The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-04-19
SUITED ONLY TO pATRIARoHAL TIMES.

| diu III the Gays OF Inc patThIcns IH0
pension policy of the United States would
not be so intensely Objectionable.
For example, Noah lived $50 years.
He would not have minded much wait
ing 20 years for his pension from a
"grateful Government" if he had per-
chance had one.
Abraham lived to be 175, and was sc
years old when his first child was born.
A little matter of 10 or 20 years waiting
for his pension would not have bothered
him greatly.
Isaac was $50 when he died. He
could have listened to the dulcet song Of
mo deserving veteran need fear" for
% or 80 years without being disturbed.
Jacob died in his 147th year. 1t
might have disturbed and angered him
to wait the fifth of his life for hard
earned pension, but then he would have
had nearly century in which to enjoy
it.
But the man who wou1a have smiled
as pleasantly at the Pension Bureaus
delays as good-humored man who has
to wait five minutes for his dinner was
Methuselah, who chung on" for 500
years What a subject he would have
been for the Pension Bureau to operate
on! How blithely he would have re-
sponded to calls for additional proof"
and further evidence" upon his bald
and gray-whiskered claim.
Gall right, dear boys" he would
have said, as be filled out the Goth
affidavit that he had been required to
make that he was in line of duty at the
time the Midianite Captain smote him
with a sword; call right, chappies; if
you want to nurse this little claim for
another 20 years, go ahead. Take 30
if you like. Time is no object with me.
[ come of tribe of stayers on. this
earth, and don't you forget it. My
grandfather lived 962 years, and his
father S95. I rather think I'll linger
on this changeful sphere until get
justice, in spite of you
And what a tired feeling would have
come over the Pension Bureau when it
was realized that the old fellow abso-
lutely would not die and "saye" the
Government bis pension.
But the unreasonable and mex
cusable delays in pension allowances are
only suited to men who lived as long as
they did before the food. They are the
rankest cruelty to men who have at most
only the Psalmist's allotted three score
and ten" and likely have had these
abridged a score. by reason of che terri
bic strains of their war service.
To keep men who had entered upon
their manhood at the time of their enlist
ment out Of their pensions 20 or 80 years
cannot be anything else than deliberate
defrauding. In the ordinary course of
nature a very large proportion of these
men must die before that time. They
would even had they remained at home,
peace-enjoying civilians. Infinitely
larger proportion of them must die be-
cause Of their wounds and the frightful
drains made upon their systems by the
unparalleled hardships they underwent.
To say, therefore, that the allowance
of their claims has been deferred a quar-
ter of century is to calmly announce
that the Government decided upon the
barbarity of robbing these men of their
rights by Withholding payment until
they should die.
There can be no sugar-coating or GID
ing this shameful fact.
1t will stand out in all its naked de-
formity in spite of all attempts to cloak
it in sounding phrases and mazes of
specious arguments.
The ugly truth will not down that the
United States prefers to save" " money
rather than pay its debts of honor to its
notwithstanding soldiers.