The National tribune., 1897-06-17

1t required 224 electoral votes to elect
President, and Maj Mckinley received 275,
being 81 more than necessary. The above
tabulated States gave him 81 votes. Without
them he would have lacked 36 votes of
election. In each one the veterans, all
voters, outnumbered his majority. The
solidarity Of the soldier vote was his saliva
ton. Take California, and a sloughing oft
of one-ffth the soldier vote would have
biotted out his maj GRITTY, or plurality. This
IS also true of Indiana. If one-third OF
them had deserted him, he would have lost
Oregon Il desertion of one-hali OF them, and
he would have been beaten in his own State
by 14,l72, and desertion of less than 800
would have deprived him of II electoral
votes in Kentucky. This shows that but
ior the practical solidarity of the soldier eie-
ment, he would have certainly lost 63 votes
in The above States, leaving him majority
OF II electoral votes.
The Scriptures have it: THE Lord
maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,
and the remainder he restraints" 1t was
the Pension Office that elected Mckinley,
where Cleveland found his active and over
willing tools for the despoiling of The sur
vivors, widows and orphans OF the late war
To these men, the Chiefs Of the Board of
Division aud The Medical Division, are the
Republicans mainly indebted: for their resto-
ration to power. Their harsh and bitterly
cruel technicalities created the revulson in
favor of the soldiers that swept their party
out of power
Early i'll 1893 1.-THE boys" became alarmed,
and the selection of Judge Locbren, n gallant
Gettysburg soldier, did not alIay their fears.
Their relatives, their friends, their business
associates, were one with them in feeling,
and III 1895 it may be safely said that the
distinctive soldier vote was not less than
100000, adding 10 each veterans vote the
vote OF a relative or synipathizing friend. And
but for the glittering hopes connec cd with
free coinage" confusing the judgment of
SO many honest men, that vote would have
been almost solid unit for Mckinley.
The action of the Special Examining Divis-
ion during the last Administration illus
trated the saying: Whom the gods would
destroy they first make mad" That divis-
ion was called into being for the noble pur-
pose OF bringing all the power and resources
of the Government to aid the stricken claim
ant in the proving mp Of his claim. And
under the patriotic Dudley and Black their
craving desire was that their long-delayed
claims should be referred 10 that division.
Then the end, admission or rejection, would
come, and they would be satisfied for they
knew that the sympathy of the Office and of
the Special Examiner was with them.
But how changed since July ], 1893, when
that division was reOrganized, and, as soon
became patent to all, recognized for the
rejection of claims, and hostile army could
scarcely have crushed more hopes. A Special
Examiner was looked upon by the boys as
an enemy, and they had full reason for SO
regarding him, and trembled whenever they
saw him in converse with an old-time Cop
perhead, or any other person with whom
their relations were not cordial. Aud chow
conld Lochren have been so blind as 20 allow
it?) hiding their patriotic wrath, they
trembled as they appeared before er-Con-
federdte soldiers, who, as Special Examiners,
held their life or death in their hands. Aud
with many to whom little money would
bring medical assistance, that was literally
true; aud thousands Of veterans, their claims
rejected OF delayed, have gone into nntimely
graves.
And, as if that were not bad enough, hope
died clean out on finding in their judges
very young Southern men, far more bitter
towards the claimant than the soldiers they
had met in battle. And cold comfort was it
for them to read in annual reports of the
Boosting of the enormous sums those Ex-
aminers had saved to the Government by
the rejection Of claims.
Time may right things, but when we
think of the 100000 veterans who died
during the Cleveland reign-many of them
OF the inanition Of poverty-we cannot in
dorse that saying, Washington, d. G.