The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-07
SPECIAL TRAIN IDEA.
General shafter Says 1t Can Be Worked
With Returning Regiments.

General shafter Says 1t Can Be Worked
With Returning Regiments.
II the people of Montana desire to
Drlng their soldiers home from San
francisco by special train on muster
out they have an opportunity of ar
ranging now for special pay car to ac-
company the train, thus preventing a
loss of time in san Francisco. 1t has
been given out in number of states
which will have troops coming home
soon that it would be impossible to have
special pay car attached to a special
train. In reply to a letter sent him
from Colorado General Shafter. COM
handing the department of the Pacific.
has written the following letter:
San Francisco. Cal, July %, 1899
Mrs. Mary Amy Ingersoll. President
Colorado Volunteer Relatives Union,
Denver, Colo: Dear Madam-Your let
ter of July u, with newspaper clipping,
received. All troops, including the Ore
gon and the Colorado troops, are to be
mustered out at the Preside of San
Francisco. After they have been mus
tered out, If they elect and choose 10
go home in body, 1 will arrange to
have pay car attached to their spe-
cial train and have them paid off in
their own home. I have offered to do
this in the case of the Oregon troops
and it rests with them whether or not
'iity oSScpt LIE plOpuSltlOH OF, on tne
other hand, receive their pay in this
city and go their several ways.
Now ! can do this same thing for
the Colorado troops after they are mus
tered out here, provided the officers and
men want it to be done; it rests entirely
with them. Very respectfully yours,
WILLIAM r. SKATER,
Major General u. S. A."
A misapprehension seems to exist in
Anaconda and elsewhere regarding the
need of special train to get the troops
home in body. 1t has been said that
a special train is not needed, as the gov
eminent will give the soldiers transport
tation home whether they are mustered
out in San Francisco or Montana. That
is very true, but there are other con-
sideratlons. The Montana troops will
be mustered out at San Francisco with
out doubt. On the muster out each
man will be paid in full and will be
given what is termed travel pay, other
wise money with which to purchase mis-
transportation home. If the paying is
done in San Francisco, where the San
Francisco people are anxious to have it,
the returned volunteers, intoxicated by
their return to civilization. will doubt
less spend large portion of the money
there and will come struggling home
by many routes. To prevent this the
special train idea has been suggested
Ollt ny WIllcn the VIII be
brought home in a body and will get
here with all their pay, travel pay from
San Francisco included, in a body
The plan is for the people of the state
to charter a special train from San
Francisco to Montana and, on the mus
ter out, have the Montana volunteers
board it. A pay car attached to the
train will contain a paymaster and his
clerks and en- route home the men will
be paid. Each man is, by law, entitled
to travel pay from the point of muster
out to his home. This plan is the only
one that has been suggested that will
insure the men all coming home to-
gether and not deprive them of their
full amount of pay. If the troops are
mustered out in Montana they will lose
the travel pay which would amount to
over $50 per man. They want that
money and hence desire to be mustered
out in San Francisco.