The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-02
SCHENING FOR A PENSION.

The other day it was wired from Wash
ington that the widow Of the late Chic
., Justice Waite intends to earn living by
taking boarders at her capital residence
Standing by itself there was nothing very
startling about the announcement. a goOC
many most estimable ladies in Washington
make their living by taking boardess, and
some of them-the ladies, not the boarders
get rich in the business. The business is
profitable one in most cities,
and at the capital it is exceptionally
so, if the clearinghouse happen to be eli
gibly situated and the landlady is not too
economical in supplying the table. People
who 90 to Washington to board for short or
long periods, can afford to pay high prices,
and they like to have it known that they do
pay well for what they get.
But following the announcement that
Mrs. WAITE is to turn landlady comes the
comment that this fought to make the
meanest man in Congress blush" Without
stopping to Inquire the ordinary reader
would be at a loss to understand what the
meanest man IN Congress can have to do
with the matter. 1t is not likely that he
will board with Mrs. WAITE, and if he
does board with her, why should he blush?
| She is an eminently respectable lady, and
| it may be accepted as settled that hers will
be one of the most elegant of the private
boarding houses in washington.
The true inwardness of this business is
that somebody is trying to engineer a
pension for Mrs. WAITE, and he
is adopting the tactics which he
hopes will win better than an
appeal to the sense of justice. In fact,
the sense of justice does Rot enter into the
case. The late Congress hunted diligently
for a reasonable excuse for granting the
lady pension, and could find none; but it
is not proposed to let the matter drop on
account Of 50 unnecessary thing asnan ex-
euse for awarding the money. A pension
viii be had lift can be talked or coaxed or
shamed out of Congress. This boarding
house incident is part of the adnoit scheme
deEised for playing on the sentiment of
those who have control of the peoples
money.
To speak the truth plainly, and with out
any desire to be offensive, Mrs. WAITE is
no more entitled to pension than is the
widow of any other men who held civil
office under the government and died
natural death, and not as a consequence of
his ofice-holding. If she should be grant I'd
a pension, so also should thousands
of women and children whose hus-
bands and fathers were, in the course
Of their lives, Office holders-a proposition
which would receive the assent of nobody.
The fact that her husband was prominent
does not improve her case; indeed, that cir
cumstances should operate against her
appeal, because the greater prominence the
more money the Official receives. The
salary of the chief justice is s1O,5OO year,
aud the money was regularly drawn
by WAITE during the twelve or fifteen
years that he was chief justice
A salary of $50 day is not unreasonable,
and the republic which pays it cannot be
charged with ungratefuluess, especially as
it forces nobody to accept civil Office
against his will.
It's to be regretted that Mrs. WAITE as
sumes the attitude she does, but it would
be more to be regretted if her appeal were
Il be listened to, inasmuch as the granting