The National tribune., 1883-12-27

The st. Paul Pioneer Press, in recent
issue, exhausts Its editorial energy in an
attack upon the introduction of pension
bills at this session Of Congress. 1t says:
II is time that a decided check was given to this
most impudent of farces. Were these propositions
anything else than the offspring of sheer dema-
gogy that they are. did they aim at q real benefit
to needy and deserving citizens, still il would be
hut right 10 call halt. No government on the
face Of the earth was ever as liberal in behalf of
its defenders as this has been. OF the total
pendtunes for the last fiscal fear. Soc 1900,
one-fourth OF the whole amount, were distributed
in pensions.
This is the cry Of Dives, who filed his
vaults while other men fought his battles.
II is the insolent snarl of apprehension. We
detect the anxious accents of the purseproud,
who purs against his money bags, but fastens
his claws upon the outstretched hand of JUS
tee We hear the ring of gold WHICH loves
to ooddle in bloated piles undisturbed He
denies his debt, and with brazen audacity
chargesdemagog upon more honest men.
The writer continues:
They are not bills in the interest of the soldier
Their sole end and aim Is 10 secure for their selfish
proponents popularity that shall materialize in
votes; and these men rely ft escape from being
represented ia their true colors upon the odiun
that they have heretofore succeeded in attaching
TO the opponents Of unreasonable pension Iegisia-
ton. The bill OF Mr.. Ingalls, would remove al
limitations from the granting of arrearages start
ing with the presumption that every pensoner was
sound and free from disease al the date OF entering
the service. ii need only be said that this would
open the way for another enormous back payment,
while removing a restriction that has been most
effective IN erecting barrier against fraud. Mr..
Logan is not so modest. he would create special
class of pensions for those who were confined In
Confederate prisons during the war. and he adyo-
Gates the iniqaito1s scheme Of the equalization of
bounties-
Let the soldier, with old age and poverty
closing around him, say what is in his In
terest; not rich corporation which thriyes
as the mouthpiece Of the money power of
this country. Let mems deeds go for what
they are worth, without imputing motives
which exist only in the brain of malignant
invention.
Senator ingalls, gives offense because he
proposes to make it presumptiye evidence
of a sound constitution that soldier passed
the rigid examination of the Governments
physicians and was taken. The Pioneer
Press would have this Nation plead the baby
act, and say to the old soldier: You fooled
our experts; We thought you were sound,
but find that you were disabled when you
palmed yourself of on usr
Stuff 1t is hard to measure the spider
like soul which could evolve such splen-
did device Of cruelty.
Then suspicious and doubts are invited.
The Governments treasury may be stripped,
and an effort is made to befog and prejudice
mems minds, who would like 10 get so cheap
a satisfaction for their conscience,-an ex-
cuse 50 much 10 their liking
General Logan's bill 10 equaIize bonnties
is characterized as an iniquitous scheme.
There is the assumption Of virtue in the
criticism which is the ruse of the hypocrite
1t won't do. The Pioneer Press knows
that the last man in the world this Nation
has TO fear is he who faced death to save it
1t knows that no unreasonable demand ia
made, and nothing difficult of performance
lis asked 1t wants to know when this
thing viii stop. This is an easy question
When the Government has discharged it
last honest obligation, so long, az at present
it is rolling in the means.