The National tribune., 1903-07-02
BEWARE OF COMPLICATION.

time. The temper of the people and OF
Congress is ripe for a plain, straight ser
vice pension bill; but neither the people
nor Congress have any patience for mani
fold details or ingenious ideas to be in,
corporated into such legislation.
Any comrade can test this for himself
in his own neighborhood. Let him talk
to any gathering of his fellow-citizens that
he may find about service pension, and
he will find them quite ready to admit that
every man who served the Government
honorably should now be taken care of in
quite willing to agree that So per week is
a not unreasonable sum for the Govern
ment to pay. but the moment he goes be-
yond this and begins to talk about adding
other things, differentiating between long
and short service, making the pension ''ad-
ditional," making the pay as good as gold,
equalizing the bounties, etc, etc, he will
find the attention of his auditors rapidly
tagging, and those who continue to pay
attention will begin to get disputatious
that proposed amendment.
The result will inevitably be that they
will impatiently dismiss the whole sub
ject and say, "Well, if you old fellows
can not agree upon what you want you
can't expect us to, and 1 expect, after all,
the present laws are about right"
What is true of that little community
or gathering is equally true Of any other
community or gathering in the United
States, and will be true of Congress-
which reflects the sentiment of these COM
munities or gatherings. The people of this
country have great many other things to
think about than pensions. They have
not the time nor the patience for anything
but the simplest propositions.
They will not take the time to consider
the minutiae of complicated laws. They
want something extremely plain and
brief, which they can understand at
glance and dispose of. The straight SER
vice pension bill fulfls this requirement.
Every American citizen worthy of the
name is deeply sensible of the great work
done by the men who composed the Union
armies from 1861 to 1865, and they are all
anxious that the survivors Of these men
old age. Not one of them will oppose so
modest proposition as to give every sur
yiving veteran S3 per week and the same
to the widows of those who have died.
They will nnhesitatingly concede that this
is ordinary national gratitude and JUS
tice.
The moment anybody begins to talk
about different rates for men who render
ed more or less service, there comes into
the minds of the hearers a suspicion that
something like ''class legislation" is being
contemplated, thing the very mention
of which is abhorrent to American IDEAS.
1t does not matter how much justice there
may be in the pleas made for this diff
ferentiation. The ordinary citizen is very
prone to say, 81 have been hearing entire
ly too much of unjust determinations in
the Pension Bureau, and I am not in
favor of any law which will give an op-
portunity for more of that kind Of work.
Everybody who fought for the Union de-
serves well Of his country, and / believe,
with President Harrison, that it is cruel
to use an apothecary scale in dealing out
pensions"
This has been the history Of pension
legislation in the past, and it will be the
history of pension legislation in the future.
All the survivors Of the Revolutionary
War were put on precisely the same foot
ing, as were also those of the War of
1872. The Mexican pension bill made no
discrimination whatever as to length of
service, but gave just as much to the man
who had merely enlisted and was on his
way to the Rio Grande as it did to those
who had fought the war through.
We are not dealing on the abstract ius-
tice or injustice of this law, but with the
frame of mind Of the American people and
Of Congress.
Undoubtedly the men who fought at
Buena Vista and who followed Scott from
Vera Cruz to Mexico City were entitled to
a higher rate of pension than the men who
"cie ohiy Ill CdLup OI INSTRUCTION toward
the close of the war, but no discrimina-
ton was made between them, and at the
time of the passage Of the bill it would
have been hopeless to attempt to get any
law through which would make such dis
elimination. 1t is equally hopeless now,
If we expect the speedy passage Of a ser
vice pension bill.
The moment that we begin to talk about
determinations of any kind, that moment
We give an opportunity for endless agita-
ton and discussion by the men who do
not want to see a service pension bill of
any kind passed, and they will use any
dispute between ourselves as a most eff
fective club with which to beat the brains
out Of any proposed bill.
We will find these men now opposing
a straight service pension bill because it
does not make any discrimination between
long and short-termed men, but if we
make such discrimination they will be the
ioudest shriekers against "class legisla-
ton for the veterans" and most eloquent
about the injustice of putting off men
with smaller rates who probably did more
service than the men who get higher al
lowances." We have to fight these men
any way, but We can fight them easier and
moro succoScfullv hy n c;v,ol, L.