The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-04-04

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the gratitude that would be diffused al
over the country by the allowance o
these claims, and the applause tina
would 60 up at the announcement tina
the docket of the Pension Bureau wa
at last cleared. Is not this a picture tt
rejoice your heart?
There is every reason why you should
do it, and none worth considering why
you should not. First, it is a matter OF
National justice and honor that the Gov.
eminent should promptly acquit itself Of
its obligations to its veteran creditors
Secondly, it is momentous to humanity
and mercy that the dying men and
women should receive their rights before
the grave closes over them. Thirdly, it
is the performance of high and grave
duty with which you have been charged
by the American people. Fourthly, it
is matter of deepest consequence to the
future of your party, which is now stand
ing at the bar of public opinion for
jud gment upon its omissions and COM
missions. Lastly, it is of the highest
importance to you personally. The re-
wards of life are not measured in dollars
and cents, but in the Consciousness of
duty performed, of opportunities inn
proved, Of service faithfully rendered.
Nothing else will be or can be of such
inestimable value to you when you come
to lay down your Office as the feeling
that you have done all in your power to
fifty discharge the important trust con-
fided to you, and to give to your COM
rades that which the people desire that
they shall have, and which no one knows
better than you that they are entitled to.
You have made every effort and
spared no expense during the past two
years to "purge the pension roll"
Whatever prepossessions against pen
sions and pensioners may have had
Judgment in your mind when you en-
tered Office, these must have been dis
PEELED by the conclusive results of that
extraordinary effort To-day no man in
the United States knows as positively as
you do that pensioners have been grossly
maligned and illuminated. The knowl-
edge of the wrong done them by their
ignorant and prgudiced assailants must
be really oppressive to you. You know
better than any other man that instead
of the pension-roll being tainted with
fraud" that no money paid out of the
United States Treasury was as honestly
earned and is as well deserved as that
which goes for pensions.
Let US reiterate the one supreme,
overmastering fact, for reiteration may
be necessary to impress it upon you:
The american people are iy7cribly de-
termi,,ed that these men shall be prop
erly ,eyasioned, and they aciH neuer rest
content until they are. The only ques-
ton is whether you will do it, or whether
the work will be done by someone else.
That it will be done is as certain as that
we are on the eve of the Doth century.
Therefore, why not inaugurate a new
era in the Pension Bureau? WHY not
announce the conclusions to which the
of the past two years have
brought you, and that, having reached
rock basis of fact, you will now proceed
with the utmost diligence to build upon
it a glorious fabric of Honor and Justice,
by placing on the pension-roll as soon as
possible every man and woman who has
gained the right to be there, that ono
deserving veteran need fear" any longer
postponement of the payment of his
rightful claim, but that he will at once
be given that which he richly earned
with his young manhood's blood and
strength more than quarter of CEN
fury ago.
Say this, Mr.. Commissioner, and fol-
low it with appropriate action, al
lowing all meritorious claims, and you
will return to your home in Saint
Paul few months from now honored
and applauded from one end of the land
to the other. You will be pronounced
the greatest Commissioner who ever
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