The National tribune., 1901-01-10
THE eo.h CENTURY AND THE VETERANS.

Gen. Sickles sounded a keynote in his
address to the President when he urged
him to sgnalize the opening of the new
century by some act of signal justice and
liberality to the aged men and women who
for the last 40 years of the dying century
had been the countrys mainstay and sure
reliance.
There was scarcely need of more than a
reminder to the President of the incalcula-
| Bic services rendered the country by the
| veterans, for he is as fully conscious of
| them as any one.
| Not by any means did their great serv-
| ices to the country end when they We're
| mustered out. AppomattoX and the other
| surrenders which followed We're only de-
cisive because the men who had COM
| PEELED those events We're still within easy
call and ready at any time to compel by
| physical force the abiding by the terms
then made. This was all that secured the
peaceful reconstruction of the country and
its undisturbed progress toward prosperity
and greatness. With 100000 rebels late
| ~ in arms, still living in the South, with
| them all more or less embittered by their
defeat, and by the radical changes i'll bust
ness, society, politics, etc, which followed
| the war, it is amazing that the country
| passed through the succeeding decade
| without serious outbreaks and troubles.
| That it was able to do so was wholly due
to the inflexibly firm attitude of the vet
1 Grams, who, though discharged and follow
| ing peaceful pursuits, were scarcely less
a power than they had been as an organ
| lied army. -Four years of the most ter
rife fighting the world had ever seen had
tempered and welded them into an incom-
| parable moral and physical power, which
| the Government of the United States
could WELD with rcsistless force in any
direction that sound public policy dictated.
1t was knowledge of their prowess and
their solidarity which compelled the
French to hurry out of Mexico and the
British to agree to the Geneva Conven-
ton. Napoleon I'LL knew that no force he
| could send to Mexico could make the
slightest Roadway against them, and
Great Britain was quite willing to pay
100000 to save Canada from an inya-
sion that they were only too willing to
make. They, and only they, saved the
country from the horrors Of civil war in
1876.
And so, ever since, through all the com
motions, the turmoils, the threatened up
heavals which menaced the very founda-
tons of society, the veterans have been
the bulwark and reliance of the country.
No matter who else wandered off after
strange gods, they were found true to the
highest and best interests of the country;
they threw all their immense moral power
solidly on the right side, and were as
ready as ever to follow it up with their
physical strength as lar as their strength
would go.
The veterans were the backbone of the
movement for the war against Spain, and
when the yellow papers started their cru
SADIE on embalmed beef and the horrors of
camp life, the veterans simply laughed
them out of court.
So it has been all the time. Any man
saying or proposing anything against the
highest honor of the country has at once
encountered the fierce wrath of the vet
Grams.
Now, after 40 years Of unequaled serv
ices, how are the veterans to be treated
in the years that may be vouchsafed them
in this century?
Is there to be a man in the Pension Blu
reau, as there has been for the past seven
years, whose every utterance will be a de-
NAL of the services of the veterans as a
class, an impugnment of their honesty and
honor, sneer at their wounds and dis
abilities?
Are they to continue to be treated as il
they, of all the creditors of the Govern
ment, were essentially dishonest and must
be treated with a harshness and suspicion
not shown toward any other class?
Are laws passed for their benefit to be
scornfully nullified, and money appropri
ated to meet their just claims returned to
the Treasury unexpended, for the purpose
of building up some officials reputation as
an economist!
Is the practice to go on that no mans or
womans claim, no matter how just or well
proven, is to be allowed until some one
dies and makes i place on the roll for him
or her?
We do not believe it. We have conf
dence that now, with his hands far frcer
than they have been since he entered Of
fee, President Mckinley will find time to
make personal investigation of the man
agement of the Pension Bureau and insti-
tute reforms which his own sense of JUS
tice will suggest, independent Of the wide
spread complaints that have been reaching
him for years.
SO mote it be.