The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-08-23
PREPARING TO ATTACK THE PENSION
SYSTEM


Democratic party is preparing to make
war on the pension system. Its profess
sions of friendship for the soldiers have
always been hypocritical and for polit-
ical reasons only. AS party it never
sympathized with the cause for which
the Union soldiers fought, and it is alb
surd to suppose that it ever had any real
sympathy for the soldiers themselves.
1t il not in human nature to have any
genuine sympathy with the promoters
of cause which We do not approve.
Democratic professions of sympathy for
Union soldiers are as plainly hypOcrit-
ical as would be like professions from
the Republican party of sympathy with
confederate soldiers.
During the war the Democratic party
had no sympathy with the Union cause
or with those who upheld it. TheKe
were many loyal Democrats during the
war, and not few of them entered the
Union army, but they were out of line
with their party at the time. In this
and some other States the Democratic
party. as an organization, was out
spoken in its hostility to the war and
those engaged in it. The only class of
soldiers they had any real sympathy for
was deserters. They did all they could
to prevent enlistments, whereby the
soldiers at the front might be aided.
and were bitterly opposed to the draft.
1t is needless to say they had no SYM
pathy with Union soldiers at that time.
The attitude of the Democratic party
towards Union soldiers since the war
has been one of compulsory recognition.
1t has recognized them only SO far as 1t
had to and as matter of political policy.
Once it nominated a soldier for Presi-
dent, Hancock, and he was badly
beaten. In many of the States, North
as we'll as South, he did not receive
nearly as many votes as Tilden received
four years before. But when they nom-
mated Grover Cleveland, who kept out
of the army and sent a substitute, he
was elected. His Cabinet contained but
one Union soldier, Villas, and he served
only one year, resigning in 1868 to
resume the practice of law. His Sec
rotary of the Interior, Lamar, served in
the confederate army. and his Attorney
general, Garland, in the confederate
Congress. His Secretary of State, Bay
ard. was peace man during the war,
and his Secretary of War, En- dicott, was
o Massachusetts, copperhead. Harri-
sons Cabinet, as now organized, con-
tains FIVE Union soldiers besides him
self. Secretaries Foster of the State
Department, Elkins of the War. Tracy
of the Navy, Noble of the Interior, and
Rusk of Agriculture all served in the
Union army and were good soldiers. 1t
is soldier Cabinet. headed by soldier
President. The same distinction pre-
walls throughout the entire civil service.
Mr.. Cleveland's administration being
remarkable for the scarcity of Union
soldiers appointed to Office, and the
present administration being remark
able for the number of such appoint
ments.
Evidence might be multiplied to al
most any extent to prove that the. SYM
pathies of. the Democratic party as
political organization have always been
against Union soldiers on account of the
cause they represented. The numerous
professions of sympathy which the party
has made in recent years have sprung
from political motives. 1t has been
willing to stultify itself and play the
hypocrite in order to try and obtain a
share of the soldier vote. Having failed
to obtain more than q small proportion
of this vote, it is beginning to allow it's
real hostility to Union soldiers to crop
out, and is getting ready to make war
on the pension system.
The first step in this programme was
the attack on Commissioner of Pensions
Raum. Representative Cooper, of this
State, was put forward as the leader of
this attack because he had personal
animus and could be relied on to make
the attack as vicious and malignant as
possible. The Southern brigadiers who
stood behind Cooper and backed him up
at every point knew what they were
about. They knew that the objective
point of the attack was not Raum, but
the pension system. They hoped by
smirching him and bringing his admin
istration of the office into disrepute to
bring the system'into popular disfavor.
Failing on this line, they have de-
cided on another. A House committee
is now at work preparing a new code of
pension laws, which will throw ouch re-
strictions around the granting of pen
sions and apply such rigid rules to pen
sion claims as to make it almost impos-
sible for rightful claimants to secure
pensions. This measure will be re-
ported at the next session, and will be
pressed on the score of economy and
the necessity of greatly reducing the
cost of pensions. Its adoption will be
further urged on the ground that large
proportion of the present pensions are
unjust. The st. Louis Republic voices
the Democratic idea when it asserts
that half the pensioners now on the rolls
"are there to represent the steady
growth of the communistic idea in
America 1t defines this idea as 1.-The
instinct of getting something for moth
ing" This, along with the necessity