Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-11-26
Pension Frauds.

feHSlOn Erduus.
Pensions to soldiers who we're disabled
in the service should be even larger than
they are now.
The men who lost limb, who carry gup-
shot wounds which render it impossible or
difficult to earn a fair living, who con-
tracted disease while in the service, should
receive from the government enough to
keep the wolf from the door az long as they
live.
Our gifts should be generous and un-
grudging. We can afford to pay the brave
boys well; we cannot afford to be mean or
niggardly.
Per contra, the men who came out of the
war unscathed, who have as good chance
to earn livelihood as they had before the
war, who have been successful IN business
or who enjoy stated income, have no
financial claim on the country.
They fought for themselves. their families
and their children; for the institutions
under which they were horn; for form of
advantages in the struggle Of life, and
which, therefore, had right to command
their courage when it was in peril.
These are broad lines of distinction and
they should be drawn Dy every patriotic
citizen.
These lines would have been drawn and
these distinctions would have been ad-
hered to had not the republican bosses
manipulated the soldier vote to obtain Of
fee, patronage and perquisites.
This party boasts that it alone con-
Quoted the war to safe issue. Without
disputing the truth of the INSTRUMENTATION
could easily be done-it is undeniable that
after it fought to save the Union it sacri-
feed the best interests of the Union in the
frantic effort to save itself.
1t has attempted to control the whole
body of veterans by an annual payment of
pensions unparalleled in the history of the
world. By system of subtle bribery,
under the sanction of law, in the disguise
of national gratitude, it has appealed to
the natural evarice of human nature and
done what it could to change the noblest
army that ever faced fee into multitude
of mercenaries.
Its leaders are perfectly aware that their
chief hope for the future rests on the an
nual distribution of millions of the public
money. Let them cease to do this for a
single session of Congress and the party
would disintegrate as completely as rope
of sand. Willing to break the nations
peck rather than lose their grip on power,
bribery fund that ever corrupted the politi.
cal life of nation.
Look at some startling facts.
The entire War Department and the main
tenance of our army during the last fiscal
year cost Us forty four millions. The
Navy Department, including the building
of new ships, cost US twenty-five millions.
The interest on the public debt was thirty
six millions. The grand total for these
three important items was one hundred
and two millions.
We spent in pensions during the same
time one hundred and nine millions, OF
more than one. third of the entire expense OF
our government.
AS the Herald has shown, the loose sys-
TEN of pepsion-giving which the republi
cans have adopted is bringing US face to
face with serious and impressive financial
problem.
1t will soon be necessary to lay new and
unheard Of taxes on the people in order to
meet the reckless demands. The Mckinley
bill is merely the shadow of that solid sub
stance of oppression which is in the near
future. That bill forces us to pay tax On
the window glass through which the sun
shines, on the drugs prescribed by the
physician for our sick and on the very cof-
fins in which our dead are buried. But
when this pension legislation has reached
its climax, taxation will run riot, and, OF
course, fall with its heaviest weight on the
wage Garner.
The time has come to call halt.
Pension attorneys are as thick as lilies
around a drop of honey. They not only
get pension for every bounty jumper and
deserter, thereby pocketing fat fee for
themselves, but they send circulars to the
million men who served in the army beg
ging them to discover some physical dis
ability which calls for a pension increase,
thereby pocketing another fat fee for them
selves.
False affidavits of imaginary complaints,
or of complaints which in no way resulted
from the service, are concOcted, and on
these pensions are obtained.
The law governing such matters is set
aside, and every plot which cunning and
deviltry can devise to cheat the Treasury Is
resorted TO. As a consequence there are
tens of thousands of names on the pension
list which have no legal right to be there.
There is perfect carnival Of humbuggery
on this subject, and unless public opinion
is aroused it will assume still more stu
pendous proportions.
The only safe rule to follow is this-to
the permanently disabled, enough to keep
them from want, plus a nations gratitude
to the able-b bodied, all possible honor; to
bummers and deserters, no pension, nc
recognition, only the disgrace which they
brought On themselves by their cowardice
and infamy.
AS to the republicans, who have betrayed
the principles on which they began life and
appropriated these vast sums as a bribery
fund, the people will deal with them at its
conyenieuce.-N. Y Herold.