The National tribune., 1888-05-17

THE PENsIoN-HArERs. PLor.

THE PENsION-HATERs' PLOT.
The plot of the leagued soldier-haters and
free-traders is to concentrate every effort of al
the opponents of pension legislation, and of
all the opponents of Protection, upon push
ing bill through Congress-before any PEN
| sion legislation is passed-which will so re-
duee the revenues of the Government that
it will be impossible for it to pay any more
pensions without imposing additional taxes
to meet the expense. Then, when the friends
Of veterans ask that the Government do
longdelayed justice to the men who sacri-
feed everything to save ii, they viii be met
with the plea that there is no money in the
Treasury for the purpose, and if the demand
is persisted in, they viii be forced into hos
tility with some special interest which it
will be proposed to saddle with the burden
of the expense.
This neiaTious scheme has not even the
merit of novelty. So recently as two years
ago VIM. R. Morrison, whom the indignant
veterans of his district retired to private
life, did his utmost to defeat the Dependent
Pension Bill by urging that the money re-
CURED to carry it out be raised by the re-
enactment of the Income-tax Law, the most
inquisitorial, obnoxious and corruption-pro-
ducing form of taxation IF the plot of the
soldier-hating conspirators succeeds, this is
foretaste Of what is in store for every one
who advocates justice to the veterans. Every
measure that he advocates will be met with
q proposition to raise money by some i'm
pracdble, onerous and irritating form of
taxation, which viii force large body of
our people into active hostility to the meas
ure.
The contemplation even of such q thing is
a gross outrage upon the soldiers. The men
whom it is proposed to maltreat and defraud
in this way are the men who, after making
enormous sacrifices to enter the service of
the country, and after serving her with a
valor and constancy unparalleled in history,
returned to their homes unpensioned and
unrewarded, and periodically endured 8
crushing burden of taxation in order to pay
TO the utmost farthing the enormous de-
mands of the money-lenders who are joining
in this conspiracy to defraud them of the
meager sums they now ask as justly due
them. They were far from even thinking,
much less demanding, that their burden Of
taxation be reduced to prevent the bond
holder from getting what the Nation prom
/ ised him it never entered into their minds
to force hostility to him by requiring that
some special class or industry be loaded
down with the labor of satisfying his
| demands. They heroically assumed his
claims as an entirety, and even went to the
extent Of foregoing the payment of what was
due them, until his debt was satisfied To
them he owes everything. Had they not
fought as they did his bonds would not be
worth the paper they are printed on. Had
they not put his claims before theirs and
cheerfuIIy endured onerous taxation for
decades he would have been glad to accept
the bare principal of what he lent the Gov
eminent, with interest, instead Of three-fold
his loan and interest on the same, which has
been given him. Had they not perseyered
till the final triumph there would have been
no more surplus TO dispose of or revenues to
reduce than has the so-caIled Southern Con-
federacy, which their patient valor crushed.
The only thing that exceeds the wicked
injustice of this plot is the inefable mean
/ ness Of its ingratitude.