The National tribune., 1893-09-07
BONDHOLDER AND SOLDIER.
The Chicago Times says editorially:

|
l
BONDHOLDER AND SOLDIER.
The Chicago Times says editorially:
The bondholder who furnished money to carry
on the war got for himself than was
| nominated in the bond. and surely the United
States owes nothing to enlisted men in the way Of
| their continued maintenance for generation after
their discharge unless those men did something
more than enroll their names in the military serv-
| ice, take military pay. and, after three-months'
service in which they never left the State wherein
they were mustered, quit the service.
The Times begs the question from the start.
Did not the bondholder get more? There
was very strong difference of opinion
among the people of the United States as to
| how the bondhoder should be paid. If our
memory does not serve us falsely, the Times
was leader among that large portion Of
the press which insisted vociferously that
| the bondholders should be paid in the same
money that they Undergraduates. This
would have given them much more than
| they lent, because the greenbacks they
loaned were deprecated all the way down
to 80 cents on the dollar, while those in
| which it was proposed to pay them were
worth double that, and steadily rising in
value
The Government took, and we think very
properly, a high view of It's duty to those
that lent it money in time of need. 1t held
that it could not lake any sharp advan-
tage of them, though they had driven a
card bargain with it. 1t decided to pay
them to the uttermost of their claims in as
good money as there was in the world, and
gave them principal and interest in gold, and
though the entire gold value of the lendings
of the bondholders to the Government was
only about 81 SOC, 100000, it has paid them
back in principal and interest over $1,000
100000, or about three times as much as
they originally lent it.
Contrast this with the way it treated the
soldiers who went to its assistance in its
hour of need. Every man who enlisted
made strong pecuniary sacrifice IN doing
so. If he was at all fit TO be soldier he
could make a great deal more money at
home than he would receive in the army.
The wages for even the commonest labor
were much higher than soldiers.
We have before shown that, taking every
thing furnished by the Government to its
soldiers at its highest value, the soldier who
served three years received on an average
$4,000 less than he would have made at
home in civil pursuits. This would show
that the 100000 men who served an aver
age of three years actually made present
to the Government of about $4,000, 100000
for the privilege of serving it. That
is, they really gave the Government
out of their scanty means-about twice
az much as the bondholders lent it.
Yet the bondholders' assistance to the
Government has been rewarded by a
payment of four billion, four hum
dred and fOrty-six million,
thirty one thousand, seven
hundred and forty-fwO dollars
and fifiy-eight cents mp to June 30,
1893, and including the fiscal year 1861,
while the men who did the fighting have
received only about one and one-1salf
billion dollars in the shape of pen
sions.
The Times talks the most absurd rot about
the number of men who "served three
months and never left the State" There
were very few Of these anywhere, and well
acquainted as we are with the history of
the war, we cannot now recall single regi-
ment, except, perhaps, some of those Illinois
were hurried to Cairo to defend that i'm
portant point against seizure by the rebels.
Illinois it was very near the front, and
great deal of danger existed that it would
be attacked by heavy forces from Kentucky,
Tennessee and Missouri. Nearly all the
men in those three months regiments re-
enlisted at once for three years, and the re-
organized regiments made very brilliant
pages of history.
We think that fully 90 per cent. of three
months regiments were sent directly into
the enemy's country, and when the fortunes
of war made it necessary for them to fight,
they fought splendidly. The three months
men at Bull Run, in West Virginia and at
Wilson's Creek did magnificent fighting
every bit as good if not better than the
short-term volunteers did in Mexico at
Buens Vista, Monterey and Cerro Gordo.
ANOTHER VICTORY.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE has been in
strumental in winning another victory for