The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-25
GAVE THEM CONCRETE
ARTIFICIAL SIDEWALKS GIVEN TO
SOLDIERS WHILE THEIR
CHILDREN STARVED
VETERANS ASK FOR NEW LAW
They Want the Legislature. to Re-
store the Old Appropriation of
$4,000 Year for the Soldiers
Home Fund, Which Was Cut or
mt the Session of Is97-solons
Raidad by the 6. A. r..


Members of the G. A. R. posts at
tending the state encampment of the
| order made a sortfe on the legislature
yesterday They did not exactly de-
clare war on the lawmakers, but in
timated that unless the Legislature ap-
propriate $4,000 annually for the sup
port CT the soldiers home the official
lives of the members would be cut
short with the present session.
The visit Of the old soldiers to the
house was heralded by the adoption of
a resolution presented by Mr.. Winston
| Oem.), of Hennepin, that an invita-
ton be and is hereby extended to the
members of the Grand Army of the Re-
public now in attendance upon their
annual encampment in this city, to
visit this body, and for that purpose
the privilege of the floor be extended
to such members" rs
At 11:30 500 veterans marched into the
hall with Commander SearIe and Past
Commander Mortimer in the lead
Speaker Dare welcomed the visitors
and said the members of the house
We're all friends of the old soldiers
John Day Smith said: "A few of US
have come up to greet you and ask that
home and the soldiers who fought not
only in 1861, but in the war now being
fought. We performed work committed
to our care in the past, and now as
citizens we ask you to do the work
committed to you. Two years ago the
annual appropriation of $4,000 for the
soldiers home was repealed and we
| come to ask the restoration of the ap-
preparation. The soldiers relief fund
has been drawn upon during the past
two years to support the soldiers home,
and when appeals come for aid we are
obliged to refuse. -
Samuel R. Van SAINT alluded to the
SIS, 600 which had been appropriated to
erect a monument to the honor of the
Minnesota soldiers at Chickamauga as
what had been done for sentiment
Now it was asked that something be
done for the gallant men who survived
the battlefialds. He hoped the old SOL
diers would get all they wanted from
the legislature Ks
John Day Smith Suggested. if roll
call could be secured at the present
moment, there would be no doubt but
! that the soldiers would get all they
| wanted
| Former Lieut.. Gov Barto said when
| the legislature in their ...unwisdom" cut
off the appropriation for the soldiers
home, in order to make up for
this the trustees had to take the
pittance appropriated for relief of the
OLD soldiers to operate the home
We represent $1,000 voters and the
highest type of citizenship ever known
to man. We are also politicians. and
If justice is not done us the next legis-
lature will tumble over themselves to
| give us what we want. The man who
votes against the soldiers home appro-
! pration will be sorry for it,
After few remarks by ]. M. D.
| Craft, Mr.. Winston Oem.). Hennepin,
was called on. He told the old soldiers
it was much more pleasant to mingle
with them on the floor of the Mime
scta house of representatives than at
Gettysburg and the Wilderness.
Ell Torrance said the veterans came
not as politicians but as citizens with
a just cause and with the belief that
the right would triumph. The home
was now kept open by appropriation
from the national government and the
$11 900 from the pensions of the men
who lived at the home. The state did
nothing for the home The country was
united in word and deed and the old
soldiers in their declining days should
be made comfortable to show that they
had not been forgotten by the nation
they helped to save.
At the afternoon session of the house
Messrs. Crafts and Foster, a commit
| tee from the encampmelt, explained
| that the members of the organization
desired to correct the false Impression
left by the speeches. made in the
morning.
At the time it was not known that
the appropriation for the Soldiers
home had been done away with at the
| request of the board of trustees Of the
home, for what was then supposed to
| be for the best interests Of the home.
The drift of the remarks would have
been very different had this fact been
known. and it was not the intention
to find fault with the members of the
legislature for something they were not
to blame for.
Mr.. Staples CRep9, Of Dakota, who
was a member of the subcommittee
from the appropriations committee two
years ago, corroborates the statements
as to the repeal of the law appropriate
| ing $4,000 annually to the Soldiers
| home.
Capt. Castle appeared before the
committee at the time the omnibus ap-
preparation bill was being prepared"
said Mr.. Staples, land not only sug-
gested but insisted that the board of
trustees did not want the money. He
said there was balance of $4,000 on
| hand and that a further appropriation
might lead to extravaganza. On his