The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-04-05
No EXCUSE FOR DELAY.

There is, and there can be, no valid reason
for furtherdelay in presenting the Disability
Pension Bill to the House Of Representatives,
andpushing its passage with all the urgency
possible.
No justification is possible for allowing
four months to pass away since the opening
ofCongress without doing what the Commit
tee on Invalid Pensions was quite as well
prepared to do then as it is to-day. The
first day the committee met it was as well
informed on the provisions of the bill, on
the scope ofits action, on the urgent neces- |
sity for its speedy passage, on the earnest de-
sire Of the soldiers for its enactment as it is
to-day, or as it will be if it postpones
action on the bill for years longer 1t had
every fact in its possession then that it now
has, or viii ever have. 1t is impossible to
conceiveof q measure being more thoroughly
considered and understood than this has
been. Not only has every clause and pro-
vision in the bill been substantially before
the country for the past five years, but nearly
every phrase and sentence in it has been
dissected, discussed and approved in every
Post in the country, in every Department
Encampment of the GAR, in the National
Encampment Of the Order in the Pension
Committees of both Houses of Congress, and
in the Houses themselves The National
Encampment has each year since 1888 en-
phatically indorsed the essential principles
of the bill, and accepted its phraseOlogy.
The Senate and House Pension Committees
have repeatedly reported in its favor, and
the Senate and House have several times
passed bills embodying the principles and
language Of the bin, and when submitted to
the Posts Of the GAR go out Of every
253 comrades voting upon it pronounced
in It's favor. The present Chairman of the
House Committee on Invalid Pensions in
trodueed the bill in the last Congress, sup
ported it strongly before and after its veto,
repeatedly declared on the floor Of the House
that it was a just and much-needed meas
ure, and 175 out of 500 Representatives said
BIZ their votes that his view was correct
and that the President erred in vetoing it.
The present bill differs from its predeces-
sOr only in some technical alterations made
to giveit better chance of escaping the Presi-
dental disapprovaL
The need of its speedy passage is to-day
much greater than it was a year ago, for
those it is intended 10 relieve are more nu-
merous and more needy than they were a
year ago. At their age~a year brings much
addition to their disabilities and neoessi-
ties
It's impossible to make the legislative
! field clearer for it than it now is. There is
absolutely no important measure before the
House demanding prior consideration nor
+ has there been since the session began.
With proper management the bill could
be introduced into the House and passed
within a week. It can be done now. and it
/ could have been done in any week since the
I first one in January
The responsibility for this needless delay,
which has been such a sore trial TO the dis
abled veterans and their friends, rests upon
the House Committee On Invalid Pensions,
and particularly upon the Chairman-CoI
/ C. C. 8Iatso1, Of Indiana. It is his special
duty to report the measure, or see that
it is done, to the House and urge its i'm
mediate passage. This has been expected
Of him, and it is stIl expected of him.
His failure 70 do it so far has been
great disappointment to the entire
body Of veterans They still cherish the
hope however that he wiz lose no more
time IN laying the bin before the House
and making every effort to secure its i'm
mediate consideration and passage. They
VIII not be satisfied with favorable re,
: port Tt wiz be just as unsatisfactory to
bavs it sleeping upon the calendar as in tn,
committee room. They want it pushed en-
r eTgelcaIly in the House and q rote secpreo
b upon it before that body lanches into theab
f sorbing discussion Of revenue reduction, tn,
$ appropriation bills, aud other measures
which win have behind them the over
vhelming pressure Of private and partisan
interests