The advocate., 1894-10-31
HOW THEY LOVE THE OLD SOLDIER.
Continued from page 81

lS"'"'"'"NSS 'N"" RSSNS'
the soldiers friends and have taken special
pride in,this assertion. If this assertion Of
theirs is true (Which we dOubt), certainly it
must be very humiliating to them, for they
must admit their inefRcienoy and lack OF
influence.
The soldiers Of Kansas hereafter will take
their chances with the enemy and thus e.
cape disappointment.
We also take the following from
an editorial of the issue Of June rs,
1890 Comment upon these editor
ials is unnecessary. The present at
titude of the Veteran shows that its
partissnship is stronger than its re-
gard for the welfare of the soldiers:
Whatever the future may bring forth 40
relates to the disposition Of the men whose
Vslor, endurance and untold suffering saved
this nation from destruction, the opposing
elements influencing congress against the
enactment Of just pension legislation dur
ing the present session, has done its work,
the result of which is the retirement Of the
service pension bill, the only bill that was
before this congress that comes anywhere
near giving the soldier communicative jus.
tics in strict conformity with principles Of
reotitude as between this nation and the
men who saved it from overthrow and
ruin. We still believe ss we have in the
past that service pension is due every man
who entered the service, but the dollar of the
capitalist has Outwetghed the UGIOr of the pG-
trtOt, and before an effort can be made st
another session Of congress, q whole divi
sion Of old veterans will be mustered out,
and many, very many of them, filing pau
per's graves. And this is not all. The suf-
ferings Of hundreds and thousands more,
too honorable to beg and too honorable
to steal; too proud to beg and too much dis
Gbled to earn their support by labor, must
be taken into consideration. Somebody is
Responsible for this failure to provide proper
relief, and If We are not wonderfully mis-
taken in our Judgment, some men who
have stood in high places, who have been
honored and trusted in the past, will learn
lesson next fall about election time. The
CRY Of distress from more than q million
men, women and children has been riog-
ing in the ears of the present congress from
its fret days TO the present. Of men
who offered their lives and sacrificed their
health to save the country; Of widows whose
husbands shed their blood that this nation
might not be destroyed; Of orphan children
whose fathers we're told that if they would
60 and fight the battles Of the Union and
fall, their families should be IS we'll taken
care Of as any in the country. Members of
congress have turned deaf ear to all those
piteOus appeals, appeals for justice, not for
charity; appeals for promises to be fulfilled,
not for aims or a donation; appeals for
pledges to be performed, not for commits
Grafton or pity.
Had congress been wise, il would have
listened to those appeals, and the service
penPiOn bill, together with more liberal and
just provisions for soldiers, widows and or
phans, would have. been enacted into law.
But il chose rather TO break promises, to
violate pledges, TO set at defiance the de
mands Of the veterans, and stem the tide
Of destruction that viii come down upon it
with all the fury Of an AVAlsnche. Il seems
strange to rs that the dominant party at
the capital, after making 20 many pledges
and after denounciDg the late adminigtra-