Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-09-18
COMPARATIVE PENSIONS.

| New YORK Press
The opponents of liberal pensions fol
needy veterans are fond of repeating
that already the United States has dealt
more generously with the survivors of
the Union armies than any other nation
military pensioners. This is true, but it
is no argument. 1t is the duty and
pride of our country to excel all others
in this respect.
| No other nation is so well able to be
generous in the matter of pensions.
This is to-day the richest nation in
ChriStendom. That is to say, the aggre-
gate wealth of its people is the greatest,
and If our average wealth per capita be
still somewhat less than that of Great
Britain, we are fast catching up with
and will very soon pass, our only rival
The United States, alone of all the great
burdensome. Uncle Sam is ready and
eager to pay faster than his creditors are
willing to receive. All our national ex-
penses are more than met by financial
system that directly taxes no citizen,
and whose indirect effect is, while in
creasing only the cost of luxuries, to
protect and promote the industries of
the people. Alone of all nations ours
has been for many years facing the
question, not how to raise more money
for the Treasury, but how to raise less.
Wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't
seek part of the needed relief from a
"surplus" in relieving more abundantIy
than other countries do, or perhaps can,
the wants of those to whom we are, in
no small measure, indebted for this mar
velous prosperity?
No other nation whose veteran sol
diers are alive now, has received from
them such inestimable service as Amer
lea has received from her veterans. We
challenge contradiction. Who will name
a war except that of the shareholders
rebellion, waged in this generation or
the one before, anywhere on this planet, |
that resulted in saving country from
dissolution and destruction? When |
other questions are being discussed no |
body disputes that the recognition of
services rendered ought to bear some |
proportion to the value of those services.
As rule the pensioners of other ma
tions did not incur so much peril as
was incurred by the brave men whom
this Republic delights to honor. 1t is
one thing to be soldier of a standing
army which is always ready to fight, but
may never smell powder except what it
burns in target practice and salutes. 1t
is another thing to go to war when the
new recruit of June is liable to be the
seasoned soldier of August. The men
of 1876 did not enlist to help consti-
tute an army, but to help conquer re-
bellion. Who says that the peril of life
and limb which every "boy in blue"
took upon himself ought not to be reck-
Oned now as factor in determining not
what the veterans claims, but what his
rich, generous and delivered country will
gladly bestOw2
Our veterans were, for the most part,
Think what that means!
They went into the war from of love
from sense of duty. Bear in
mind that we are not discussing matters
Of bargaining, of so many ducats nom
mated in bond for so many pounds of
flesh. The question is one of gratitude,
Of honor. 1t is nothing to the purpose
that the services by which the country
was saved were spontaneous, ungrudg-
ing, the result of inward and not out
ward compulsion. 1t is true that no
other nation grants snch pensions as
America. 1t is also true that no other
has had such a volunteer army.