Sunday Washington globe., 1902-04-06

boy who overstayed his leave two
weeks to see his girl while the regiment is
in camp Of organization after months
service; re-enlists in another regiment
through the solicitations of recruiting
officer and partly through fear of being pun.
ished for overstaying his leave. This we
will suppose is two weeks after his leave
expired and say two months after his FIRST
enlistment. That boy serves through FIVE
battles and for two. and.a-half wears In the
field; is never absent or sick, but always
ready for duty. AT the end Of two and-a-
half years he takes pneumonia, OF measles.
from service exposure, is discharged there.
for, and Evans rejects his application for
pension for lung disease, proved bv the
record and by the family physician and the
officers, comrades and neighbors. Had that
boy and his. officers and friends known
enough to have had him transferred back
to his old regiment, as would have been
done on application at any time during the
woand-a half years, and as thousands were
in similar cases Evans would have granted
his pension. The rule of the Pension
Department is wholly illegal, because it is
not only without a scrap OF law to support
it, but like the now famous guardian de-
cisious of Judge (9) Campbell, is law set
up in a civil branch of the law based on
branch of the criminal law A legally en-
listed soldier may be punished for any in.
fraction of the rules of war the criminal
side of the code) but unless the Govern
ment disafirmed his enlistment as a part of
the punishment, no law exists for now
adding this additional penalty. The Grim
inal penalties have no relation TO the valid
ity of the civil contract A soldiers enlist.
ment is purely civil contract, the same as
a contract for work and labor, and is gov
erned by the same law The whitened
sepulchre of the Pension Department is full
of dead mems bones, and all 6lthiness.
II is estimated that there are $1,000 re.
enlisted deserters cut out of their legal
rights similarly to the above assumed case
The assumed case is one of thousands that
can be taken from the files of the Pension
Office. The Norton case was made to order
and is a rule Of dollars, not desertion. The
syllabus of the Norton decision followed
Evans order, but the body Of the decision
was hotch-potch.
In the case of President Roosevelts first
veto against granting relief to these two
boys, the report Of the Senate committee
shows that the boy Glass was in the navy a
"drst-class boy" aged 10 years. Within
two months after his enlistment having
haam q yngffV4aec. ", 81
promising nature affecting the second
officer on March 5, 1864, was taken ashore
on the following day by said officer, pre-
sented with money to purchase a civilian
suit and told not to report back to his ship
for duty D." Congress based the bill for relief
on the fact that this boy had lived under
the disgrace Of this charge for thirty-eight
years, and the extenusSing circumstances
which the committee found to exist iusti.
fed this relief after this period of punish
ment. We have pardoned all the rebels
who bore arms against the United States.
Roosevelt placed his veto on the ground
that as President he was going 10 be hard
on deserters; and why did the boy not re-
enlist? Ask Evans what he is doing to
re-enlisted deserters Lapse Of time aud
continuous Dunishmentis one of the we'll
known points considered in pardons in con-
nection with exteuuating circumstances.
Re-enlistment would have given away his
friend the second officer. There is always
honor among thieves. That is why Secre-
tary Hitchcock of the Interior Department
declared in his last annual report that Pen
sion Commissioner Evans is 'the best friend
the veterans have"