The National tribune., 1883-11-29


show their good sense by quietly discontin-
uing their subscriptions to his paper.
We have referred to this case with such
particularly because it has been brought to
our attention by one of our own subscribers,
who placed the correspondence above al
luded to in our hands The Standard, how
ever, is by no means alone in this business
of slandering our pensioners. Even the
Church and Home Illustrated, of Chicago,
which processes to be religious publica-
ton, is engaged in this disreputable work of
blackening the character of the Nations de-
tenders. Here is an editorial from its issue
of August 10th last:
1t is alarming to reflect that half the expense of
the Government is for pensions; nor is the end
yet. The pension agents are busiiy at work. They
do it for money. If after a lapse of twenty years,
a be found in poor health, resulting per-
haps from his service in the army, share of these
twenty years ofarrears pay istoo good harvest not
to be obtained if possible. Every additional dollar
of pension eats up the average earning of one days
work of the people. To pay man arrears for |
twenty yt-tfS loI dileSeu aliDlOhVS bioSO"D'O " /
military service. takes LOCO of taxes, which cost
labor 1000 days work to earn The man who gets /
the money was probably mustered out of his regi- |
ment and discharged before he had been on the |
rolls three months.
This statement is simply infamous, and is
calculated to bring shame and modification
to every devout believer in the doctrines of
the Christian church This professed ex-
ponent of the teachings of the humble
Nazarene-who taught in the Sermon on the
Mount: Blessed are ye when men revile
you, and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake "-professes to be-
heve that the pension agents (by which we
suppose it means pension attorneys y have
instigated the applications for pensions that
are now being made by our ex-soldiers, and
that therefore, they ought not to be granted.
Does the editor of this hypocritical sheet
not know that it is essential to the granting
of these claims for pensions that their
validity shall be proven to the full satisfac-
ton of the Pension Office, whose require
ments are stricter as regards evidence than
those exacted in any other judicial procedure
whatever? And has he the hardihood to
assert, knowing this, that the Government
ought not to pay these Claims if their va
lidity is affirmed by the Pension Office?
Does he mean to advocate the doctrine that
the Government, having paid part of these
claims-resting as they do upon the service
rendered by the men who defended and
preserved it from destruction at the sacrifice
of their own strength and vigor-has now
right to repudiate the remainder? Would
it not be downright dishonesty On the part
of the Government to do so, and would it
not, upon the same grounds, be justified in
regulating such part of that other debt, not
more sacred than the debt to the soldier
the debt TO the bondholder- as still remains
unpaid This idea-which appears to have
| taken deep root in the minds Of those who,
for selfish considerations of various sorts,
1
list blotted out forever-that because twenty
years after the war there are some ex-
sions, but have not yet claimed them, the
Government can, without loss of honor, de-
clare that it owes them nothing any longer,
is liquidation in its most pernicious and
seductive form, and the newspapers and
statesmen who venture to uphold it will
surely rue the day when they espoused the
doctrine.
As for the denunciatioa of the Arrears bill
by this unchristian religious journal, on the
ground that to pay the claimant from the
time the debt was contracted, instead of
from the time he chose to demand the pay
J ment of the debt, costs labor 1000 days
work, it is sufficient to say that if the soldier
had been as unwilling to trust to the honor
, of the Government for the fulfllment of its
; promises, when he was called upon to take
up arms in its defense, as his enemies now
are that the Government should make good
t those promises, there would never have been
/ either Bull Run nor an Appomattox, and
> the flag of the Southern Confederacy would
be flying above the Capitol, where the stars
!. and stripes to-day now float.
D We recognize in the sentiments contained
e in the article from which we have ius
|, quoted the evidence of a deeply laid con
: spiracy to seduce the citizens of this Repub
/ lie from their fidelity to the principles upor
a which its perpetuity depends, and we shall
? strike and spare not whenever these doc
e trines, as unholy as those preached by Cal
f houn and the secessionists whom he begot
i are advocated before the people.
The Steedmen Fund.
: DURING the past week we have received
f the following additional subscriptions to ths
f Steedman fund: