The National tribune., 1883-12-13
time to secure the benefit Of the arrearage laws

IAThloIh-
No; have paid no attention to statistics in
this connection. In our debate in the Senate
last year, Mr. Beck raised the point that vast
sum of money would be taken from the Ma
tional Treasury TO pay these claims. / have
noticed in the columns of those newspapers
that have been discussing this subject the allie
CATION that hundreds and thousands OF millions
Of dollars were required to pay the pensioners.
The sum is enormous: the aggregate is some
thing that wellnigh bewilders the imagination,
bat the sum is stupendous because the war was
gigantic and colossal. Itsometimes strikes one
with almost absolute novelty to hear rehealsed
the statistics the war / vas amazed myself
when / read the other day that the entire
number OF enlistnents in the Union service
during tie war was 1855, 999, and that the
naval enlistments were between l2o,o00 and
10000 So that there is vast aggregate, in
Guiding The enlistments in the army and navy
and in the transfers and in State troops called
out by order of officers of the Government OF
more than three million men. They were
hired for four years to endure the perils of bat
tie, the laTdslips of camp and bivouac, frost
and fire and hunger aud thirst and mutilation
for the sum of fifty cents a day, TO save our
homes from sToliation, our cities from sack, our
flag from 6ishonoT, and our country from de-
struction. And now, when it is proposed that
the sum due these men shall be paid, prospect
i've of what it may cost, the cheap and con-
stpated souls of these frugal patriots swell into
economical spasms parsimonious Indignation.
] do not propose, so far as am concerned, ever
TO inquire how much it will cost to pay the
widow and orphan OK every soldier who fell, or
the survivor CT that gigantic struggle who was
injured in battle or disabled by disease the
amount that the Government contracted to pay
him when il hired him, whether it be $780, 00,-
600, or. as | said the other day, thousand mil
lion dollars.
1t IS true that the sum is large, but who is
injured by it? Shylock gets his pound of
aesh and his drop of blood. The in
terest on the national debt is paid, the public
credit is sustained the army and navy are sup
ported and ali branches OF the public service
of the Government are amply remunerated;
and still, notwithstanding all these exactons,
an oyerfowing revenue continues to pour into
the Treasury. Why should not this most sacred
Of all our national obligations be paid, even
if the sum is stupendous? 1t does not go out
Of the country; it does moi deprive the public
creditor OF what is due him; it goes to that
class Of people who keep ii at home to pay of
the mortgage upon the farm. 1t alleviates the
condition oil poverty, it saves old age from dis
tress, and instead OF going abroad TO enrich
those who are rich enough already, it remains
among the poor and needy TO bless ard nourish
and fertiiize the whole structure and fabric of
society"
" DO you regard the effect of the last arrears
act ahording you any argument in favor
OF yonr bill -
THE EFFECT OF THE ARREARS ACT.
AZ do. most emphatically,'' replied the Sena-
tor. There has been no measure Of the last
half century which has proved so wise, bene-
ficent, and statesmanlike in its effects.
The good which it did is beyond human COM
putation. and is co-extensiye with the nation.
As humanitarian measure the deeds mercy
Of the world are cast IN the shade. No such
systematic effort TO ameiiorate the condition of
people was ever known to history as resulted
from this discharge by the Government of its
honest debts 10 its own citizens. 1t clothed the
cold fed the hungry: put a roof over the
homeless ;slifted mortgages that lay like an in
cubas upon our agricultural communities;
paid debts between Deighbors eneou ragged poor
men 10 start again in the struggle of life; and,
above all. going directly into the avenues Of re-
tail trade, caused revival of business, and
lifted the pail of hard times"
"Will il not be objected, as it was before,
that your bil viii stimulate the fling of fraudu
lent claimsZv
q 1t has been charged, and, I suppose. win be
again, that the claims which came III under the
impetus Of the cid act were fraudulent in
great measure: but that is not the case. The
number of applicants from 1873 10 1873 was
due to other causes It was because a period
of distress and panic fell upon the country.
/ Commerce was paraiyZed; industry ceased /;
manufactures were practically at an end; the
great productive industries seemed to stop and
come TO a standstiil; and many of the survi-
vors Of the Union armies who had been injured
By disease or wounds, and who ND to that
time, had been deferred by pride or patriotism
1 from asking for pension, finding themselves
without means of support finding starvation
I and want and wretcbedness staring them and
their families III the face, turned TO the Govern
inent for the relief that had been promised ;
and that is the reason why, during that dark
and depressing epoch, from 1873 TO 1873, the
1 number Of applicants for pensions was enor-
I mously increased. j am unwilling TO say that
this increase in the number of applications was
4 due 10 a studied, sordid. and deliberate deter
/ mination on the part of those who had made
such incredible sacrifices for personal liberty
and national honor. to rob the treasury of the
! Government they had saved.
TIE TRUTH ABOUT PENSION FRAUDS
/ cit is not at all unlikely that some frandu-
+ lent claims may be filed. 1t would be child
/ ISL to expect anything else in the light of
] what we know of human nature; but they
Go not have any bearing upon the general
4 proposition The means at command of the
/ Commissioner of Pensions arc ample to prevent
4 impositions. and frauds are made improba-
/ bic. The fact that bad men have filed claims
for which there is no ground is no more of aa
argument against this law than that men steal
/ and rob and burn affords an argument against
any of the beneiieent methods of society. Atany
/ rate, al this uproar about frauds appears. from
K the report Of the Commissioner of Pensions and
the Secretary Of tie Interior, 10 have no founda-
4 ton in fact. 1t is alleged, IN q recent letter
4 from Secretary Teller 10 the Attorney General,
that the pension frauds discovered do not
1 actually amount to one-haf of one per cent.
/ The publication Of the full list of names, adj
desses, and disabilities Of pensioners. with
/ amount received, has done what Not un-
earthed q universal condition of iniquity on
the part Of pensioners, bat, On the other hand,
4 by the absence Of such complaints has proved
that the howl Of the metropolitan press, which
went so far as to outlaw any man who dared
defenG~ the arrears act, was mistaken if not
dishonest. The frauds on the pension laws do
| not compare with those against the customs
| laws and we might as we'll object TO collecting
1 duty because Of smuggling or repeal the
whisky tax because the noonshiners thieve
1 in certain sections, as to attack the pension
acts because Of alleged or real frauds under
them"
Is your argument that the Government is
bound by contract 10 pay pensions from the
/ date Of disability a new view of the law on
the subject!n
GOING BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES.
"No. 1t is no new element, but has been
/ questioned through stHdious misunderstood
ing of the statute. To judge from the obser-
yations Of the New York press one would sup
pose that the principle of a contract on the
part Of the Government to pay pension from