The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-02-14
THE GREAT ADVANTAGES OF HON
FSTY.

| still less doubt that IL is Vastly the pest
policy for a Nation. A Nation simply
cannot afford to be dishonest, for that is
certainly and fearfully expensive.
ALI the financial trouble that we are
in could have been wholly avoided if
the Nation had been decently honest
with It's veteran creditors.
There is plenty of money in the coun-
try. The whole trouble is that it is
concentrated in the hands of bankers
and capitalists, because they are afraid
of they know not what. This fear is
engendered by the scarcity of money in
the hands of the people, and their de-
mands for more.
If the Government two years ago had
adopted the policy of common honesty
with the veterans to whom it owed money
for services performed quarter of
century before, all this would have been
avoided. 1t has already borrowed
s163,000.000, and proposes to borrow
S100,0OO,000 more. This has been and
will be borrowed from banks and bank
ers; has been and will be paid out again
to banks and bankers, and consequently
has done nothing to and viii do nothing
to relieve the needs Of the people. They
have received none Of the money.
How exceedingly different it would
have been if the Government had taken
the wise, strong, honest position at the
outset of saying:
Let us abolish this CRYING scandal
Of delaying and avoiding payment of
the Just debts of the Nation to the men
who saved its life. Ii is q burning dis
grace that they have been kept out of
their rights for the lifetime of a genera
tion-that hundreds Of thousands of
them have gone to their graves unpaid,
and lamenting with their last breath the
perfdy and base ingratitude Of Gov
eminent which promised them every
thing in its hour Of need, and basely
broke those promises when its danger
was past and their hour of need had
come. Let us heal that ulcer on the
National honor by clearing up the
docket of the Pension Bureau, paying
every man or his widow what is due
without further shutting or evasion, and
putting the veteran creditors Of the Ma
ton on the same honest, business-like
basis the money-lenders and supply.job-
bers were placed Immediately after the
war"
Suppose that s100,000000 had been
borrowed to do this, and Immediately
paid out to the veterans and their
widows The whole face of business
would have changed, as the drouth-
stricken West would have been changed
last Summer by one good, generous
shower. That s1oO,O0O0OO would have
done more good than s1,000000,000
borrowed from and paid back to bankers.
Every dollar of it would have been of
20 times sevenfold more decided benefit
than money turned over in the present
way. 1t would have gone into the re-
hottest corners of the land; not village
or crossroads but would have felt its
benefcent influence. One hundred
dollars, let us say, would have been sent
in crisp, fresh notes, to some waiting
veteran in a remote corner Of Kansas,
Nebraska, or South Dakota. Within a
week after its receipt, it would have been
paid out to his neighbors, for things that
they had to sell, and which he had been
urgently needing. They would have i'm
mediately turned around and paid their
little debts with it. Within a month that
500 would have changed hands perhaps
100, perhaps 200, times. 1t would have
paid $1,000, maybe $4,000 worth of
Indebtedness, relieved many men of
pressing obligations and given them
fresh hope and courage. Every like
amount would have done like work in
communities scattered all over the coun-
try. Eventually the storekeepers in the
villages and towns would have gathered
in much of the money in payment of the
accounts Of their customers. Ina turn,
Al M