The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-10-15
The Service Pension Bill.


We have received a circular issued by Ma
jor F. W. Haskell of New York, which, af-
ter detailing his efforts TO get the National
Party Committees to approve of the scheme
for the enactment of law granting service
pensions to all surviving soldiers of the I'm
ion Army, suggests The holding of a mass
convention of surviving soldiers at Indian
apolis on the oath of this month to discuss
this matter and appoint committee to urge
congressional action. While great many
soldiers, some Of them we think without
very careful consideration of the subject,
have petitioned for the enactment of such a
law, we are clearly of opinion that it is I'M
necessary and unwise. The pension laws
need modification In several important re-
spects and we trust Congress will give early
and intelligent consideration to the subject
but Il does not seem to be desirable or rea-
sonabe that the nation should pension ev-
cry one who enlisted, and served for any pc
rlod, without regard to his condition when
he left the service or to his present condi-
ton, whether sick or well, needy or indie
PCUdOus 4Ai5 cOCuic " UC iIbbi6 Inherent
from a scheme to drain the treasury.
1t is true that those who entered the SER
vice risked much, and many of them en-
dured much and suffered much, and it is al
80 true that the nation owes its patriotic de-
tenders great debt of gratitude. But graf
itude ceases to be gratitude when it is de-
maUded that 1t shall be liquidated in cash.
This new demand on the part of some for a
pension for their patriotism, in addition to
all compensations promised and received, is
doing much to discre.it the spirit with
which 1t was supposed the soldiers went to
the defence of their imperilled country. 1t
Is advocated and sustained by statements as
unreasonable as the demand. For example.
In the very circular of which we are speak
ing Major Haskell makes this unqualified
assertion. SIT is fact that not one man in
thousand came from the war uninjured by
his service. This Is the main ground upon
which our claims TO- service pensions rest"
We do not hesitate to say that is not the
fact. On the contrary 1t may be much more
reasonably asserted that large number of
every thousand who came out of the war
unwounded and not disabled by their service
came out strengthened and better discip-
lined for the race of life than they would
have been without that experience. They
have been more healthy and more successful
ever since than they would have been had
they never served, and, so far as human
judgment can discover, their lives have
been prolonged rather than shortened.
The proportion of deaths among those dis.
charged from the service in apparent good
health has not been SO much larger than
among those of equal age at that time as to
justify any such sweeping conclusion as that
which is made the ground for service pen
slons.
II the health Of man who was in the army
breaks down twenty years sfterward it is
good deal easier to ascribe his condition to
his army service than to trace 1t to that SER
vice, and doubtless it is more agreeable to
his own feelings to believe that his misfor-
tune comes from that cause than from his
subsequent neglect of the conditions upon
which good health depends. Doubtless
many who were in the army are poor. but it
is only rarely that one of those who came
out of the service in apparent good health
can attribute his poverty to that service. If
the whole truth could be ascertained 1t
would be found that many OF them saved
more money from bounties and pay during
their service than they have saved in any
equal time since. Count out the men of the
Grand Army who are receiving pensions or
ore applicants for pensions on account of in
juries which they trace directly to their ser
vice, and it may be questioned whether the
rest are not as well and as prosperous as an
equal number OF men of the same age and
coalition IN life who did not serve in the
army.
This application for service pensions would
Asyer be pressed now II IL were not for the