The National tribune., 1903-03-05
THE WAY TO SUCCEED.

/ The way to make the S12-a-Month Ser
vice Pension an early success is for the
veterans everywhere to begin earnestly dis
cussing it III all their meetings, and thus
solidifying sentiment in favor of it. The
nearer we can make the veterans unit
for it. the sooner it will become law,
and begin its beneficent work. The pub
lie mind is ready for it. People have be-
come angry and tired over the discussion
of the Pension Bureaus methods. They
are out of patience with system which
requires an aged veteran to appear time
after time at great expense and inconven-
| ience before Board of Examining Sur
geOns. not infrequently made up of ribald,
| unsympathetic young doctors, to discover
whether a man of GO or past is disabled
| from manual labor in Il reasonable de-
gree They are Indignantly weary of see
ing aged and broken men. whom they have
known all their lives. denied on some pre-
text or another the pittance which the
laws give. and they deserve. They are
Special Agents pervade the country to
gather up ill-natured neighborhoOd Cos
sip from the petty maliSnants who may
happen to dislike some worthy old man or
woman. and are eager TO stab them, when
it can be done covertly and anonymously.
venerable widows who have patiently and
lovingly ministered to their husbands I'M
til the last dark hour. and now ask in
vain for that which will keep them from
the poor house or the few years which will
remain to them before they rejoin their
husbands.
The American people strongly desire
that all this shall be ended. Most en-
phatically. they do not want to see any
man who served his country in her hour of
supreme danger. nor his widow. now de-
MED that which they bitterly need in their
years of disease and helplessness. They
want some plan presented which will
bring immediate relief to the veterans and
their widows, and secure them during the
rest Of their lives. The Service Bill will
at once commend itself to everyone. 1t
is so simple. plain and direct that it re-
CURES no cuOrt 10 CRISP IL, WHICH Is
great recommendation in proposed pension
legislation. No man or woman can deny
the justice of an allowance of So from the
Governments overfull Treasury to the old
men whose valor and self-sacrifice made
possible all that the country is or has.
The money should not be kept idle. even
harmful, in the Treasury vaults. but re-
distributed to the people. and inconceiv-
ably the best way to do this is to pay
it out in pensions, which will carry it to
every little community and village in the
country.
Any other pension proposition requires
long agitation and discussion. 1t will
arouse opposition and question. which will
have to be met. satisfied, or overcome, all
of which requires time. and of all things
the veterans and their widows can least
spare time.
The Service Pension Bill will not need
explanation nor provoke discussion. No
man can fail to understand it upon its
mere statement, and the arguments in its
favor are brief, simple and unanswerable.
The only thing necessary is to convince
the people that the veterans are solidly
united in favor of it, and every comrade
should constitute himself working COM
mttee of one to secure this.