The herald., 1896-05-31

return of Memorial day, we, the children,
VIII stand with barred heads and rever-
ent hearts and scatter upon their graves
the falrest hoWers of the earth"
iao:.ss- quartette, composed OF Miss
Craze Whitehorn, first soprano: Miss
Maud Wentworth, second soprano; Miss
Zada Taylor, first alto. and Miss Letitia
Williams, second alto, then sang
Strew Blossoms on Their Graves. This
selection was the musical gem of the oc-.
casion, and brought forth prolonged
applause In response to which the quar-
tette repeated the second verse as an
encore.
An original poem by Comrade L. u.
Mosher followed, after which Gen. A. b.
Campbell, the orator of the day, was In
troduced. Comrade Campbell has al
most national reputation as an orator,
which he fully sustained in his effort
yesterday. Gen. Campbell did not de-
vote a great deal of time to the regula-
ton memorial day remarks, but after
paying fitting tribute to the dead he
launched out into a political speech, or
discussion of issues of Importance to the
living, devoting himself especially to the
matter Of pensions. After referring to
the pension proposition, the speaker
asked his hearers IL they thought that
the government had been fair and Just
to the union soldiers, and, as he paused,
a chorus of "noes" came from the old
response was evidently unexpected, for
after moments pause. he resumed,
and, as he stated that he would prove
that the United States government was
the most liberal and the fairest to its
soldiers Of any on the face of the earth,
there was ripple Of laughter among the
veterans, as 1t was seen that they had
spoken too quick, and there was another
chorus of yes" Gen. Campbell then
proceeded to give some statistics In sup
port Of his assertion. The United States
government, he said, had paid out since
the war the enormous sum OF two thou
sand millions of dollars to the old SOL
diers and their widows and children in
pensions, enought to buy million men a
home worth $1,000 each, and give each
one of the million a. $1,000 to start anew
in life with. Not only this, but even
now over one-half of the permanent
revenues of the government, or, in round
numbers, s160 1000, 900 annually, was now
devoted to this purpose. There was no
nation on the face of the earth so liberal
as ours Great Britain in 1894 had $50
pensioners on her roll, and paid In PEN
$50 pensioners and paid out 1913, 1924;
France had Sc pensioners and paid annu-
ally $3323: Canada had the largest num-
Der of pensioners outside OF the United
States, 1863, and paid out annually $l47,-
201.20. Against this array, the United
states Idu Ill loJO, oOJ,Vfi hdhiCo Cii ies'
pension roll, almost a round million, and
paid out 1851, 100000. Besides all this,
seven homes for old soldiers were main
tanned at the expense of the government,
furnishing comfortable. not to say lux
urious, homes to thousands OF vet
Grams. Yes, our government was
the most generous on the face of the
earth, and for this reason it had pros
pered, until now it IS the grandest and
most powerful nation on the globe. 1t
had now recovered from the effects Of
that great war in which 1853, 4O1 men
had been enlisted to carry 1t on, $400 ,OO0.-
900 had been spent in conducting it, and
700, 900 lives had been sacrificed, that
is, on both Sides before it was con-
cluded. All this in addition to the
devastation wrought, which had for the
time being destroyed the energy of the
south and engendered a strife and Bit
terness which it had taken years to
overcome. Then it must be remem-
bered that the immense sums of money
to carry on this war had been borrowed
and the country had been paying the
principal and interest on this great ma
tional debt, which had been steadily re-
duced until very recently. But despite
all this, the nation had grown to be the
richest and most powerful nation on the
earth, and all because it had been in the
main just to the Union soldiers, for
which reason 1t had prospered. The
speaker said he did not wish to be under
stood as stating that the wishes of the
people on the pension question had been
carried out during the past four years.
He very sharply criticised the Demo-
cratic administration, which had
brought forth response from the audi
ence. that places you all right" But,
thank God, we can remedy that" con-
tnued the speaker, and after some
further remarks about the administra-