The National tribune., 1889-05-16
AN OPEN LErTER-yL
To the Press Of the United States.

lHtehuou the OBSTRUCTION OF INC NaeiVA
respectfully ask thatyou give them a day
in court" They beg that you will give
some time to the serious consideration of the
pension question, in order that you may
understand a matter which is very imper-
fectly understood by great proportion of
those who attempt to write about it.
The present is a propitious time for such
study. There is no other great question
now before you for consideration. 1t will
be some months before any political cam
paigns open, so that you now have the op-
portunity to make the study without dis
traction by any pressing questions outside
of it.
Itisofthe utmost Importance to them that
you make the study, and be in position to
speak intelligently upon it, when Congress
shall take the question up, as it viii GER
tainly do shortly after its organization next
December. They are all growing old. Every
year the grim old reaper Death cuts con-
sfantly widening swath through their thin
ming ranks. Every years delay in the set
Element of the question means ruthless
denial of justice to the tens of thousands Of
them, for they will have gone beyond the
reach of earthly justice and gratitude, as
well as of injustice and ingratitude. They
want your powerful assistance in securing
the passage by Congress at its next session of
legislation which will render them approx
mate justice.
They ask of you that you give the pen
sion system the same patient investigation
and analysis that you give the tariff system,
or the National finances In those you are
not frightened by an aggregate Of millions,
because, with Nation SO great as ours,
all figures have tendency to run into
millions, which, however, represent but
small sums for each individual.
We viii take up first the great argument
of the sOldier-haters: This country is now
spending s8o,OOOOOO year for pensions or
a larger sum than any of the soldier-ridden
countries of Europe pay for their enormous
military establishments"
We win admit that s8OOOO,OOO is an
enormous sum. But there are facts which
should be considered in connection with
this, which VIII change its significance
1t represents payments TO the survivors
of an army fully twice as large as any
put in the field by any nation, which did
more hard fighting, contested more battles
and lost more killed and acoanded than la.
been the case in the aohole of Europe in three
quarters Of centuyi This is startling, bu
it is indisputable. Since the close of The
NapoleOnic wars in 1915, all the great coun
tries of Europe-Great Britain, France, Ger
many, Austro Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain
Portugal, Holland and the scandinavian
countries, with their millions of armed mei
and their frequent wars, have not altogethe
fought as many and as bloody battles, kille,
, and wounded as many men, and subiectet
5 their armies to such strains as we did tn
, Union soldiers from 1861 to 1865.
You can confirm this statement by YER
|, cursory examination; 2,320,272 men serve
, an average of three years during our war. 1
this century no other war has lasted so Ion
or been filed with such continuous and sar
r culinary fighting while it did last. Fror
/ April 10, 1861, to May DC, 1865, the enormou
n number of 2,261 battles and skirmishes WEI
fought-many of them more destructive
human life than any battles in modern hi
tory.
!. In the prosecution of the war more tha
2 100000 men lost their lives. This is doub
the number of the entire army of Gre
Britain, $4,000 more than there are in tn
of Austro- Hungary, and four-ffths as mar
as France or Germany have on their roll
J. 1t is more men than Napoleon array,
If against the famous Sixth Coalition of En-
- land. Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Spai