the last session. The objection to Mr.
Gladstones plan is that it deprives the minority of
all voice whatsoever in the debates. 1t clothes the
Speaker, Chairman of the Committee of the
Whole, with authority to put the proposition that
a division be taken ON the main question before
the House. This proposition will not be debatable,
and it may be carried by bare majority of one.
The only safeguard of minority rights is provision
that where the closure is opposed by forty more
members, it must be supported by more than 200
In such case the motion could be carried by a
vote of POI to 200 and if in thin House the
number of negative votes did not exceed 49, debate
could be summarily shut off by the affirmative
votes of 40 members. The opposition to the
Premier may yet be forced to modify his de-
mands. - The practical result of the Jewish
prosecutions in Russia are beginning to appear.
Three hundred refugees sailed for this cOun-
try last Saturday.-BerthOld Auerbach, the great
German novelist, is dead.-Gambetta has
ceeded in securing 1873 members for the Republican
Union, the political group of the French Assembly
which he has revived as a basis upon which to build
up anew his supremacy in that bOdy.-The Spanish
Cortes re-opened on the 10Th inst.-Mr. Bradaugh
is once appealing to his constituents, and is
being enthusiastically received, but the House of