The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-01-03

soldieT-hateTs mass all their artillery about
the time Congress is settling down to bust
ness, and open fire along the whole line.
The heavy guns and the animus of the
assault are furnished by the Free Traders
and the Solid South, while the Copperheads
the men who are traditional enemies of
the soldiers, or who have inherited it, form
the skirmishers and the bushwhackers.
This year the assault is beginning with
even more than its old-time virulenee. In
addition to their usual reasons for fighting
the veterans, the soIdier-haters now have to
spur them on a rage over the overwhelming
defeat they have suffered at the hands of the
united veterans.
As we have before pointed out, the con-
cert and solidity of these attacks show that
they are deliberately organized, and made
at word Of command. Since the beginning
of the present Administration there has been
reason for believing that the orders for the
assault, and directions as to the points
upon which to concentrate the fire. came
directly from the White House. All
who have famiIiarized themselves with
the history Of these affairs will recall the
singular manuvering which characterized
them, and which supports the assertion that
they were plotted, organized, and placed
under the direct command of some central
authority.
At one time, for example, all the soldier
hating papers would be hammering away
about the enormous number of skulkers,
bounty-iumpers and deserters there were in
the army and the GAR. The immense
number of men who went out at the last call
got big boUnties, and did not see a shot fred,
would be enlarged upon, and so on.
Suddenly there would be an eruption of
stories about the frightful swindles prac-
ticed upon the Pension Bureau, until one
thinks that all the ingenious cheats and
frauds in the Nation are concentrated in
the body of old soldiers and their widows.
Then the attack viii as suddenly change
TO virulent assaults upon The NATIONAL
TRIBUNE, the Commander-in-Ch Chief of the
GAR, or upon some comrade who has
attracted attention by the force and fitness
Of his utterances in behalf of his comrades.
We are solemnly assured that the great
mass of the old soldiers scorn and repudiate
these shrieksrs''-they represent only the
noisy, clamorous coIee-boilers, shirks, etc.
So it goes on through the same old routine.
The attack this year began with a noisy
trumpeting about the great sehism in the
/ CARR But this came to so speedy and
/ ignominious a failure that within a week
even the bitterest of the soldier-hating pa
pers had to acknowledge it. Then the next
movement in the attack was promptly de
livered. It began with three-column arti-
Gle in last Sundays New York WorId-en-
titled Tricks to Get Pensions (which
opens with this outrageous statement:
Every conceivable ailment is adduced, and every
violation Of the law IS practsed in order to obtain
/ the coveted place. Perjury is committed by multi
tudes Of claimants and by multitudes Of witnesses
/ TO assist claimants and men who are highly re-
spected and would not think of lying ordinary
occasions, do not seem TO hesitate to remember the
detailed physical condition of perfect strangers
whom they never saw more than once in their
men apply for pensions because their teeth decay
because their hair is getting thin; because of indi
gestion from using up teeth to bite cartridges
because their eyes fail in their old age compelling
I them TO wear spectacles; because their feet are
-bitteni because of eorns which they declare
/ resulted from long marches quarter of a century
ago.
No words are necessary to refute this
twaddIe. Every man of ordinary common
sense knows that to get on the pension-ron
requires an amount of proof of actual spe-
cifc injuries directly due to acts IN line Of
duty such as is not required in any legal
proceeding in any civil court in the land
A mere fraction of the testimony that pen
sion claimant is required to procure would
win his case in any court in Christendom.
But this is not the worst. Read this libel
on our veterans widows:
An officer said, in reply to my
questions: We have reason to believe that 6
great proportion of the women now drawing pen
sions as soldiers widows arc, in fact, married
again. and are conccaling their marriages and tax
ing false oath every month. It is astounding
how readily and unhesitatingly women on oui
rolls to peTjure themselves when it is 10 the
INTEREST," do so. Now and then one viii surrender
her pension but ofLener she will sign the receipt
take false oath and hide her husband. Some 0
the widows rolls have children every
year, and advertise TO their neighbors and til,
world that they unmarried, in order TO draw
mere pittance every month"
asked why they not punished for perjury
we have tried case after case, +" he said, "bu
no jury viii convict. They always sympathiz
with the widow and viii not punish her, evel
when the proof against her is ovcrwh Ginning On
OF these bogus widows, after we have all the fact
in the case and proof to a demonstration that sh
has been thief and liar for years, will cheerful
face jury and laugh out Of court. We hay
, given up prosecuting them.''
Could anything be more malignant, NOR
sIanderous, more untrue? It is a defama
ton of every veterans widow in th