, 1888-10-04

these VetoeS, L believe, a charge that the
men to whom the pensions were to be
given had not been soldiers of the United
States. There was not a single question
that the men who were to be relieved by
the pension sought were in sore and
pressing need of bread. There was not in
any single case the slightest question in
volved In the constitutional power of con-
gress to grant the pensions.
Every one of President Cleveland's
vetoes of pension bills reads precisely as
though they were the decisions of the
commissioner of pensions Tor an appllca-
ton for a pension unoer existing law.
We all know from the foundation of the
government the general pension law pro-
yides for a certain class of cases. We do
our best by the general law to reach all
cases. Blu in generalizing there will always
be found exceptions, and every one of
these 206 that met the veto from the
president came outside of the general law.
bat not outside of the personal merit of
the men who applied for relief.
Applause.
Every case had been before a committe
of the Republican senate; every case had
been before a committee of the Democratic
house, and every case had passed through
the Republican senate and Democratic
house. 1t would be hard to imagine a
more impartial legislation than that
should produce, and yet they met every
time with the absolute veto of the presi-
dent.
[ do not intend, MIR. Chairman, to
dwell en- the subject of pensions, and
have introduced it now in order that IL
might be placed us a ans with another
subject, namely. the great surplus in the
treasury of the United States. The
surplus which the president has been &C
cumulating for more than a year and a
half, refusing to apply it to the reduction
of the public debt, has at length found its
useful fate. The president and his sec
rotary of the treasury have ameliorated
the danger of giving more than sixty
millions of it as a loan without interest to
some national banks scattered all over
the country, and this d1y your money
and mine, to the amount of more
than sixty millions OF dollars, is
loaned without a cent of in
terest to certain national banks
and | contend, without a shadow
of substantial right under the law that
sixty millions is severed from the govern
ment by the men who borrow the deposit
ing bonds OF the United States and they
are allowed to collect interest from the
coupons on these bonds and to retain at
the same time all the interest they can
earn on sixty millions, allowing that in
terest to be at the rate of 5 per cent,
and there is $6,000,0 900 gratuity given
away by the president and secretary of the
treasury in a single year.
If the claims of the 206 pensioners that
were stopped by the vetoes of President
Cleveland had been allowed and the pen
sions had been paid and had all run for
twenty years the total amount of that in
estimable relief to those poor, sick and
sometimes starving families of soldiers,
who barred their breasts for your country
and mine, would not have consumed one-
sixth part of the money which the favor
ties of the treasury department will re-
ceive in a single year from the interest of
the money that is loaned.
The president is now to answer before
the people, and the people of Michigan
and the people Of Maine who are going
to pull together in this great national con
test cheers must decide whether the
surplus money of the United States had
not better go for the relief of the poor
and suffering among Union soldiers than
to rich Democratic brokers in Wall street
who are receiving unlawful gain from
your money and mine.
Upon the close of his sneech three
cheers We e given for Blaine. Blaine
was followed by Gen. Adam King of
Maryland and others Blaine will address
a mass meeting at Adrian, Mich, to-
morrow evening.