The National tribune., 1885-07-16

&AAA 4AAxAo
men, who are denied even so much relief as
is afforded by q charity hospital, are now
turned back upon the chill mercies of the
poorhouse-a fact as lamentable as it is dis
graceful. How well they have served their
country is attested by the record which is
attached to each name They gave unques-
tioningly of their youthful strength and
courage in the days Of the Nations greatest
trial, and now, old and broken with the
strains they endured then; untitled to earn
their living by the tremendous drafts which
the awful campaigns they passed through
made upon their vitality, they must either
beg their subsistence from door to door or
accept the meager aims of the County's pro-
vision for the INDECENT.
This is wrong; it is unjust; it is cruel in
every light in which it can be viewed. In
the first place, the United States had
no right to put the burden of support
ing these broken men upon the State
of Pennsylvania; it had no right to ex-
pect the Legislature to appropriate the
funds of the Commonwealth of Pennsylva-
mia to the support of men who were disabled
in the cause of the whole people. It is the
General Government, not the State, which
should care for these veterans. This was
the position which we took last year in de-
Tending the passage of the Amendments to
the Mexican Pension Bill The soldiers who
are disabled must be supported by some one,
and justice indicates that some one to be the
United States, which had the benefit of their
SERVICE and not the local communities, who
only shared in these benefits in general
way. Secondly, these men could receive a
support from the Government without the
sacrifice of self-respect entailed by the re-
ceipt of charity from local Governments or
private parties. The support given them by
the General Government comes in the shape
of just debt, while aid from other sources
is purely and simply aims, and subject to
thehumiliating conditions of all aims taking.
The occurrence in Pittsburg cannot be
said to be exceptional, except in the number
of the men affected and some other trifing
details. Every community has these broken
down men among them, who are supported
in one way or another rs these have been in
the West Penn Hospital. Every COM
munity has borne these burdens more or
less graciously, and given money to the
support of old soldiers more or less grudg-
ingly-generally the former. 1t is the Gov
ernments prime duty to put an end to this
condition of things, and the work before the
Grand Army and before the comrades every
where is to bring such influences to bear
upon Congress, as early as possible in the
coming session, as will bring about the en-
actment of such law as was contemplated
by the enactment of the Mexican Pension
Bill, and which will at once take every
broken-down soldier in the United States
out of the poorhouse or hospital, where he
is now being supported, and put him in a
home of his own, with enough to keep him
in tolerable comfort the rest of his days.
But while we insist in all strenuousness
upon the duty of the Government of the
United States to take upon itself the burden
of these veterans support, what terms can
fittingly designate the conduct of the State
Senator who prevented the State of Penn
sylvania caring for these poor men? What
can be said severe enough to properly char
acterize this brutalityP Why is not the
name of this hater of patriotism and de-
spiser of courage pilloried in the columns of
every paper in Pennsylvania? Why have
not the GAR. Posts throughout the State
taken appropriate action to denounce this
enemy Of the soldiers and hold him up to pub
lie scorn? He should be made to feel the
weight Of the peoples hatred of such gross
injustice and ingratitude. There should be
such an expression of righteous wrath as
would drive this fellow from public life