The National tribune., 1903-10-08
A MATTER OF PROPER PUBLIC POLICY.


and proper public policy. It is something
having its basis in the very fundamental
principles of a Government Of the people
for the people and by the people. Every
other Government in the world secures
its stability by strong regular armies, kept
of years, and which are q severe burden
upon the people. Thus in the best exam.
pie of this. that of Germany, the burden
is excessive because of the immense num-
Der of youths who are taken from the
productive labor of the country and COM
sides of such n country are robbed in this
way. because the soldiers themselves get
little pay or other reward for their years
of service. and they are deprived of the
opportunity of perfecting themselves in
their chosen walks in life. People who
lily to maintain them, and are also deprived
of this large quota of the available labor
of the nation.
When our fathers established popular
Government on the most democratic prin-
cipes they determined that its support
should rest with the people themselves, as
was right and proper for any people claim
ing to be self-governing. Therefore the
obligation was laid upon every male Of
military age that he should be liable to
serve the country in its army or navy
whenever the necessity should arise. The
IL, i h.. 1,,, Il Il,
of universal CONSUMPTION by a system Of
volunteers. If the principle of universal
liability to service was adopted, then it
followed that in every war every man
must go into camp and do his share to-
ward defending the country and securing
peace. To carry this out would intlict
great hard, lip. and enormously cripple the
resources Of the country by taking away
from the industries number of men who
were imperatively needed there. Therefore
the first step in every war has been for
the Government to call for volunteers
that is, men capable of military service
who feel particularly inclined to rally
around the Flag. whenever it is assailed.
This leaves those who have urgent duties
at home and all who are not inclined to
go into battle to follow their vocations I'M
disturbed while the battles are fought for
them by those of stronger spirit and mill
tary inclination.
The system of volunteering has worked
so well through all the vicissitudes Of the
country's history that it has become
al ;,lo
gained our independence from Great
Britain: they successfully repealed the
British invasion in our second wal with
them; were successful in all the Indian
troubles that we have had; they carried
the flag of the United States from the
Gulf and the Rio Grande, to the capital
Of Mexico: they were the country's safe
and sure reliance when it was assailed by
the most gigantic rebellion that ever
threatened any Government, and they
acquired new laurels by their conduct in
Cuba, Porto Rico. and the Philippines.
The policy of the Government Of keeping
its standing army at the lowest possible
minimum, using it only as school for ia
struction, and nucleus for its greater
army, has become a SO definitely fixed
policy that it will never be departed from
as long as we remain a free country.
The next step in this reasoning is that
those who volunteered to take upon them
selves the duties, the risks and hardships
of defending the country which were in
cumbent upon all its citizens, deserved spe
ri nj ri 10
that the others do not. This has
taken expression in the allowance to such
men, when they reach certain period in
their life, of a service pension. And this
is as much the settled. policy of the coun-
try as having volunteer armies. Its JUS
never can be questioned successfully and
little effort have been made to question
it. 1t was a recognized principle long be-
fore the formation Of the Government
even. The men who volunteered in the
colonial days to fight the Indians were
later given substantial recognition in the
shape of land grants and other provisions
for their old age. When the Government
was formed, it became part of the higher
unwritten law of the country, and every
man to whose name is attached the slight
est credit for building up the Government
to where it is, was a strong supporter of
the system, and voted insistently upon Civ
ing service pensions to the soldiers of the
Revolution, of the War of 1912, and the
Indian wars. The time has now come for
the survivors of the great war of the re-
bellion to be treated precisely as their pre-
decessors Of previous wars have been
treated, and no good argument can be Of
fered why they should not be. Their ser
as that of any Of their predecessors; they
made fully as great sacrifices in the coun-
try's interests; they served much longer
terms; they fought inconceivably more and
bloodier battles; they fought many single
battles, the killed and wounded in which
aggregated more than the entire number
of killed and wounded in all the other
wars in which the country has been en-
gagged; they fought more battles than make
up a century of Europe's bloodiest his
tory. The pension rolls Of today repre-
sent more hard and sanguinary fighting
than all the pension rolls of Europe do.
lncomparably more was required of them
than of any other soldiers who ever stood
their services have been commensurate
with its immensely. From being one of the
poorest and weakest of the great nations