The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-03-25
that hell of carnage could receive would

2. The second argument made
against the bill is that of expediency.
There is nothing more fatal to any pro-
posed pension measure than indefinite
ness as to its cost. Very many Con-
gnessmen are only too glad of any ex-
cuse for voting against any pension
bill They will wilfully exaggerate
any objection that can be made to it.
All these men are ready to harp
industriously on the amount that a
Per Diem will cost. Though they may
yesterday have said that the great bulk
of the soldiers now alive served not more
than three months, they will to-day
assert with the greatest positiyeness that
there are hundreds of. thousands Of men
yet alive who served from four to six
years, and that Per Diem Bill would
bankrupt the country. Our readers have
already seen the absurd statement sent
out from Washington that the Per Diem
Bill would cost over $1O0,000,000 a
year. Unfortunately we cannot get
exact figures to disprove these state
ments. 1t would take years to get an
accurate list of living veterans, and go
over the rolls Of the War Department
and find out just how many days each
man served.
On the other hand, we can show con-
clusiyely that there are not more than
100000 veterans who are not on the
pension-roll who would receive SIS a
month. IF we add to these the number
on the pension-roll whose pensions would
be raised to So month, we can present
indisputable figures as to what a Service
Pension will cost and silence these men.
THE REPORT on SCHOOL HISTORIES.
General Orders, No. 5, from Com
mander-in- Chief Clarkson, publish the
important results arrived at in the ex-
animation of the histories used in the
schools, by the National Committee Of
the GAR. ON School Histories. The
report of the Chairman of the Committee
states facts which must startle every
loyal citizen. They are facts which are
we'll known in many communities, and
which have, from time to time, been
strongly animadyerted upon by indi-
vidual comrades, Posts, and veteran or
CARNATIONS. This is the first time, how
ever, that comprehensive examination
has been made of all the histories in use
il thecountry outside of Dixie. The Com
mittee finds that there is no exception to
the rule that the school histories have been
carefully modulated down, to make them
salable in the South, until the last
vestiges of distinction between patriotism
and disloyalty have been removed, and
the child who studies them inevitably
gets the impression that it was rather a
more creditable thing to have fought
against the Government than for it.
This is no ultra-loyal shrek" 1t is
the calm judgment of comrades who have
studied the books thoroughly, and made
every allowance for the demands of exact
truth, on-partisanship. and non-section-
alism. None of us want the children
taught anything that savors of sectional
ism or partisanship. None of us would
tolerate it for an instant. We want
every child reared in the broadest and
most enthusiastic love for every inch Of
the soil over which Old Glory floats.
We want them taught to recognize every
other American as fellow-citizen and a
| brother.
But most emphatically, we want them
taught that this is Nation with the
best Government in the world, that the
highest and noblest duty that a man
can do is to defend it with his very life
and that the men who fought rebellion
to its death were as highly patriotic as
those who fought to gain its indepen-
dence, to secure it from foreign aggres
sion, or to place its banners on the walls
of Mexico. And we want the exact
truth taught about the battles of the re-
bellion-that while they were struggle:
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