West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1894-05-24
THE @. A. 2.

our editorial sGuIbS relative 10 the
Coxey movement, and especially to
what we said about Grand Army
uniforms in the Coxey army" We
regret exceedingly that the gentle.
man did not sign his real name. IL
always places the editor at disad-
vantage IN dealing with an anony-
nous writer. You have no assur-
ance that he IS what he represents
himself. II not asking too much,
we would respectfully ask the gen
tlemAn to sign his real name to
future criticisms Of the ARGUS. 1t
will place us in better position to
judge him ard answer his criticisms.
We desire to say in the beginning
that we prefer the name of rebel"
'peusion hater," which is the usual
Characterization Of all Democrats
by the average Republican, than to
masquerade in the role Of hyp0-
crife, which so many do. But we
deny the allegation that we have
INDUCED in "unkind remarks"
"littIe flings," or cast any reflec-
tions upon the character of honOra.
BILE ex soldiers. Let the writer Of
the Journal be little more specific
and point out wherein we have re-
Elected upon honorable veterans.
We make no distinction among
honorable and patriotic men. We
recognize no man superior to an
other who conforms to the laws of
God and country. Free and Euunl,
is our motto. We condemn wrong
and uphold right. The voice Of
admOnition is calm and majestic
the accents of hattery are loud and
deceptive. The man who stayed at
home and harvested the grain to
feed the army is deserving of the
same honor and monument as the
man who shouldered the old mus
ket and went forth to battle f., +
the preservation of the Union. We
place them on the same footing.
But will the writer OF the JourRaI
deny that there are not great
many soldiers drawing pension
who are not deserving? Can he
deny that there are veterans draw
ing pensions f,om $40 20 $50 per
month who are IN comfortable cir
cumstances, who saw very little
service, while there are veterans
drawing from So to S12 per month
who are in very poor circumstances
yet they belong to the number who
were in the front ranks from the
beginning to the ending of the civil
war? The former we believe are
not entltle to a pension, while the
latter are entitle to, not to a mere
pittance of few dollars, but pen
sion sufficient to support themselves
honorably and respectfully. Such
Is our position on the pension ques .
ton. If we choose to be dema-
gogue and Il hypocrite we might
favor wholesale pensions to buns,
coffee coolers and hangers on who
never saw live Johnnie in battle.
There is another class who put in
from thirty to ninety days on dress
parade whom we would exclude
from the pension roll. To the lame
and halt and the empty sleeves and
cork legs" we would give them
pensions which would place them
beyond want. We hope we hav,
made our position sufficiently ex-
plicit, and that hereafter the Jour
nal writer Will not drag in bonora-
BILE veterans to shield dishonorable
ones in order to misrepresent ouI
position on the pension question.
There is another phase OF this
veteran and pension patriotism we
desire to call attention to. While
Republican speakers and newspa-
pers set themselves up as the only
friends Of the veterans, they never
fail TO refer to Democrats as the
enemy of the veterans. And its no
uncommon thing to hear the great
majority Of the old veterans be-
rating the Democratic party. We
append an extract from the last
issue Of the JOurnnl, which is a
fair specimen Of Republican dema-
gogucry and hypocrisy on the pen.
sion question
The Congressional Record thus
reports passage in the speech OF
Dan Waugh Of Indiana i'm the
House: