Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-02-20
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1t IS announced e the public press that
| lion. Milo White, congressman from Viz
| district, will soon Introduce a bill ;niD
Congress giving to every surviving Union
| soldier of the war of the Great Rebellion
a pension OF 81 per month.
While many plausible arguments may
be urged in favor Of the above measure,
and while its enactment would naturally
be pleasing as we'll as profitable to the
veterans, still sober second thought
must convince even the recipients them
selves of the impolitc result of the con-
templated action.
Ideal patriotism is always self-sacrific-
ing, and never mercenary. TO respond
to the Nations call in the hour of her
peril was indeed duty, and so far as the
soldiers were incapactated from obtain
ing livelihood by reason of disabilities
incurred in the service, they ought to
have liberal aid from the government,
but to pension countless number of as
ablebodieo men as walk, simply because
they served in the army, is manifestly
absurd. all This is self evident when we
consider what government has done, al
ready, under existing laws. Commits
sioner Dudley reports 300, 63S names upon
the pension rolls. or one name out of
every 40 men, women and children in
the United States.
The pensioners are increasing at more
rapid rate than the population of the
country. Last year alone, IS years after
the war, nearly 10000 new names were
added 10 the pension roll. This increase
will continue far into the next century.
Not one-half of the claims filed for dis
ability have been allowed, and only two
thirds of the claims filed by widows. To
say nothing of the sums paid out by
government t., pensioners during the war
and subsequently until 1873, the appro-
priations made by congress during the
last IL years, amount to $577, 112.6S0.
And yet only one soldier out of four
has received penson. Suppose this
multiplication of classes goes on until
pensioncd, where will the end be?
We may get some light on this subject
by examining the pension rolls of the sur
vivors of the 1925 war, now 70 years
past, and we find 4,83l surviving soldiers
| and 81 1886 widows. Now the number of
different soldiers enlisted in the Union
armies exceeded 2.O0o, 00o OR ten times
the number enlisted in the 1925 war.
] lence we may conclude that after govern
| ment has paid out enormous sums in pen
| sions annually, until nearly the middle of
another century, there will still remain
On the pension rolls tens of thousands of
| veterans and hundreds of thousands of
widows. Then suppose these to be mul
tiplied four-fold by such legislation as
| is contemplated.
Ought any thoughtful patriot to consent
| to. much less abet, the placing of such an
incubus npon our national life as that
would be?
Has not government done nobly in
providing for her disabled soldiers and
sailors and their widows and children?
Why should those of us who escaped
the bullet, or disease, and are as able to
fight life's battle as our ueighbors, itch to
thrust our hands into the public treasury
| and entail these enormous burdens upon
the country? Let us rely rather on our
own exertions, each our children frugal.
ity, thrift, and self-denial, and say to all
would-be statesmen, we shall vote, not
! for men who recklessly scatter the public
funds, but for such only, as guard well
the financial interests of the whole coun.
try and all classes of her citizens.
VETERAN.