The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-03-16

Is IT "wILD AND Rgc.SLfss"s
President Cleveland says that there is q
wild and reckless pensioa expenditure
which overIeaps the bounds Of grateful
recognition of patriotic service"
This makes the burning question before
| the American people, whether the facts IN
the case support this sweeping declaration
| by the President of the United States.
As we have said before, the report of the
Commissioner of Pensions says that the PEN
sions paid those disabled by service aver
aging over three years in the bloodiest war
of modern times are but SILL month on
an average
this Sill month had to do to earn it.
They all left homes, which were comfort
able and beloved, and businesses, which they
had chosen as their life occupations to de-
vote an average of three years to the hard
est, most comfortless, and most dangerous
! pursuit that men can engage in.
Even the best conditions found in the
army were much worse than the poorest
conditions ia their own homes, and large
proportion of the time they were suffering
untold hardships and miseries, without
counting the dangers they constantly con-
fronted
They had to fight almost necessarily. In
the four years that the war lasted they
fought over 1900 battles, many of them the
most sanguinary on record Counting the
four years rs 1900 days in round numbers,
this makes an average of much over one
battle day, without counting innumsrable
scouts, picket encounters, etc, which were
just q dangerous to those engaged as the
fercest battle
Of the 100000 men who went through
this terrible experience, 00,000-or one out
of every fve-were actually killed on the
field Of battle, or died Of wounds or disease;
es0,o40 received severe but not mortal
wounds, and 2s5245 were SO badly disabled
by wounds or disease as to compel their dis
charge from the army as incapable of further
service.
Think of what an appalling amount of
danger, death and uuutterable misery these
plain official figures attest. Think of the
wild wreckage Of the stalwart Young man.
hood of the Nation!
1t was the widest carnival that Death
ever held in any land or in any age. Where
he had before stricken down tens he then
glutted himself with hundreds; where he
had smitten hecatombs, he then smote
myriads, and from the homes and fresides
of the land went forth steady stream Of
the best and brarest to ill the gaps where
the frst-born had persisted.
Think over the hardships which sent over
6,000, 900 cases to the hospitals, or more
than three times as many as there were men
in the army, showing that men were pros
trated time and again, but recovered,
brayely resumed their places in the ranks,
only TO be again struck down. Think Of
the deadly miasmas Of swamp and fen
which are represented by 1926. 1873 eases in
the hospitals and 1o8,6s7 deaths from
fevers! Think of the improper and insult
fcient food and the impure water which
was largely responsible for 1853 deaths
from diarrhea aud dysenteryi Think Of
the exposure to inclement weather which
sent 44s 923 cases Of consumption, infam-
nation Of the lungs. etc, to the hospital,
and resulted in 24,10O deaths and 20835
discharges for permanent disability.
Think Of all this, and then think how far
an average pension Of Sill q month to the
men who dared and endured it all is wild
and reckless expenditure which overleaps
the bounds of grateful recognition of patri-
otto services"
We are not President Cleveland's an
tagonist The indisputable records of the
war are the antagonists whom he has most
reason to dread.