San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-20
DOWN ON PENSIONS

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payment of U. s. pensions to the ma
tional soldiers in the late war for the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Of the Union is quite
heartrending. The objections taken
to this pension policy are of course
the stereotyped ones of the ruinous
and exhaustive drain upon our finan-
ces in the payment of these pension
claims. 1t might be suggested that
inasmuch as there would, not now
be, nor should there be again at any
future time, great American Nation
with big IN" save for the blood
and wounds of these pensioned soldiers
and their dead comrades, these OBJ
jections are frivolous. The saviors of
the nation are certainly entitled to
salvation from want and pri-
walton by the nation they
have saved. 1t comes with very
poor grace from these men who have
done most to destroy the union, this
cry against pensioning the saviors of
the union, and the cry will avail
nothing. There does seem of late
however that a sneaking sense of the
indecency of this TRADE against pen
siOns to union soldiers is growing
into the consciousness of the demo-
cratic editors and they are trying to
relieve themselves from the Odium
which attaches to their course by
complete change of base. The latest
wisdom is to declare that this
whole sacrifice of blood and life
to save the unioh was use
less, at least as a patriotic
action, and that figured down to the
fine point of democratic perception
there is no patriotism about it. The
manner of working out this demon
stration is illustrated in the following
from the st. Louis Republic:
"'The debt the nation can never
pay is the debt that is due the SOL
der is the motto displayed by the
National Tribune, G.. A. r. organ.
The nation can hire all the soldiers it
wants and more than it wants to do
anything it wants for Sl3 month and
found but when it pays out $780,
600, 900 a year without shaking the
thirst for pensions, it does appear that
there are claims it can never satisfy
and lust of lucre it can never satiate."
This is the be all and end all of all.
All patriotism, all devotion to coun-
try, all sense of national honor, all
the wealth and virtue of American in
situations and all the pride of Ameri-
can citizenship are cribbed, coffined,
confined to this SIS a month and
rations. 1t is meet, right and the
bounden duty of this nation to mourn
as in sackcloth and ashes that this
immortal truth was not earlier dis
covered. Recruiting stations and
patriotic appeals were all wasted
ammunition, according to the Republic.
All that was necessary was TO fling
out the banner to the breeze inscribed
with the motto, 'Sl3 a month and
found,n and the banners of the re-
public would have overlooked a sea
of soldiers ready for the sacri-
flee OF life for that all persuasive
Sl3. AS SI3 is the objective
point, and the risks of death or
disability or incurable wounds
are accepted as part of the contract
for which the Sl3 is full equivalent,
there could be no after consideration
of pension money, no debt the nation
owed its savIors, no feeling of Obliga-
ton toward the halt, the manned, the
blind, the diseased who were made
such in the ranks of the nations de-
Tenders under baptism of blood such
as never was. 1t is perhaps natural
that those who desired to destroy a
nations life and who glOtied in a ma
TONS shame should thus rate the SER
vices by which th7 national glory was
upheld and the national existence
preserved. 1t may have been unfOr-
tunate that this was not the case. 1t
may have been better, as the Repub-
lie no doubt holds, that the nation
should have been dismembered
and the name of republic made
kissing and a by-word for COM
ing ages Of scorn, but it was
not so ordained and the unfortunate
lacU, according 10 IIle hepuOlic, re-
mains. The nation was saved. The
saved nation had sense of justice
and Of the obligations it was under
to pay its debts. Not only its
debts in coin to the English |
bondhOlders who furnished the
confederacy with the munitions of
war, but its debts 10 the poor and
much abused soldier whose home
was abandoned mis- business broken
l, III