The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-11-13
THE MINIMUM OF ss A MONTH


Several comrades have exprest doubts
that the minimum of IS month in THE
NATIONAL TRIBUNE Service Pension Bill
might be too high, since it made no dis
elimination between the men who served
only 30 days and those who served four or
five times rs long, Up TO 500 days The
most OF those raising this objection were
original advocates Of the per diem plan, pure
and simple, and believe in applying that
rigidly to all service pensions, making them
conform to a cent 10 the number Of days
which elapsed between mastering in and
mastering out.
We have hereto ore pointed out that this
would work q 4 injustice. While, as "a
rule those who per sed longest did the most
effective service, this was not invariably the
case Stanuard's and Yeazey's nine months
Yermonters, for example, had it in their
power TO do more effective service at Get
tysburg than fell 10 the lot of very many
regiments which put in fail three years at
the front. They night have served so years
without having such chance, and If they
had it, they might not have had such Off
Gers as Stannard and Veazey, who could see
the opportunity and improve it TO the ut
most Yet, under the strict per diem rule,
those men would get no more than $27Q
month, an amount which il would be in
sulting to offer them.
The three months men, who responded
at the ilrst call Of tie President, who saved
Washington, redeemed West Virginia, fought
desperately at Bull Run, saved Cairo from
capture, turned Missouri from Secession TO
a Union State, and fought with unsurpassed
courage at Wilson's Creek, would get but
80 cents per month under the per diem rule.
Then there are the special objects Of the
soldier-haters' shafts-the one-year men
who came out in Lbe Spring o. 1864. II
/ required unusual courage and patriotism TO
1 take a man into the army in 1864. All
/ ideas Of military picnics and pleasant duty
! had been brushed away by the bloody hand
! Of desperate war by that time. Shiloh,
/ Yickaburg, Stone River, The Peninsula
/ AntieiaIn, fredericksburg Charlottesville,
Gettysburg, Chickamauga aud Mission
Ridge left no doubt III the minds oil the
recruits as TO what they had 10 expect. Aud
the expectation was below the awful reality.
Within a month after the frsi com pany was
sworn ~, many Of those one-year regiments
were being moved down Ia the merciless
harvest Of death, in the Wilderness, and
before The Summer which followed the
Spring Of their enlistment was over, fully
two-thiIds Of those who had signed the en-
listmentpapers were either lying cold and
star, IN Virginia soil or were in hospital
suffering from desperate Wounds. No better
lighting Was done during the war, nor
heavier leases suffered than by those same
one-year's men. Yet, under the strict per
Gieln plan, none Of them would get more
than 500 per month
The Government has heretolOrc4nade the
minimum service pension 50 month. 1t
has given this 10 survivors Of previous wars
foT y-slly less service than the average three
mon las man rendered during the war of the
rebellion. any man VINO during the Reyo-
luton, was called out 10 resist foray of the
British OF Indians, 70 guard stores or prison
az, WIS given pension Of - a month, and
taen mat amount counted Gor nearly twice
as much az it does now. AS late is 1890 the