Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-08-17
what Is That Debt.

Natl )nal Tribune: Peorle talk glib,v.
appreciatively and deprcciatinslv of '"rhe
debt due the soldiers Of the War of the
Rebellion" Very few-entirely too few
stop and calmly consider what that debt
really is.
Let us state a few fundamental facts
70" their considerations
First-In 1S60-1 the people of eleven
states. or nearly One-third the whole mum
Der. and population of over 1000, 0W or
about ne-third the total in the country
avowed their infiexibie determination to
secede ard get up n new government.
They were aided. abetted and sympa-
thized with by their friends in the non
seeding states to the extent that vr-
tuaily nearly one-half of the people were
concerned in the attempt.
Second-We know to-day. even more
fully than we felt then. that the success
OF such a scheme meant the utter de-
struction of the country. If the secession
had gone no farther it would have re-
suited in the two hostile nations occupy
ing our present territory. with q boun~
dairy line between them more than three
thousand miles long. over which there
would have been perpetual warfare. Rut
IL was inevitable that one successful Sc
cession would have been followed by an
other until the country would have been
split up into q score or more of discordant
little nations, with perennial wars, stand
ing armies and crushing expenses for
armaments. Every business would have
been ruined and every industry pros
trated. Instead OF going ahead to it's
present splendid development the country
would have retrosraded TO the condition
of Spain or Turkey.
Thrd-To avert this crushing calamity
over 1000, 600 of the pick and flower of
the youth of the country offered them
selves as willing sacrifice. They gave
up their homes, their chosen occupations
i'm life, their future prospects, to follow
the hard hazardous. ill-paid career of a
soldier in wartime. They sacrificed them
selves for those who staid at home. and
for those who should live after them.
Measured by the money returns alone,
those devoted men did not receive one
fifth what was paid those who seltishly
staid at home. In addition to this. they
exposed their lives every hour. and they
suffered inconceivable hardships. Still
mora. one entire fourth of their number
were dead before the war ended. and
still another fourth were more or less
dis lbled by wounds or disease. This is
the price they paid for the unexampled
prosperity the country has enjoyed since
they won peace and national unity and
in which time its wealth has increased
from $4,000, 100000 in 1850 to SG5,0oo,
900 900 i'm 1890.
Fourth-When we consider this enor-
nous aggreg ltion of wealth. not a dollar
of which would have been possible but
for the immense sacrifices of these men,
when we think of the universal happiness
OF the peaceful and united country. which
would have been impossible If they had
not fought and endured as they did;
when We contemplate the distracted,
debt-ridden, poverty-stricken condition
from which they rescued ii, and place
all those in the balance along with the
terrible cost 10 themselves of the four
years of awful lighting. and scarcely less
terrible hardships, how paltry and made
quate seems the money return which has
been made I'm the way of pensions. The
very least that IN common, everyday
Justice the country should do is to make
sure, beyond any doubt, that not one of
these men yet living, nor the dependent
ones of those dead. shall suffer from
want. This would be the payment OF {.
very small part Of the debt due them.