The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-21
PENSION

PENSION SCANDALS.
In a highly suggestive letter to the
st. Louis Republic, one of that news
papers correspondents lays bare some
of the most glaring evils Of the indis-
criminate pension policy of the repub-
lican party. 1t is true that only a part
OF his missionary labor is deliberately in
territorial. The rest Of it, however, can
not we'll escape the observation Of
thoughtful citizens. OF the mote in his
neighbours eye the writer has a most
vivid perception; to the beam in his
own eye he is very h%umanely blind.
That some objections to a broadcast
pension system may be based on good,
wholesome doctrine, he is prepared to
admit. Indeed, his own experience has
led him to that conclusion without pos
slbility of doubt. His sense of manli-
ness and independence is outraged, when
he tells of a comrade who on a pension
has plotted out the value OF his patriotic
services by settling down to a life of
absolute idleness. For a man who, in
full possession of his physical and
mental faculties, can stoop to accept ma
tional charity, he feels the most intense
disgust. Some barrier should be erected
in the way Of such a possibility. II any
party for the sake of political aggrand-
izement is willing to rob the national
purse, the nation itself should draw the
strings tight. Every applicant for a
pension should be obliged to prove a
good moral character, or at least to sat
isfy a commission that he has not been
a murderer, a thief or an idler. There,
certainly, the correspondent would draw
the line of demarcation.
His verbal assault on his former com
rade is we'll deserved. 1t ought to be
intolerable that any citizen Of this coun-
try should look upon its government in
the light of a successful tyrant employ
ing ~mercenaries in wal against his enc
mics. 1t ought to be impossible for any
citizen Of this country to benefit by such
an idea and retain the respect of his
neighbors. But this miserable condi-
ton of things has been sedulously fos-
tered by a great national party for the
sake of voting strength. TO secure it's
own ends, it has scattered the hard
earned money of citizens to the four
winds, and sees it's reward in the exist
once of a powerful electoral machine.
Military service in itself in a free coun-
try such as ours should confer no title
to a life of dishonorable ease.
The Republics correspondent has
shown himself ready enough to throw
the first stone. But his communication
supplies a very effective boomerang for
his " destruction. He admits that
he is an expert m~echanician, and adds
that he, too, is in receipt of a pension.
No n will think Of chasing him with
his "idler" comrade. He has not for
gotten what is due to the dignity of la
Dor, and he has not been contentsd to
throw away all ambitions for future ad-
vancement and settle down to the weary
grind of the pension mill. But he can
scarcely imagine his own behavior en-
tirely free from fault. An expert
mechanician ought to be able to supply
q living, not only for himself, but for
those that are connected with him. He
advances no plea Of invalidism, and it
may fairly be presumed that the war
left HIM in good health, able to earn his
own livelihood. Can he be aware that
the pension he is drawing comes from
the taxpayers who, many of them, have
actually a harder struggle to make both
ends meet than an expert m%echanician
can ever be supposed to know anything
of?
There are pensions and pensions. For
the men whose health or earning capac-
ity was injured in the war, this country
cannot do too much. Their scars and
their losses are patents to national graf
itude. 10 the widows and the orphans
of u soldiers, no one will ever refuse
to stretch the kindly hand of national
assistance, generous assistance. Their
plea is not a claim; it is a solemn right
and it's fulfllment ought to be a priv
lege. But the nobility and manhood of
the country is degraded and %debauched,
when elders" and expert" workers eat
the bread of national pau perism.
THU w A U To rny