The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-05-27
THE BOARDS OF EXAMINING SUR
GEnNS

illdIleF III WHICH lDe DOdIuS VI LAaliliii-
ing Surgeons were reorganized. 1t had
been the practice to make these non
partisan. Two members in each County
belonged to the party in power, while
the third belonged to the opposition.
Physicians who had served during the
war as Regimental Surgeons were pre-
ferred, and this arrangement was very
satisfactory to the veterans. The non
partisan character of the Boards pre-
vented political considerations from
influencing the decisions, and the war
experience of the members enabled them
to at once understand and justly appre-
ciate the disabilities presented for their
examination.
President Cleveland changed all this
in the most exasperating way. The BIZ
partisan character of the Boards was
destroyed, and all over the country they
were made up wholly of the Presidents
adherents and supporters. Under the
wholesale denominations ordered by
Commissioner Lochren, appointments on
these Boards were exceedingly lucrative
plums of patronage, and were eagerly
sought after by young hedgling doctors,
who had a great deal more party zeal
than medical knowledge, and were much
more successful in managing voters in the
primaries than in getting patients. 1t
was almost inevitable that they should
be distinctly unfriendly to the veterans
and their claims. The President had
proclaimed that thousands of COM
munities had their well-known pension
frauds, and these young gentlemen
understood that it was their business to
ferret out and stop these. They were
dominated by the influence emanatIng
from Washington that the pension-roll
must be cut down, and every pretext
employed 10 take men off and prevent
others getting on. Besides, they had a
mercenary motive They knew that if
they rejected man he would come back
again soon, and they would make another
fee off him.
Now, it is burning question with the
veterans and their friends whether this
device of Mr.. Cleveland to make his
evil deeds live after him shall be allowed
to succeed. We know that they feel
much more strongly upon this than any
body outside their ranks can understand.
To appreciate this one must think of a
man past middle age, and far older than
his years by reason of the lavish ex-
penditure of his youthful strength in his
country's service. The comrades who
fought by his side and were witnesses of
his courage and fortitude-who saw him
struggle en- under the blighting sun or
through the storms bitter chill to take
his place in line when he should have
been in the hospital-are either dead or
gone he knows not whittier. He is poor
in this worlds goods, and his ability to
earn a support for himself and bis faith
full wife daily diminishes. In his pitiful
extremity he turns toward the Govern
ment, to whom he gave everything when
he was rich in youth and strength, and
asks that it now fulfill some of the lavish
promises made in its hour of dire ex-
tremity. He is met at the outset by
ribald jesters-ofiicials of the Govern
ment for which he fought, but born since
the war, and having no more conception
of that season of heroic sacrifices than
this Summers butterflies have of last
Winters SHOWS and frosts. To them his
aches are shams, and his feebleness a
cheat.
They Jest at scars who never felt n wound"
Is il wonder that he feels cut to the
heart and that the hurt will rankle so
long as these men remain where they
are?
In the infinite multiplicity of the i'm
portant matters which beset him, the
grand comrade who is President has not
been able to give this matter the atten-
ton that it deserves. 1t is possible
probable, even-that in the absorption
of great State questions he is not aware
how intensely the comrades feel upon
this in every part of the country.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE proposes
to present this matter to him in exactly
the light it appears to the comrades. 1t
wants the assistance of every one of
them, SO that it can speak to him in the
name of every veteran from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.
We desire the comrades in every
County in the country to at once send
us the following facts concerning the
membership of the Boards of Exam
lining Surgeons in their Counties:
n Il L