The National tribune., 1888-05-31
OUR FAITH IN COL. MATsoN.

Our friends, the enemy, are In dilemma.
OUR FAITH IN COL. MATsoN.
Tt is perhaps well to 1eiterate that we still
have faith in Col. Matson
There is so much in that gentleraan's
course to discourage us that this assertion is
necessary for our sakes as well as for those
whose weary hearts sicken toward despair.
1t is true that the days gather into weeks
and the weeks quadruple into months and
the months run their course through sea-
sons without sound or stir from him in
matters of pension legislation of the highest
moment to tens Of thousands Of men, women
and children whose merits and needs cry
out trumpet-tongued from every corner of
the land.
1t is true that the House has heard from
almost every other man in it who has i'm
portant interests in charge. The tariff, the
rivers and harbors, the public buildings, the
postofices, the railroads, the labor question
and scores of others have all had day in
court but the representative of the veterans
has remained strangely silent.
More than 5000 pages of the Congressional
Record have already been published, filled
with speeches of men who were pushing
measures of wide variety of merit and i'm
portance with motions and other means for
securing prompt consideration of their meas
ures, but in all this wilderness of print there
is not line showing that in the whole six
months which have elapsed since the session
began Col. Matson has taken single step
looking to the consideration at any time,
near or remote, of single general pension
measure.
We must also admit that to-day-the last
one in Maybe gives no indication that he
is any nearer ready to enter upon the long
deferred work of pushing pension legisla-
ton through than he was on the first day Of
December, or January, or February, or
March, or April. So far as is visible to the
naked eye he is in the same state of lethar
gic calmness in regard to the Grand Army
Bill, the Arrears Bill, and all other pension
measures that has characterized him since
his appointment as Chairman of the Com
mittee on Invalid Pensions put all that class
of legislation in his charge.
cu,uI,l,x mn ,t;IJ
have faith that he viii yet do something to
win the praise and gratitude of the veterans
and their dependent ones, that faith is not
nearly SO strong az it was months or even
weeks ago. The rapid passage of unim-
proved time is telling on even such double
and-twisted fast-dyed faith as ours.
But We remember the valiant work that
Col Matson did for pensions in the last
session of Congress; we remember the ac-
tivity and success Of his efforts to get through
a bill to give every Mexican volunteer and
his widow a pension of So month; we
know how he succeeded in having such
women as the widows of Bragg, Pickett
Pillow and other Confederates put on
the pension-roll at So month; we know
that he appreciates quite as well as we
the exceeding urgency of the relief con-
templated by the Grand Army Bill, and
others of that character we are sure that
he is fully aware of the unanimity of the
veterans, the press and the people in favor
of those measures, and that all eyes are
fixed on him as the one who will be solely
responsible for their success or failure, and we
still have faith that he viii yet do some
thing worthyo his past record, and satisfy
ing to the high expectations entertained of
him
It may be that he is reserving and accu-
mulating his strength for some overwhelm-
ing effort later on.
We will hope so; but words cannot ade-
quately express the intensity of cur wish
that he viii not waste another day OF week,
but move at once with the energy of par
liamentary cyclone in the direction indi-
Gated by the wishes and sore needs of the
men who saved the Nation, and made pos
sible all its greatness.