The National tribune., 1898-09-08

age of this law had no peuSiOnable status OF
account of their remarriage without iillns
claim for pension. The soldier-husband fol
some reason had not claimed pension, anC
the widow had not filed claim, although
she may have remained "A widow from one tt
20 years or more. Under the act mentioned
the widow becomes the beneficiary OF the
Government practically for the use and bene
lit OF the second husband
Commissioner Evans is of opinion that the
operation of this law Is contrary to the spirit
or intent of Just and generous recognition
of the soldiers service. The widows pen
sion, he SAYS is intended to aid, assist, and
comfort the soldiers widow during her widow
hood
We shall continue our examination o.
the report in future issues.
THE TROUBLE WITH THE VOLUNTEERS
The clamors with which the papers
are now filled over the condition and
treatment of the troops may be analyzed
into the following elements:
/. Yellow sensationalism, which must
have something to feed on, now that the
exciting events of the war have stopped
so abruptly, leaving all these papers
with full head of steam on;
2. A vigorous partisan effort to find
something to make live issue for the
coming political campaign;
8. Acute home>ickness on the part OF
volunteers, which always reaches its
critical stage after a man has been out
about three months, and is likely to be
uncomfortable when he sees little oppor-
tunity for active service;
4. Entirely too much mex cusable
bungling and incompetency by Regular
staff officers;
5. Entirely too much neglect, ignor-
ance and incompetency by officers Of
volunteers.
All these are the inevitable results
and accomplishments of every war.
They always have been-and Away
will be. The best we can hope for is to
learn something all the time, and event
ually reduce these to a minimum. 1t is
little comfort to know that other Ma
tons have precisely the same troubles.
The English have had frightful expert
ences with their Regular staff officers,
and the breakdown Of the British Ad.
utant-Generals, Quartermaster'., Com
missary and Medical Departments in
the Crimean war was painfully humiliat-
ing to British pride, and cost tens OF
thousands of lives. Our own staff has
always been similarly inefficient in our
previous wars, and furnished some very
painful chapters in the history of the
war of 1872, the Mexican war, and that
of the rebellion. We had hoped that
they had taken advantage of the lessons
learned then and improved in men and
methods But this war has shown that
the Improvement has not been as great
as hoped for, and the cuisines" de-
partments of our Army have nothing
like the ability to be found in the man
agenent Of our great railroads, factories,
etc.
OF course, there always will be in
competent men found among the officers
Of volunteers, just as incompetents are
found everywhere. Unfortunately the
volunteers have just been long enough
in service to develop all Of these at once,
and it makes a startling showing, which
is used to the disadvantage of the vol
unteers. 1t is forgotten that the Regu-
lar Army is all the time developing
and wedding out inferior material, while
all the scum in the volunteers is brought
to the surface at once.