Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-17

the foundations OF the republic, but you
raised the tower so high that its revolving
light would show clearer the pathway TO the
strugglers for freedom IN all nations. You,
also, demonstrated the power Of generosity
of people self-reliant, who granted right to
the old world, and would yield TO no other
claim from its monarchs. Your prowess and
victories secured peace for ages to come.
There is to-day no foreign nation or combina-
tion Of foreign despots who will hazard an
encounter with the giant of the west.
The struggle was costly; millions of treas
ure, thousands of lives, oceans Of blood, gave
us unity and peace at home and security
from tho world besides.
OF all this you have right to be proud.
Yet there Is another closing to this picture.
There Is time OF sadness amid the throng-
ing memories-of the comrades who fell upon
the field or wasted away in hospitals. A
shade of disappointment at the want Of graft
tude, OF honesty, which has allowed their
widows and orphans to struggle, sometimes
suffer for bread; at the ingratitude towards
you OF great government.
There is no special virtue In singing poems
to the heroism of the buried soldier or the
veteran wrestling with poverty. All nations
have done that much, and even In republic
called civilized end christian a stern effort Is
always required to obtain more.
And even here we find great government
said TO be of the people, by the people, and
for the people, sometimes waring against the
honest demands of her people, and soldiers,
land against the laborers in Judea and Egypt.
The great multitude who pay most of the
100000 every day collected by tariff and
internal revenue duties are in sympathy
with you and asking that your claims be rec
ognized, yet the majority do not In fact rule
much more than do the subjects of Queen
Victoria. You have been and are now salts
fled that IL you accomplish what you desire
IL will only be by well-directed effort-a
struggle.
7 tno,,, ,ya ara fro,,art,,, odr,on;sbod MT
TO murmur or complain and accept the few
crumbs with obeisance and thanks. This
doctrine OF acqulescenCe and submission has
been preached In all ages of the world.
Even Christ was bitterly denounced by
the samec class of men in the same spirit, be-
cause he saw the need of reform and
as he had no money to give he insisted
that the gospel at least should be preached
to the poor, while the sanity Pharasees and
priests with loud phylacteries proclaimed
that he brought sword instead of peace.
So the same doctrine was preached to our
colonial fathers, but they threw the tea in
Boston harbor.
So for years it was preached to the slave.
Even those who mlnistered IN sacred things
and claimed to have the conscience of man
to the supposed appreciation of his Maker.
en]oined submission, ,cheerfulness and thanks
for the lash Of the driver, finally and for
years demanding from white, free men the
same obsequious servility, and controlling
every department of the government by its
lmpious and unholy DEGREES.
But the cowardly submission in the end
cost US the horrors of civil war.
Now the same class and spirit again coun-
sells acquiesCence and submission.
For our encouragement we have the com =
forting assurance that all distinctions end at
the grave. They should end at the pension
department.. Every man, no matter what
his rank, should have the same amount for
the same disability.
You do not insist upon this although there
naturally Indignation when the man,
strong, vigorous, and apparently in full
health, should receive early and ample pen
sion, while you, soldier, equally true and
brave, bent with disease suffering and tot
tering to the grave, is denied the pittance
which would give bread, at least, If not en-
joyment. There are many soldiers in Ne
braska who should receive pensions; there
the rank and file who do not know that the
government has been ungenerous and mig
gardly in it's dealings with them.
There are thousands of soldiers In the
almshouse to-day who were promised at en-
listment that the treasury of the nation
would never be shut against them.
One of the national issues settled at the
last election was that the soldier hereafter
should be more honestly if not generously
treated. No doctrine OF acuuiescence then.
You knew then, as did the nation, that the
veteran would fare badly unless he would
struggle for his rignts-that he must strike
his own blow.
In accordance with the decree of the
balot-box and the demands of the people,
President Harrison appointed Corporal Tan
ner commissioner, and he supposed the pres
ident and people meant what they said; in
troduced reforms-and he intended that OBJ
tanning pensions and increasing some al
ready issued should be made more honest
and easy, and he re-rated in earnest. Then,
as usual, came up a howl from the money
centers. The administration was besIeged
and future defeat was threatened If the
long-deferred claims of thousands of vet
Grams were acknowledged.
The influence of corporate power and col
bined capital at Washington seems generally
irresistible, and at the first fire of this crowd
there were concessions. While Tanner was
in Nebraska on the 4th day Of July speaking
to the old soldiers, who looked upon him as
the Moses, tidings came like clap of thun-
der out of a clear sky that DIR. Carpenter,
his trusted acting medical referee, had been
summarly removed. without notice, without
hearing, and the only reason assigned that
he was too liberal IN re-rating.
DIR. Carpenter was an old soldier, on the
pension roll, had been surgeon during the
war, was appointed to the pension depart
ment by General Grant and had served salts
factorily eighteen years through all admins
trations with no complaint or stain against
him.
1t was cruel thrust against Tanner, for it
was well known tnat he had approved all
that DIR. Carpenter had done; and thus the
hands have been again set back on the dial
of reform.
Your constant enemies and the enemy
of the masses in the republic,
Wall street and its allies, have
gained another victory. The stone that
was partly rolled away, we fear, will roll
back again and paralyze the good intentions
of those who meant to deal justly. There is
danger that the iustness of your claims, as
your wounds and disabilities have been, is to
be guaged by the amount of money to oe
taken from the treasury. The financial
pirates who want no money taken from the
treasury unless it passes through their hands
by the aid OF their imaginations figured TO
the assistant secretary the amount il would
cost, and he was 30 severely shocked that
fear he is less active In his well begun work
of allowing pensions heretofore rejected.
When Wall street can control any bran ch
of this government, IL means no good to the
masses-never did.
In the flush Of victory this is to be regret
ted, because to many old soldiers poverty
and the grave are just in sight.
Certainly DR.. Carpenter and others did not
deserve this harsh treatment. They were
not felons; committed no crime, but this
monster giant power demanded victim
q sacrifice that would strike terror to the
whole department; that too much liberaity
would be punished with official DEATH
Suppose Commissioner Tanner and DIR.