The National tribune., 1899-11-23
THE SIMPLE. PLAIN ISSUE.

In spite of the cloud OF qulbbilng, so
phistry, and tergiversation with which
Mr.. Evans has laboriously striyen to be-
cloud the real issue in controversy, it still
remains Enthusiastically prominent and clear
1t stands out like promontory amid a
whirling mass of clouds.
These facts stand unalterable, un-
| deniable, and unconcealable:
The act of June 27, 1890, was passed as
virtual Service Pension Bill. Every one
intended that it should be straight Service
Pension Bill, with the sole qualifications
that the claimant should be in some degree
disabled, and that his disability should
not be directly due to his own vicious habits
1t merely intended that notorious drunkards
and debauchees should be excluded from
its benefits. The widows of all soldiers
should be entitled to pensions if they We're
| in moderate circumstances, and not leading
openly disreputable lives.
2. The act was so construed and admins
tered for three years, and this construction
received the practical Endorsement OF the
two Congresses which Immediately sue
ceeded the one which passed it.
3. President Cleveland came in with
his openly pronounced hostility to the
whole pension system. The act Of June
%, 1890, had received so much popular
favor that he did not dare attempt to have
it repealed. So he set the ablest legal
minds that he could gather about him to
work to find some device by which
it could be rendered null and imperative.
act passed for any purpose which cunning
lawyers could not find some loop-hole in,
and which could be made effective, if Judges
and executants were 50 disposed. The
preteXt in this case was that the act had set
up new kind of disability hitherto I'M
known to our laws, and also introduced
unusual moral qualifications. This was
regarded as merely a cunning trick by
President Cleveland and his advisers, and
so denounced all over the country. No
body of any legal repute spoke OF it other
than as a sharp device to get around and
vitiate law which Mr.. Cleveland did not
desire to execute.
4. The denunciation of this subterfuge
was general and bitter all over the country
for more than three years. 1t took place
in all veteran gatherings, in Post-rooms,
in annual Encampments, and in National
Encampments. 1t was the subject OF
bitter reproaches in stump speeches, and in
the editorials of newspapers. 1t became
an important factor in Congressional
elections, and secured a majority against
Mr.. Cleveland in the 54th Congress, which
attempted to curb the Commissioner of
Pensions by restrictive legislation. 1t
became burning issue in the Presidential
campaign of 1896, and every candidate
upon the Republican tickets that year
denounced the subterfuge, the trick, the
perversion Of the law unsparingly, and
promised its immediate "obliteration of
every vestige of Hokesmithism" if the
party were successful.
). The party was successful, and one
Of the benefciaries Of that success was
Henry Clay Evans, who received the i'm
portant Office of Commissioner Of Pen
sions.
6. What was the amazement Of every
body to find him, instead Of at once re
moving and obliteratiag every vestige Of
Hokesmithism and Lochrenism," pro-
II {
sion good law, ard claiming that Gen.
Harrison, Gen. Noble, and Gen. Raum
had been grossly erroneous in their reading
and construction. Instead of "obliterating
Hokesmithism and Lochrenism," he made
every trick and device of their regime the
basis of his policy, upon which he built
improvements of his own.
This is all there is of it, and no amount
of columns of Evans's sophistry can OBJ
scure the actual facts.
Were the great body of veterans and
| their friends, who carried on agitation for
10 years for the measure, with President
Harrison, Secretary Noble, Commissioner
Raum, and the 51st, SD, and SD Con-
crosses entirely wrong in their views of
what the act of June 81, 1890, meant, and
were President Cleveland, Secretary Hoke
Smith, and Commissioner Lochren and
Evans the only ones whose views We're
correct?
To state the question is TO show the abb
surdity Of the whole ghastly pretense.