The Press., 1890-07-24

alone some battle scared ana honOraDlo Vet-
 eran, not alone. e..somesbravei.an maimed sur
 vivor of an heroic charge, that not alone the
 widow and orphan swhom death on the field
 or in the hospital has left bereft and penni-
 less-but every skulking camp follower and
 deserter, every fraudulent and tainted claim
 ent who has the effrontery to demand his
 bribe, can have it, if only his vote shall thus
 become commodity within the control of
 partisan dictation, and he himself lackey to
 his political masters bidding.
 have nothing to say of those who have de-
 vised this infamy and baptized it with the
 name of civic gratitude; but for the manhood
 which it is destined to corrupt and degrade no honorable men can feel, think, any other
 than the most profound sympathy and sorrow. This is surely system of government that deliberately conspires to degrade men, and no
 delicacy ought to consent to excuse or con-
 done it."
 that under any of our legislation "every
 skulking camp follower and deserter, who
 has the effrontery to demand his bribe, can
 have it, if only his vote shall thus become
 a commodity within the control of partisan dictation." That is not true. It is loose
 and abusive and slanderous and mischiev- ous to make such a statement as that. I
 suppose the good bishop was thinking of the bill to give the arrears of pensions,
 among other things, to soldiers, which the
 senate very properly defeated. For @
 short time after the war those petitions were easily dated back to the time of the
 alleged injury or disability. Afterward
 they dated the relief at the time they be- gan the relief, at the date of the petition,
 because that was the first time the soldier
 thought he needed it enough to ask for it. Now, it has been with show of logIc ask oA v mo thaf ho 1iroifo ) tion, that all mt n who ever got pension, ) should date back to some time in the war
 and get back money. That bill would call for the payment of nearly five hundred : millions of dollars. Whereas, the theory of pension is, that it gives relief today ] to those who are not suffering; and it was : said that they would give large sums of : back money to those already receiving re. l lief, while there were thousands waiting who really needed it. So the senate voted r down the arrears act by 45 to 9. sup ! pose the bishop was thinking of bill to pension every man who was pensioner of } war. Many of them were in but short } time, and those who can show any suffer- : ing now get pension but that bill would ] have pensioned large body of men who , needed nothing, while others were suffer- t ing Another class think it right to de- f clare pension payable to each man who 3 had been in the service for thirty or ninety l. days, rich or poor, sick or we'll, wanting 1t g or not wanting it.. And that bill was 2 knocked out. Now, this congress that the 8 good bishop talks about being ready to
 give pension to every skulking camp fol t lower and deserter, has thought of the - poor taxpayer as we'll as of poor soldier :; 9 has desired to see no worthy widow, or g soldier, or orphan, suffering; and, desir- : ing to see no honorable soldier going to ] the almshouse, it has evolved conference ' bill, which has passed-as the good bishop - might have known before he delivered his 2 address; and that bill does not pension j. every skulking camp follower, and hope f the Independent will publish the bill in . full as it passed. It says in the first sec. t tion:
 t 'sThat in considering the pension claims of l dependent parents under the provisions of this
 act the fact of the death of the soldier or sail # or, and the fact that he left no widow or mi 1 nor child or children, having been shown as D required by law, it shall be necessary only to
 show by competent and sufficient evidence that such parent or parents are without other z means of support than their own labor or the . . contributions of others not legally bound for Q their support"
 Those who had sons in the war are now
 well on in years. There are cases, as ' everybody knows, where they are very ,, poor, dependent on manual labor, and a they cannot work. As the law now stands, in order to ask for pension they must i show that their son had been giving them ', something. That was all we'll enough.
 But how about a case where this able bodied and brave young fellow of eighteen 2 or twenty one years of age had never been 7 under the necessity of going out and work , ing and bringing his dollar home to his old Y father?
 s Shall not that old couple have something :, whether that boy ever had contributed to :, their support or not? You may say that Q that is liberal I don't care. I fought ,s against many of these extreme schemes, ,t but cannot say that that is not fair and
 just, and I cannot see why, if an old sol. dier is to go upon the town, the United States government should not help him ,l rather than necessarily the town.
 3. Now, the next section of the bill is prac. B. tically what have just been saying y "That all persons who served three months d or more in the military or naval service of It the United States during the late war of the e rebellion, and who have been honorably dis }, charged therefrom, and who are now or who l. may hereafter be suffering from mental or , physical disability, not the result of their d own vicious habits, which incapacitates them ,r from the performance of labor in such de- = gree as to render them unable to earn sup 's bort, and who are dependent upon their daily U labor or on the contributions of others not 'e legally bound thereto. for their support, |, shall, upon making due proof of the fact ac. ot cording to such rules and regulations as the $ secretary of the interior may provide, be g placed upon the list of invalid pensioners of It the United States and be entitled to receive ,e twelve dollars per month, and such pension Il shall commence from the date of the filling ot h the application in the pension office, after the Ie passage of this act upon proof that the disa e bility then existed, and shall continue during . the existence of the same."
 Ie It is more rigid than your own existing t. laws in the state of Connecticut in regard le to pauperism, because you must take care ot of the human being, whether his disability it be the result of his own vice or not. You g had him and you must not let him die ir a. the street. And yet this is the law they
 say is helping ''every skulking camp fol 10 lower and deseitsr.'
 The next section of the law says: 10 ''That if any officer or enlisted man who s served three months or more in the army ol n navy of the United States during the late wal in of the rebellion, and who was honorably dis Tt charged has died, or shall hereafter die, leav G. ing widow, minor child or children under
 I-s--