Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-04-05
PENSION ORATORY.
a Sharp Debate Precipitated
by Statesman Stone.
HE ATTACKS THE GRAND ARMY MEN

Declares the Presidency a Marketable
onee, and Calls Halt for Himself
Lane of Illinois Comes Down on the
Missouri Man with Both Feet and Chip
man of Michigan Expresses His Views
Reciprocity and the Hide and Wool
Duty-oficiaI Notes.
WASHINGTON CITY, April 5-There was
quite diplay of oratory in the house yes
terday over the pension question, that being
the first subject taken up on five private bills
which had come over from last week In
speaking on one of these bills, Stone of Mis-
souri, declared that no people had been so
despoiled and burdened under the name of
patriotism ana under the guise of pension
laws as had the people ST the United States
He denounced the demands of the Grand
Army of the Republic, and asserted that the
presidency was put up and sold to the high
est bidder
A Eulogy of Cleveland.
Thank God there was one grand man who
had declined to be party to such sale
Though he had fallen, he had fallen bearing
the reputation of wise and incorruptible
craftsmanship and enjoying the respect of
every honest citizen. lApplause on Demo-
cratic side Benjamin Harrison had at
tanned his office by cash raised by Wana-
maker and disbursed by Dudley. He lStonel
believed that the government had been gen
erous enough to the soldiers.
4 Platform for Himself.
Speaking for himself land speaking, he
knew, against the judgment of his party
assoclatesl, he declared that he had gone as
far in the direction of pensions as he intend
ed to go, and he represented one of the larg-
est ex-Union soldier districts in the country.
He favored a liberal system OF pension laws,
but he entered his earnest protest against
indefensib!e extravaganza in public expend-
iture. He favored the granting of liberal
pensions - true and brave soldiers, but ha
was opposed to granting pensions to unde-
serving soldiers or To bounty jumpers.
stones knowledge Impeached.
Lane of Illinois, in favoring the bills, re-
ferTed to the remark made by Stone that a
contract existed between the government
and the soldier, and said that man who
would declare that was as ignorant of the
relations between the government and the
soldier as a Hottentot. The Democrats of
Illinois did not endorse the words of the
gentleman from Nilsson ri, but believed as he
IIanel did, that the government had not
done justice to the men who had defended i
in its Iour Of peril.
When Cost Was Not Counted.
Chapman of Michigan criticised and de-
nounced the speech made by the gentleman
from Missouri IL was not the time to ia IL
OF the cost OF pensions. He wei remem-
bered the day when the cost was not counted :;
when the government was prodigal of money
and lavish OF blood; when the motives which
brought men under the flag were not scanned
and analyzed when the man who enlisted
was the hero of the hour Then no man was
mean enough to suggest that men went out to
risk their lives for the paltry pay OF Sl6
month. The man who would make such a
suggestion would have been whipped and
scourged and looked upon as a rebel He
could not have lived in decent society
Not the Time to Call a Halt.
The gentleman from Missouri [Stonel
cried a halt, but the time for a halt had not
come, and would not come until reasonable
provision was made for the needs of every
soldier of the country. The country needed
service pension; it needed an increased
pension for the deaf and dumb: it needed a
pension for widows and il needed law es-
tabhshing rule of testimony in pension
cases, whereby the oath vs q private soldier
would receive as much credence as that OF
an officer. The pension system must con-
tinue until the last soldier who served the
country in the war was dead and gathered to
his fathers [Applausel