The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-01-26
AS to Quibbling and Honor.

The quibbling Montpelier wATcHMAN
processes to be unable to perceive how the
honesty Of the veterans is at all involved in
the charge Of Wholesale frauds in the PEN
sion list. But the Waterman is not as OBJ
tuse as 1t tries to make itself out to be. II
it will bring its really gigantic intellect to
bear on the subject 1t will perceive that the
assertion Of the New York Sun that there
are nearly two hundred thousand (193, 805)
more pensioners and applicants for PEN
sions than there are survivors Of the war,
touches the honor OF the body Of veterans.
IL 1t were to be proved that of every ten
men who claim the honor OF share In the
armed defence Of the Union, two or more
are frauds, would 1t not cloud the title OF
the honest veterans2 II charge were made
that twenty per cent Of the inhabitants OF
Montpelier were convicted thieves, would
not the wAToHMAN be quick to resent 1t as
shameful arraignment of the honesty of
that community OF course 1t would.-Free
Press.
This contemporary would denounce
the multiplication table as a bubble if
that time.honored statement of funda-
mental truth should chance to conflict
with any one of the job lot of notions
that constitute its stock of ideas. How
really gigantic intellect" buckles
down to reasoningi Because an indef-
mite but admitted percentage of surviv-
ing soldiers who are pensioners, or APP
plicants for pensions, have no just or
honorable claim on the bounty of the
government, a statement of this truth
" touches the honor of the body of vet
Grams" just as, if the charge were
made that some men in Montpelier, for
example, have not proper regard for
the rights of properly, a statement of
this fact "would cloud the title " of the
great body of the members of that com.
munity who are honest. Would it, in
deed?
Unfortunately it is fact that a GER
tain but indefinite per cent of human
ity are thieves, or are otherwise CLASH
fed as rascals. Probably every human
community has its percentage of erring
humanity, which may be above or be-
low the average for the population at
large; and a statement of this fact,
which is constantly finding expression
in one form or another, "touches the
honor" of the body of the people, if
the theory OF the expert logic chopper
of the Free Press ia correct. But
person whose moral perceptions are not
blunted, or clouded by conceit, might
set up the claim that the honor of the
great body of the people of nation or
a community would be touched" if
they winked at theft and fraud, or
other kind of rascality, and made no
effort to purge themselves of the rascals.
And this claim would undoubtedly be
sustained by any man or body of re ason-
able men--outside of the Free Press Of
flee. "Of course it would"
The men who enlisted in the army
were human, the great majority who
were true patriots, as well as the small
minority who were shirks, or deserters.
or bounty jumpers; and "the honor of
the body of veterans " is touched" by
the complaint that a large number of
this unworthy minority have fraudu-
lently got their names on to the pension
rolls, in the same way, and in no other,
as the honor of the upright members of
any community is affe cted by the gen.
eral statement Of the fact that part of
its members may be rascals of some
sort. The honor of good citizens may
be "clouded," not by the circumstance
that some of their fellow citizens are
wrong doors, but by winking at their
rascality, or by making no effort to
" turn the rascals out"