The National tribune., 1893-09-07
VOORHEES, ON PENSIONS.


Feelings or the Situation.
Senator Voorhees, in bis speech in the Senate
on Aug %, on the subject of silver, treating of
the action of certain people, said:
Even the pension rolls of the Government those
records shcred TO the blood and tears of millions
shed Tor the existence Of the American Union have
not escaped determined and vindictve assault
The fact that the amount of money in circulation is
largely increased every three months Of the year
by tie payment of pensions, that IL is done without
the agency of the banks and beyond their control
for Huctuation speculation has excited the open
and bitter opposition of the great money eenters
from the very beginning of our present pension
system.
The charges made Of fraudulent pensions
are simply a continuation of what we have heard
from the start and they have the same inspiration
in former years. That frauds ara sometimes
committed in the Pension Office is undoubtedly
true. and they should be investigated aud exposed;
but the same can be truthfui1y said of every other
Office or institution known among men. Would
you deuouBce entire church and impute rascaiity
to all its members because here and there q hypo-
critic aud knave pollutes the altar and defes the
sacrament OF the Lords Supper by his presence
and participation?
Fraud is incident to human affairs and from
which there can be no complete escape; but better
TAR that even fraudulent pension should be grant
ed than an honest weli-earned we'll merited PEN
sion should be denied. IL is the question of money,
however and not the question of fraud, which
provokes the greatest wrath in certain quarters
the subject of pensions. Who thai lived at that
time will ever forget the storm of invectivc which
broke on some of our heads because of the passage
sions to disabled soldiers? Speaking on that sub
ject three years later. said:
The columns OF the leading newspapers of the
country have teemed with the most envenoned
denunciations of this act, and reeked with coarse
and ignorant abuse OF all who sustained it. IL
would indeed, be impossible to eKaggerate the
tone of malignant luminosity which has prevailed
and which now more than ever prevails, this
subject in the most prominent journals from the
north end of New England to the Pacific coast.
/ can recall but two enaoitneHfs which have |
called forth such rancorous literature Tie pas :
sage of the Fugitve-Slave Law and the repeal of |
the Missouri Compromise are the only measures |
within my recollection which provoked such an |
explosion OF intense wrath as we have heard |
against the Arrears OF Pensions Act If it had |
been a measure TO disseminate pestienee, breed !
famine. or provoke war it could hardly have been |
stigmatized with greater bitterness If instead of
being. it is law to fulfill plain honest obi
CATION toward those Who in sober fact, bled and |
died for their Government. it had been a measure |
not have been assailed in terms Of baser meaning
than have been used against it and against all who
support 1t"
Sir it is true that the amount of money carried |
to the soldiers of the country by the act paying |
them arrears was large and imposing; but / held !
then, and hold now, that every dollar paid for |
pensions does good and not harm; that it is not |
merely blessing to the pensoner himself but |
also all the active business interests and labor
ing classes of the entire country. On the 10Th of
January, 1882, used the following language on |
shs floor. aud can do no better than reproduce it |
yictions:
THE money paid to this blind soldier passed on
hundred different
channels OF trade. With some of 1t he paid for
humble home in which TO pass his benighted old |
age and in which at last TO wake. by the touch of
DEATH with eyesight cIeansed, TO brighter morn
ing than earth can ever know. With the remainder
of his pension arrears he paid his little debts and
added something 10 the comfort of those about
him. And such is substantially the history of all |
the money expended under this benefcent law so
basely and so insanely vilified. II goes
into crcuation 1t pays debts; it passes from hand
TO hand; 1t is not boarded as coupon cutters hoard
their interest; 1t makes money plenter among the
people where 1t ought to be pientiest.
"Sir, it is dead money which does good TO the
people, money which is packed away in bags |
crammed into iron vaults, there corrode and eat
into the labor of the people with an immense |
expenditures which go in that direction indeed
a CURSE but not so with money which is alive aud
active i'll the daily transactions of life.
But it is in connection with this very idea, and
in fact almost solely account of it, that the prin-
ciple assaults have been made on the law for the
payment of the pension arrears The leaders of
this crusade are inspired with frenzy of rage at
tho sight of poor people obtaining any considerable
sum OF money from the Government matter |
how precious the consideration upon which the |
payment il based. Money, in the estimation of
this class, should not be diffnsve general in its
movements among the people; 10 should be
tracted within narrow circle aud exclusive in the
besiowal of its benefits themselves.
But little while ago they were declaring
through the same columns which now denounce
our system of pensions that the hard times then
upon the country were due to the fact that the
aboring classes lived too well; that they had too
many Injuries and that they must learn to regu-
late their wants according TO the cheap wages paid
for labor in Europe And now the great moneyed
and all such live the interest of
money exasperated mt the spectacle of money
flowing freely among the common people. The
scarcity of money IS their harvest, and n full cir
culation is their bane and grief They feel, there
fore, that every dollar expended for pensions is
hostile to their interests. The sight of n penness
soldier obtaining few hundreds OF dollars,
perhaps, fills their sOTdid souls with
fury. On the other hand. the plain people hail
such money coming into their, midst q general
blessing"
Sir, the payment of pensions in this country has
become so important feature in our financial stu
alton that no apology is needed for the reference
have made TO the subject on this occasion 1t is
clear 10 my mind that pension money amounting |
TO over s60 100000 per snnum, perhaps and going
reef now left to the people in the way of cur
power of the banks There were paid to PEN | ,
,ioners in Indiana last year the of Sill $50 il7
increase to the circulating medium of that State
without the aid of which the condition of her
rade and business may be imagined, but not
adequately described.
The amount of money in circulation in many of |
he other States has been increased even to a |
much greater extent than in Indiana by the redis-
it were of the peoples own money
pack into their hands in the payment of pensions;
md there IL not State nor a neighbOrhoOd in the
American Union which has not felt the relief OF {
his system. For my own part, and speaking for
myself I shall take no backward step the SUBJ
Get of pensions.
Had the Right to Do So.