St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-30
pENsIoNING DEsERTERs.

Those whose memories can carry
events as old as the party campaign
after the war and until Cleveland's
first term silenced the guns. will re-
call as one of the stock arguments ad-
dressed to the prejudices and fears Of
Republican voters by their papers
and speakers that the Confederacy
would get into the saddle, the rebel
brigadiers would be in command, the
slaves would be paid for, claims for
destroyed property would swamp the
treasury, and that the Confederate SOL
diers would be placed side by side with
the Union soldiers on that roll Of hon
or, the pension list. The action of the
house the other day wakes the slum-
bering echoes of those old slogans that
used so to fire the loyal hearts, and
makes one rub his eyes, doubling
whether what they tell him is an ac-
curate presentation Of the printed page.
A general pension bill passed the
house containing provisions intended to
obliterate the work Of the present ad-
nlintstration in wedding out frauds al
ready on, and in preventing others from
getting on the roll The necessities Of
the situation obliged this. Something
had to be done, and it would never do
to do anything that would even ap-
pear to ratify the action Of this adj
ministration. But that is another mat
ter. Among these provisions, in the
30 7;
one that says that mo person other
wise entitled to pension shall
be disqualified from receiving the same
by reason Of any prior service in the
Confederate army or navy during the
War of the Rebellion" A former
congress had made treason odious"
by section Of the law that forbade
payment Of pensions to such persons,
their widows, children or heirs; but
this removes the bar wholly, and the
spectacle, strange in "the light of
other days." is presented Of a Re-
publican house, with a majority of
$50, actually bestowing pensions on
Confederate soldiers, "their widows,
children or dependent relatives
To be sure, they must have deserted
from the Confederate army and have
enlisted in the Union army to bring
themselves within the act; but If a
Republican congress can go SO far as
to pension men who fought US until
they saw that the game was lost and
then deserted to our side, it will be q
very short step to placing those more
honorable ones who fought to the
finish on the rolls. This is only the
thin end Of the wedge. Other sections
betray the weakness Of these Repub-
licans for deserters. Section 13 makes
pensionable men who had deserted
and subsequently re-enlisted. The bar
sinister Of their first desertion is
raised, and they are put on the same
footing as the "sure-enough" soldiers
who stood by their guns. Who were
these deserters, some 100000 in all,
whom this bill admits to the pension
roll? No old soldier but can tell They
are the fellows who, when the tagging
patriotism Of the stay-at-homes had
to be stimulated by big bounties, de-
serted the army and re-enllsted in
order to get the bounties. These fell
lows, the camp followers, the coffee
coolers, the malingerers, who left the
burden Of the fight in the dark days of
'63 and "a to be borne by those whom
Commissioner Lochren designates the
real soldiers" are cleansed of their
dirty record and made honorable SOL
diers. Between the pensioning of Con-
federate deserters and our own bounty
deserters, this congress is showing
contempt for true so1diery that will
make the real old soldier hot under the
collar.