Dodge City times., 1889-12-05

every soldier and sailor who was mus
tered into the service of the United States
during the civil war and is now suffering
from wounds or disease. having an origin
in the service and the line of duty. Two
OF three necessary facts, muster and dis
ability are usually susceptible of easy
proof, but, the third, origin in the service,
is often difficult and in many deserving
cases, impossible to establish. That very
many of those who endured the hardships
Of our most bloody and arduOus cam
paigns are now disabled from diseases
that had real, if not traceable origin in
service, we do not doubt. Besides there is
another class, composed of men, many of
whom served an enlistment of three full
years, and of re-enlisted veterans who
added fourth year of service, who es-
capped the casualties of battle and the as
saults of disease. who were in every battle
| line of their command and were mustered
out in sound health and have, since the
close of the war while fighting with the
same indomitable and Independent spirit,
the contests of civil life, been overcome
by disease or casualty.
/ am not unaware that the pension roll
/ oAACody "A NViN Adi SC CA
penditure, neither am deferred by that
fact from recommending that congress
grant pension to such honorably dis
charged soldiers and sailors of the civil
war as, having endured substantial ser
vice during the war, are now dependent
upon their own labor for maintenance,
| and by disease or casualty are incapaci
tated from earning it. Many of the men
who would be included in this form of re-
lief are now dependent upon public aid,
and it does not, in my judgment, consist
with the national honor that they shall
continue to subsist on the local relief
given indiscriminately to paupers instead
of upon the special and generous pro-
vision of the nation they served so gal
lantly and unselfishly. Our people will,
l am sure, very generally approve such
legislation and l am equally sure that
the survivors of the union army and navy
will feel a sense of relief when this
worthy and suffering class of their COM
rades is fairly cared for. There are man
ifest inequalities in the existing law that
should be remedied To some of these
the secretary of the interior has called at
| tentiOn.
1t is gratifying to be able to state that
by the adoption of new and better meth
DDS in the war department, the calls of the
pension Office for information as to the
military and hospital records of pension
claimants are now promptly answered and
the injurious and veXatiOus delays that
have heretofore occurred are entirely
avoided. This will greatly facilitate the
adjustment of all pending claims.
THE FOUR NEW STATES.
e
Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and
Washington, into the union under the
constitution in the same month, and ad
mission of their duly chosen representa-
tives to our national congress at the same
session is an event as unexampled as it is
interesting. The specification of their
votes cast and the constitution adopted in
each of the states was filed with me as
required by the eighth section of the act
of February %, 1889, by the governors of
said territories respectively. Having after
careful examination found that
the several constitutions and gov
ernments were republican and their
forms not repugnant to the constitution
of the United States; that all the provis-
ions of the act of congress had been COM
piled with and that a majority of votes
cast in each of said proposed states was
in favor of adopting the constitution sub
mitted therein, l did so declare by a sep
arate proclamation as to each as to North
Dakota and South Dakota on Saturday,
November 2, as to Montana on Friday,
November 8, and as to Washington on
Monday, November II.
Each of these states has within it re-
sources, the development of which will
employ the energies of and yield COM
Portable subsistence to a great popula-
ton. The smallest of these new states,
Washington, stands twelfth, and the larg
est, Montana, third among the forty two in
area. The people of these states are al
ready we'll trained, intelligent and patriO-
tic American citizens, having common
interests and sympathies with those of the
older states, and a common purpose to de-
fend the integrity and uphold the
honor of the nation.
PROTECTION TO RAILROAD EMPLOYEES.
The attention of the interstate COM
merce commission has been called to the
urgent need of congressional legislation
for the better protection of the lives and
limbs of those engaged in operating the
great lines of the country, and especially
of the yardmen and brakemen. A petit
ton, signed by nearly ten thousand rail
way brakemen, was presented to the COM
mission, asking that steps might be taken
to bring about the use of automatic brakes
and couplers on freight cars.
At meeting of state railroad cofnmis-
sioners and their accredited representa-
tives held at Washington in March last,
upon the invitation of the interstate COM
merce commission, resolution was unan-
imOusly adopted urging the commission
ITO consider what can be done to prevent
the loss of life and limb in coupling and
uncoupling freight cars and in handling
the brakes of such cars"
During the year ending Jrne 80, 1883,
over 1000 railroad employees were killed
in service and more than 10000
injured. 1t is competent, I think,
for congress to inquire uniformly
into the construction of cars
used in interstate commerce and the use
of improved safety appliances upen such
trains. Time will be necessary to make
the needed changes, but an earnest an in
telligent beginning should be made at
once. 1t is reproach to our civilization
that any class of American workmen
should in the pursuit of necessary and
useful vocation be subjected to q peril of
life and limb as great as that of solder
in time of war
AGRICULTURE.
The creation of an exclusive depart
mant IN h, knOwn az tho dopa arfvnonf If