The National tribune., 1893-11-09
LET US REASON UPON THIS.

/
When people and politicians talk glibly
about "giving every deserving veteran pen.
sion" the derisive mockery of such declar-
alton never seems to strike them.
Are they laboring under the idea that vet
Grams are immortal? Can they think that
in some mysterious way the lives of the
men who fought for the Union have been
heightened out far beyond the usual span Of
years allotted to man?
| Unless they do, how can they reconcile
such a declaration with the fact that 2S
years after the close of the rebellion I'll, $50
claims for pensions still remain Enacted
upon in the Pension Bureau?
No one denies or can deny that at least
the great portion of these claims are by de
serving veterans" But, deserving as they
may be, they do not get their pensions, and
no one can guess when they will. There is
no assurance from any source that they may
not have to wait another % years for settle
mental least such as may be alive in that
distant future
In the business walks of life man who
has TO wait three or four years for the pay
ment of a debt due him despairs of its ever
being paid at ALL If he has to wait five or
six years the despair becomes a hopeless
lr,,IraIe &C 4bo,,-
sands of veterans who have waited all the
way up 10 80 years for the Government to
reach and settle their claims. As "deserv-
ing veterans as there are in the country
have had to wait p and 80 years for their
dues. Tens of thousands-yes hundreds
of thousands-of these deserving veterans
have died before their claims were reached,
and have thus been defrauded of their
rights in the crueest and meanest of ways.
No other creditors of the Government
have been treated in this way. We hear Of
no money-lender being compelled to wait 80
years, or even so days, for his money. The
Government did not delay and evade pay
ment for years to men who sold it mules
and picked pork, boots and shoes, blue cloth
and bareback, in order to save money by
death reducing the number of its creditors.
Such conduct would have been denounced
all over the civilized world iDconceivably
shameful. 1t would have forever and ire
trievably ruined the credit of the United
States
What, let US ask, makes a debt owed for
mules bareback or picked pork more urgent
and sacred than one owed for courageous,
manly services, and for loss of life, health,
use of limbs and manly vigor?
Why should the one account be settled
on the nail and the other be allowed to
drag along through the lifetime of gen.
Grafton?
What entities the specializing contractor
in army supplies to this marvellous prefer
erenee over the man who helped rescue the
Government from absolute destruction?
Evenhanded justice would say that If
anybody had to wait it should be the man
who made large profits out of the Govern
ment's necessities, and not the man who
sacrificed his all to save the Government.
Had not the soldier so sacrificed himself
there would have been no money to pay the
contractor or any one else, and therefore the
soldier should have been satisfied first.
It was right to pay the contractor and the
money-lender. They have been paid to the
last cent of their claims, and their accounts
are closed.
Now why not show some business-like
promptness in closing up the accounts with
the soldiers?
Let US have every pension claim now On
file settled by Dec. 81, 1894