Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-06-08


Those who believe all that they read il
republican party organs must think tina
the president spends most of his time il
vetOing pension bills, and that he vetoe:
such bills without regard to their merits
and simply because he hates everybody
who has ever served the country in the
army or navy. 1t is observable that the
organs never give their readers an oppor
tunity to Judge for themselves whether
the vetoed bills possess any merits; they
never give thei readers an opportunity
to read one of the veto messages which
they represent to he products of purS
presidential cussedness.
The Times has a considerable number
of these messages at hand, and from q
careful perusal of every one of them is
able to state that in every case the rea-
sons stated for the veto are conclusive
and in most cases they are more than
sufficient. From these samples it is safe
to conclude that the president has moi
vetoed IA single meritOTiOus bill of this
kind. Suppose we take one or two OF
these messages at random and get an
idea Of the sort of pension bills that in
cur the presidential disapprobatlon and
that somehow make their way through
the pension committees and the houses of
congress.
Here is one returning without approval
n bill granting pension to one Sally A.
Randall. Probably the republican or
gans will assert that this bill was vetoed
because Mrs. Randall was related to Sam
j. Randall and the president wanted to
punish him over the shoulders of a poor
widow for antagonizing the Mills tariff
bill. Suppose, then, we look at the
facts. The pension was granted to Mrs.
Randall as the widow of one Antipas
Tabor. who served in the war of 1912 &.
The president says: There is no claim
made that he received any injury in the
army or that his death, which happened
long after his discharge, was in the
slightest degree related to his military
service" He died seventeen years after
his discharge from the service. About
twenty-five years later his widow married
Albert Randall, and twenty years there's
after Randall died, leaving her again a
widow.
Here is an interesting pension case, is
it not2 But the funniest of it remains to
be told. The tender>hearted committee
which recommended the granting of the
pension reported that Mrs. Randall was
worthy woman rs years of age, in
needy circumstances, with health much
impaired, etc. From this statement it
appears that Mrs. Randall could not have
been more than year old at the end of
the war of 1912, and that she could not
have been married to Tabor for many
years after the unpleasantness. Perhaps
the committee thought she deserved a
pension for serving as wife to an ex SOL
dier old enough TO be her father.
Another case taken at random is that
of Ellen Shea. Her son Michael was in
the army from January, 1869. to January,
1865. He was sick once or twice during
his term of service. He is also reported
as a deserter and absent without leave
and in arrest and confinement fully as
often as he was sick" No application
for pension was ever made on his beN
half His mother filed u claim for PEN
sion in July, 1884, alleging that her son
contracted fever in the service which
resulted in insanity, which was the cause
of his death on the tenth day of March,
1884. He was killed by a w-slide in
the state of Colorado. The only hint
that his death was in any way connected
with the service is the suggestion that
not having the proper use of his mind he
wandered away and was killed. AS his
mother lived in Chicago, the president
thinks it not altogether likely that he |
wandered as far as Woodstock, Colorado, |
in consequence of mental unsoundness. |
And, says the president, las tending
to show that unsoundness of mind had
nothing to do with his death it may be
mentioned that an attorney having his
mothers application for pension in charge
withdrew from the case in October, 1884, |
for the reason that, having made inquir- |
les at the place where the soldier was |
killed, he found that his death was caused |
by snow slide. and that he was informed |
that a number of other persons lost their |
lives at the same time"
AS these are fair sample cases it will be |
seen that the president does not veto PEN
sion bills without good cause.