The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-07-21
THE ENCAMpMENT APPROPRIATIONS.

THE ENCAMPMENT APPROPRIATIONS.
The prolonged deadlock between the SEN
ate and the House of Representatives over
the appropriation to aid the National En-
campment of the Grand Army of the Re-
public has at last been broken by the passage
of a bill appropriating $4,000, all of which
is to come from the funds of the District of
Columbia. The Senate stood out strongly
for an appropriation of 100000 one-halfof
which was to be taken from the District
funds, and one-half be paid by the Govern
ment. The House was as decided to give
no more than $4,000 all to be paid by the
District taxpayers. After series Of stub
born disagreements the compromise
above stated was reached.
The action of the House is wretched in
justice to the taxpayers of the District. It
makes the largest property holder in the
District-the Government-shirk it's share
of legitimate public burden, just as it
shirks its proper proportion of many other
public burdens, and makes the people of
Washington pay dearly for the privilege of
living under the paternal care Of the Capt.
tai.
1t is an insult to the veteran ex-volun-
teers of the country, who certainly had
earned the right to some show of hospitality
by the Government, when they gathered in
the National Capital which they had de-
Tended so CALAMITY, and at enormous per-
sonal cost In the most ins0lent way posi-
BILE, the House Of Representatives has de-
clared that the Government shall do nothing
whatever towards the entertainment of it's
ex-soldiers, but must ignore their presence in
the Capital. Thirty-one years ago there was
frenzied appeal for the young men of the
Nation to rally on the endangered seat of
poured outof the Treasury to provide for their
reception and maintenance. Never were
young men who filled every road leading
from the North to Washington. Then there
could not be too many of them-$100,00O
from the Treasury for providing for them
would have been thought bagateIle not
worthy of five minutes consideration by the
House-ths appropriations went by tens of
millions Now, when they want to revisit the
National City FROM which hundreds of thou
sands of their comrades went forth to die
upon the battlefetds in its immediate front,
the churlish House not only refuses dollar
from the National Treasury, but tries to
prevent the Taxpayers of the District of
Columbia from spending their own money
to do what the Nation should do. 1t is a
humiliating spectacle, and one for which
every American has much reason to blush.
But despite the dog in he-manger House,
the National Eneampment will be grand
success. The veterans and their wives and
children are coming,by the hundred thou
sand to have glorious time, and they are
going to have it. The citizens of Washing
| ton will give them magnificent welcome
and entertainment. They have shown this
by the generosity with which they have
provided money. The subscriptions are
now over $4,000, and will be increased to
$4,000, probably 100000. This with the
| $4,000 taken from the District funds, will
make sum equal to the enormous demands
upon it of such monster gathering, and
the 26th National Encampment will pass
! into history as the greatest and most enjoy
able gathering of the old soldiers and sailors
| in the annals Of the Nation.