The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-26
A SOLDIERS POLITICAL PARTY.


| Under the constitution of the 6. A. Z.
| that body cannot act as a political unit;
| partisan political discussion or action is
| prohibited, but this new soldiers party
| proposes to behave like the third party
| Prohibitionists and strive TO coerce the
| great political parties into bidding for
| their support 1t is foolish attempt and
| it will fail.
The revised estimates OF the pension
| appropriations necessary for the next fiscal
| year places the amount 1T not far from
| S1f5. 600 900. This seems 2 great sum of
money, for it is about equal to the annual
cost of the great standing army OF
France and third greater than that of
Germany. When cast in a conservative
form that does not open the door to the
fraudulent and unworthy claimant, there
can be 10 valid objection to the generous
pension legislation that has placed this
great burden upon the shoulders of g
grateful people.
The most vicious scheme of unjust PEN
sion legislation ever enacted by congress,
known as the equalization of bounties bill,
was vetoed by President Grant in 1875.
Grant said that because some men on en-
listing received more than others was no
good reason why the government ten years
after the war should exceed it's contract
with those who accepted what it offered
them at the time of enlistment. In
Grants judgment ''to put vast sums into
the pockets of claim agents for the pur-
pose of securing some remote and doubt
full advantage to principals who are as
body content with the wages they have re-
ceived, is q measure of injustice, and not
of Justice"
The nation claimed the services of her
citizens as a matter of right and duty. not
as a matter of favor. The government
had right to draft from the opening day
of the war without paying a cent for
bounties. That 1t did not exact its right,
but consented to offer bounties gave the
veteran no moral claim upon bounties of
any particular amount. The government
in offering bounties VS. governed by the
law of supply and demand, and was
obliged to pay more in 1864 than in 1862.
The logic pleaded for the equalization of
bounties would apply to all payments
made by the government during the war;
it is still pleaded by those cranks who in
sist that the government ought to make
good to the soldier the difference between
his pay received in deprecated greenbacks
and the gold dollar.
The common sense OF the matter is that
the Union army in one sense can never
he paid for its priceless service, but in
another sense it has received, and is today
receiving all the government contracted
to give, and far more than any other gov
eminent ever did for its soldiers. There
is solid argument for the additional dis
Greet and judicious pension legislation
that has been enacted by congress since
Grant in 1875 vetoed the equalization of
bounties bill. Broadly stated, the best
argument for our just and generous PEN
sion legislation is that it is sound policy for
the nation to treat literally the volunteers
who took up arms in defense of the flag. 1t
| is true that the citizen who became SOL
dier only voluntarily rendered service
that the nation could have exacted of him,
but since in public as well as private af-
fairs the mass of mankind is disposed to
dodge or desert the place Of duty. the vol
unteers, who by their cheerful enlistment
saved the government the necessity of
putting in motion the disagreeable, ex-
pensive and unpopular machinery of the
draft, were justly entitled to marks of
substantial gratitude and favor, for the
government TINA Saru rod in ha
thirty months of war a class of splendid
soldiers that could not possibly have been
obtained under the draft, which allowed
the furnishing of substitutes. One ardent
high-souled man who offers his SER
vices gladly to his government because
his heart is in the cause is worth dozen
drafted men or substitutes. In the one
case you get man of soldierly, patriotic
| soul, while in the other at best you only
get an unwilling recruit or a cold-hearted,
mercenary hireling. The million of men
the government secured by volunteering
between April Is, 1861, and July, 1868,
were in far-reaching sense worth more
than all it obtained subsequently, for
| these volunteers formed the soul and fer
u,
| to the close of the war.
While the government could have ex-
| acted the performance of military service
| in the start the volunteer system during
| the first two years promptly secured for
us the flower of the land as the bedrock of
the great armies OF the Union. They always
| remained the soul and spirit of our armies,
no matter what changes battle and dis
ease made in its body. The result of our
draft, with its privilege of furnish
ing substitutes or paying commu-
tation money, was 50 compar-
! atively barren that in war of
less intense national feeling our military
arm would have fallen for lack of support.
The million We obtained without the draft
saved Us, hut suppose the war had been
as unpopular as vas that of 1Sl2-l4, on =
supply of volunteers would have been
small and our unpopular draft system
would have yielded us few men and would
have excited public disorder.
The only sound system OF draft is that
Of Germany, where theresare practically
no exemptions; no furnishing of substi-
tutes or escape by payment Of commuta-
| ton money. 1t might be difficult to make
the people of the United States consent TO
general levy like that Of Germany in
event OF war, 50 that We are likely in our
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