The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-04-26
THIRD EDITION
CALL HIM DOWN.
Wholesale Slandering of the Members
Of the G. A. r.

VI INC Gs A. ks
Street Cleaning Commissioner Waring,
of New York city, has seen fit to make,
over his own signature, the assertion that
the members of the Grand Army of the
Republic are "a lot of pension bum
mers;" that their orgaHlkation has sold
itself for cash to claim agents at Wash
ington;" and that because of it's ne
farious action the workingmen of this
country are now paying annually 800,
100000 more in pensions than they ought
to be paying" The Morning Advertiser,
of that city, emphatically condemns this
reckless and unworthy utterance. Col.
Warnings statements are unjust and un-
true. They will arouse the indignation
not merely of Grand Army men but of
all patriotic Americans
The charge that the Grand Army is a
collection of mercenaries and that this
country is paying hundred millions too
much in pensions every year is absurdly
false. In the vast membership of this
great organization there are without
doubt some men who are not worthy to
wear the badge. But an immense
majority of the Union veterans are up
right and Industrious citizens who deserve
respect for their personal character as
well as for the priceless services they
rendered when the life of the nation was
IN peril. In New York and in every
Northern community, from Boston Harbor
to the Golden Gate, Union soldiers are
prominent among business leaders and
hold positions of the highest trust aud
responsibility. A very large proportion
of the men who are eminent in every
branch of public life are veterans, and the
Grand Army button is rightfully regarded
by the people as a medal of honor far sur
passing in significance and value the
jeweled baubles that come from the hands
Of kings.
The flower of American manhood was
in the armies of the North. The men who
stood like granite wall at Gettysburg,
who stubbornly confronted the fierce as
saults of the Confederates in the West,
who followed Grant through the awful
carnage of the wilderness, and swept with
Sherman from Atlanta to the sea- repre-
sented the highest type of American citi-
zenship. They were not mercenaries when
in answer to Lincoln's call they left homes,
families and business interests to face the
bayonets and cannon of the Confederacy
that this Republic might live. They are
not mercenaries now that they are old and
gray haired; and the nation whose unity
they preserved by their heroism and their
sacrifices stands ready to defend their
honor and integrity from slanderous
attacks.
There is no ground whatever for Colonel
Warnings assumption that two thirds of
the pension payments made by the Fed
eral Government are either fraudulent or
unjustified. 1t is inevitable that sporadic
cases of fraud should occur; but in view
of the stringent safeguards with which
the system of granting pensions has been
surrounded, it is safe to say that the dis
bursement of pension money is charac'
terize |, on the whole, by marked eff
cheney and honesty. This nation has al
ready pronounced it's verdict on the ques
tion of keeping in good faith the con
tract which it made with the Union
soldier when it asked him to imperil his
life in its defense The American people
uphold, by an overwhelming majority
the policy consistently followed by
the Republican party in dealing
with the loyal veterans of the civil war.
Pretences that the amount paid in pen
sions is excessive are unfounded in fact
The services which were rendered by the
men who faced death under the Stars and
Stripes can never adequately be remuner
ate1. The wealth, progress and power
of the American Republic is directly due
to their achievements, for without theil
courage and devotion the nation would
have ceased to exist. The United States
can we'll afford to pay liberal pensions tc
the veterans who saved it, and the widows
and orphans who were left as it's wards
Niggarlliness in this respect would be a
national shame Colonel Warnings word:
are absolutely indefensible and heshould
publicly apologize for having uttered
them.