The National tribune., 1893-06-01
PENSION N-HATERS.
Some Views Expressed by Comrades
in All Parts of the Country.

II,
is being published in the soldier hating press.
that there are more men now on the pension
roll than there were enlistmeutS during the
entire on the Union side. something
must be wrong. However. / don't believe one
word of such statements; but if by such state
ments--" lies" is the proper teTm-they can DO
Us harm, they will bo content. My remedy IS
this: "a ye are such undeserviug creatures now,
since everything is lovely and the goose hangs
high, and we have saved the country from dis
solution. and charge on the country we
saved to submit to a vote of the people whether
war shall bs declared Ly the United States
against other Nations; for surely We will have
no more civil wars, if majority OF the people,
men, women. and children of ~ years OF age,
express by ballot their sanction. BY such
declaration war only may be declared, and IN
no other manner If such declaration of war
! is made then the mass of the people OF the
United States must wage war; bnt let there be
no substitutes, except those exempt by reason
of disabilities o Lord wonldn'5 the ubsti-
tutes or rather those who favor that style Of
fighting by proxy, have ills2 Oh, yes the list
would soon OutHumber the present pension list
two to one. The very chaps who sit IN the
editorial sanctnB firing rebel inuendoes. lies,
sarcasm, etc, would want to be on the
sick list. No more with such LES publish the
pension liss. but when that is done pnbiish the
company and regiment. and the length OF serv-
| ice Of oach one, the wound injury or disease
opposite each name. 1t Will convince the peo-
pie we are not a horde OF buns"
ID. T. Banner, cambridge, n. Y, says: 81
wish that could howl, and would howl about
something besides pensions. would dare TO
say that all the howlers that are doing SO much
bowling about pensions are those that staid at
home and hOwlei all through the war, or they
| do not know any thing about war. Or course
we cannot expect anything from the South but
howiing about pensions but when you hear
| Northerner bowling. you can put him down as
a Southern sympathizer, OF they are lot of
| stingy sneaks. / do not hear any honest per-
son at the North deDreciating what the soldiers
| did for them, but it is those that have got
! plenty of this worlds goods, but little OF the
! other. If they should go to heaven and see
| pensioner there they would want his name
| taken off the rolls for fear he had gotten in
| there dishonesty. But why don't some howier
| howl about the howlers at Washingtou-thoSe
| that arc afraid that this pension business is
| going to ruin this country of ours that we SOL
| diers saved from the clutches of the rebels?
| We have howier5 in Congress who get tegether
! and howl awhile, then move TO adjourn. VINO,
| | would ask, is sqnandering the public money,
| the pensioner getting 81 or more a month, or
the hswer that is getting from 5000 a year or
more and spend half their time h0wiing as If
I they are afraid this country is to be ruined2
| Why don't they cut down their salaries? L
| think they can stand It,"
| Wm J. Smith 5lst N Y, Gilbertsville. n. Y,
says: ain the Utica Globe of April read the
following:
| "'Ther conquest OF France in Germany was q
| dear bargain for Germany, after al. The
! 81 900 009 600 indemnity was mainly spent on
| fortresses and since tho war Germany has
| spent Sc, ,060 600 600 on her army alone Ii the
! loss of the labor of 100000 men, perpetually
| withdrawn from industries and kept locked up
| in barracks is calculated some faint conception
80 81 af
| I'm reading tho above. one would wonder
| what the pensiau-hating fraternity could see
| in growing about paying pensions to the
| MANNED and destitute men who saved the
| Union from the hands OF the traitors who
would have destroyed it? And do yeu snppOse
| that the vets will ever cost the Government
| as much Germany has expended on her
armies2 It will take many years, I think, to
| do So"
| An ex cavalryman, of Rockland, Mass,
! writes: II notice in some of the papers that
| ex-Seeretary Fairchild, within a few days.
made his first visit to Richmond, and Joined
| hands with his political friends over the bloody
| ditch in celebration Of their victory gained at
| the last Presidential election. But the report
| fails to state just how and how much this ex-
| Secretary celebrated but it says that he made
a speech in denunciatOn of the pension-list
and of the pensioners of the late war. This
| speech in theScity of Richmond was very much
|
! the world, and most certainly the last place IN
| the United States, to talk of a.curtsilnIent OF
| the penson-list. This ex-Secretary stands up
| in sight of that cemetery wherein lie the
| moldering bones of the thousands who died
| from the inhuman treatment received upon
Belle Isle and in Libby Prison. There, in
| State whose rivers and streams as they Howed
| to the sea eommngled their waters with the
| life-bloed of the Nations defenders; there, in
| State whose valleys. whose plains and hillsmes
| have echoed with the grOans of the dying de-
| Tenders of the honor and life of tho Nation !;
| there, in q city whose name and ASSOCIATIONS
| must have reminded him of the work done
during that four years reign of treason, and
| with the pages of the history of that fearful
| war fguratively opened up before him, this
| ex-Secretary stands up and tells the people of
| Richmond that the pensions paid to the sur
vivors of and the widows made by the war Is
| too large and must be curtaied- lie gives
them to understand that the pages of all his
/ tory are now reversed, and that 1t Is for the
/ conquered to say what they shall pay the con-
| uuerors. This speech of this eX-Seeretary IN
| that city was sacrilege to the memory of the
| dead and an insult to the living survivors Of
thew war. Did this ex-Secretary, while standing
| there and making that speech. realize the fact
| thai it was the very men whom he denounced
| who made it possible for him to stand there. IN
| the city of Richmond, and address that city,
| not as foreigners, but as fellow eitlzens-t0
| stand there. not in a foreign State, not beyond
| "a division line, but in the United States OF
| America and under the protecting folds of the
| National flag?
| Robert OLink Fourteenth Corps, Menssha,
| Wis, writes: There has been good deal said
| and written of late in regard to reducing the
| pension payments of the Government.
| mo one seems to have any very definite plan.
| so / will propose one, which seems to me would
/ do the business and do it completely. would
suggest that during the four years of the conf
| ing Administration the whole roll be sus-
| penled-that no payments at all be made
| would also suggest that payments to officers
| and soldiers on the Retired List of the Army
| be also suspended for the same period. This
| would be great saving to the Government,
! and would make it possible to accumulate
! surplus in the Treasury, or If that was not
desirable land some object TO that sort OF thlngl
| then to pay the many Southern war. claims now
| on file at Washington. Then, at the end Of
| the four years, renew pension payments. 1t
| would be found that the roll would be smaller
| Oh. very much smaller! The $72 per month
( fellows would all be gone; they would not show
| up after so long a vacation And / verify be-
| lieve that no more actual Injustice would be
| done by this than to repeal the act of 1890
/ For the men who get pensions under this act
| are in most cases just as much entitled TO
! pensions as those on the roll under the old law
| only they are unable to prove their eases under
| the old law. Their disability to large extent
| was contracted in the service. rs indirectly
| a result of such service. Only such law, or