The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-03-05
AN OPEN LETTER.
To the Senate and House
of Representatives in
Congress Assembled

GENTLEMEN There were in al
1853, 1872 enlistments in the Army dur
ING the war. The War Department.
figures are that, reduced to three years
basis, there were 2,320,272 men fur
nished. The best evidence we can get
shows that about 100000 different
men actually served. The discrepancie;
are occasioned by the great number o.
men who served more than one term
Hundreds of thousands enlisted twice,
and it was possible for man to have
served out as many as five enlistments
No doubt a great many men actually
did so. Therefore, we arrive at the
conclusion that there were actually
100000 different individuals who rem
dered service in the Army.
Every one of these 100000 men
made a distinct and very considerable
pecuniary sacrifice when he enlisted.
The pay and allowances Of soldier
were very much below the ordinary
wages of the common laboring man.
Thirteen dollars a month, with one suit
of coarse clothes a year, and a plain
diet of bread and meat and coffee and
beans were slender inducements to an
active young man in the best of physical
condition. You will remember that
Uncle Sam was very particular about
this matter of physical condition, and
employed expert examiners to see that
none were taken into his service except
such as were young and entirely sound
in wind, limb, heart and stomach.
That class of men are always in demand
at the best prices, and the demand for
them rose rapidly, both at home and at
the front, as the war progressed. Every
one of them had TO Telinquish much in
actual money advantages in order to
enter the service of his country. The
boy at school gave up an education that
had positive, tangible money value to
him. The common laboring man took
much less wages than his health and
strength would have gained for him.
The skilled mechanic relinguished all
the advantages that bis well-learned
trade gave him, and took less than
a moiety of its earnings. The farmer
gave up his hearts desire of deyel-
oping his homestead into rich fruit
fulness. The lawyer and physician
abandoned their practices and present
hopes Of advancement in their professions.
The merchant abandoned his business to
his competitors. There is simply no
measurement of the incalculable pecu-
MARY sacrifices they made in order to
engage in the work of rescuing their
endangered country. Measured in dol
lars and cents merely, every one of them
made large donations to the Govern
ment. Not only was the pay allowed
them Insignificant in comparison to the
earnings of their fellows who remained
at home, but it became less every month
by the rapid depreciation of the money
in which it was made. In 1864 the SIC
a month, which private was paid, rep
resented purchasing power of only
S6.08, for the greenback was worth only
50 cents in gold. Then wheat was sell
ing for $3.50 a bushel, and mechanics
were getting from So to Sc day.
We are confident that an average of
$4,000 each is not too high to represent
the pecuniary sacrifices Of each of the
100000 men who served long terms
in the army. If we multiply these two
sums together we shall have the enor-
nous sum of s4,0O0.00O,00O, or nearly
twice as much money as the bondholders
actually lent the Government. If we
assume that the average sacrifice of
every man who followed the flag South
ward with musket or saber was so little
as $1,000 We still have the enormous
sum of s2,0O0,000,O0 or approximately
as much as the bondholders loaned the
Government-which was freely donated
to the Nation by the men who fought its
battles.
Gentlemen, this is a purely business
view Of the matter, which has never been