The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-09-17
WASHINGTON
BRUTAL AND STUPID.

BRUTAL AND STUPID.
Golfers Weekly has another illustra.
get to write for the newspapers. 1t has
the following as a leading editorial in a
| recent issue:
Independence. proud and even aggres-
Sive. was once the American note. The
old order changes. with mingled progress
and deterioration. The suggestion that
every soldier who fought for the north in
the civil war should by that mere fact be
entitled to n pension reminds us unpleas-
antly of times and social orders in which
masses lived willingly on Government
charity. An arrangement so contrary to
self-reliance and self-respect would be
even worse than the present widespread
pension frauds. There is some advant-
age in even the pretense of virtue. The
thousands who now rob the Government
with fraudulent pension claims are merely
part of the CRATER army, vast iii extent,
but not an accepted principle of our be-
ing. To treat all former soldiers as pau
pers would have an effect more deterior-
ating than the present cowardly and I'M
moral system. The enormous sums taken
to fraudulent claimants form not only an
unjust burden, they form Il widespread
school Of Incidence and depravity. Deserv-
ing cases are one in many. and the rest
is systematic theft. Moral is rarer than
physical courage. and Grover Cleveland's
effort to stamp fraud out of the Pension
Bureau is unique. We know what hap
pened to Mr.. Evans under the present Adj
ministration. Courage is rare in this De-
,V.pt.
setting and popular applause. The prin-
ciple ought to be, Millions for justice. but
not one cent for tribute to any Organiza-
ton or any individual. If a citizen is held
up by heggar with threatening demean-
or. manhood requires that he should re-
fuse to be frightened into charity. Intelli-
gence requires also that he should refuse
the Supplicant whose disease is feigned.
What is the effect on patriotism, on man
hood. on independence. of never saying no
to the club. of the pension shark? Many
Il man who is brave when the center of
cameras and reporters, is Il coward, and
knows it. when popular abuse is to be
met with no other allies than his own
sense of right"
The grammar. the English the illogic
and want of information in the above are
almost as bad as its spirit, which is say
ing a great deal. Had the writer been
even commonly well informed he would
have known that the policy Of paying n
service pension after n certain period had
elapsed is an unbroken one in the history
of our Government, and is part of its mill
tary policy. We do not maintain an expen-
sive standing armyas Europeannations do.
but make up for it by calls for volunteers
in times of emergency, and it has always,
from the days of the Fathers of the Re
public, been regarded as good public pol
icy to give the men who responded to such
calls an allowance in their old age and
decrepitude for the sacrifices they made in
their youth. Every schoolboy who reads
the history of his country knows this, and
knows that it is a policy which has always
received the approval of every thinking.
patriotic man. 1t is amazing that the
writer should have been ignorant of this.
His assertion in regard to the "enOr
nous sum taken away from the whole
people to be given to fraudulent claim
ants" shows ignorance and is more mex
cusable because it involves q lack of
knowledge of very recent history.
Grover Cleveland asserted that the pen
sion system was ''hOney-combed with
fraud" and he spent many millions of
dollars and used the whole power of the
United States Civil Service to confirm his
statements, and show up the frauds. For
four years the pension system was sifted
and examined IS no other branch of the
Government expenditure ever was, and
the result was so impotent and unsatisfy-
ing that Mr.. Cleveland and the Demo-
cratic papers never dared to allude to it.
With all the power of the Pension Blu
reau, the Post Office Department, Attor
neyGenerars Department, and other Of
ficials at his command. and millions of dol
lars freely appropriated to him by Congress
for special investigation, he found not
than had been discovered in the ordinary
procedure of the Pension Bureau. Never
did any set OF men receive such vindica-
ton as the veterans did by the utter col
lapse of Mr.. Cleveland's much-trumpeted
investigation.
When the writer says Deserving cases
are one III many, and the rest is syste
matte theft" he is simply lying outra-
geOusly in the face of admitted and we'll
known facts.