The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-26

veterans urged the justice of congress- ienal aetioa giving a service pension to all veterans. Bills to that effect were in- trcdnced in congress And moi until March Of this yeaE did any one ever claim to have made the discovery that when a claimant aad passed the age of sixty-two yeafs he is neces- -arily disabled one-half in ahiiity to perDrm manual labor and therefore entitled to pension.
 The President of the civil service cont mission. Ger John c. Black formerly commissioner Of pensions and commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Re public, indicated his view of the order when in recent address he thanked the President for what he had done and ad- wed his hearers to use their influence that a law might be passed to the same effect. Full confidence after all seems not to have beea placed on the defense of justification, for it Is pleaded in miti- gation that a former democratic Presi- dent did something looking in that direc- tion. Ever if that were so-which Is not admitted-our present duty would be none the less plain and imperative. Our peo- pie must never tolerate the citation of one act of usurpaton Of power as an ex- crse for '.nother. The first may possibly be due to mistake; the second, being lased on the first, cannot be. In explan-
 
 the order relied on simply provided that the age of seventy-fiye years should be regarded aa evidence of inability to per- form manual labor. Few men are able to perform manual labor ar that age, but nearly all men are at sixty-two The first order is based on a fact that exper- fence teaches, the other is based on the assertion of that which Is not true as general rule.
 The old inquiry, ''What are you going to do about it?" Is now stated in a new form It is said by the administration, in reply to the public criticism of this or der that Tt is easy to test our opponents sincerity in this matter. The order in question is revocable at the pleasure of the executive If our opponents come in- to power they can revoke this order and announce that they will treat the veter- ans of sixty-two and seventy as presum- ably in full bodily vigor and not entitled to pension. VIII they authoritatively state that they intend to do this? If SO, we accept the issue"
 | This suggests the suspicion, at least, i that the order was made to create an issue-that 1t was supposed to present a strong strategic position in the battle of the ballots. On the assumption that the order as stated by the administration 1 is revocable at the pleasure of the execu- tive, 1t having been attempted, though perhaps unwilling encroaehment on the legislative power, and therefore unwar- ranted by the constitution, I accept the challenge and declare that if elected I will revoke that order. But I go further and say that that being done, will con- tribute my effort toward the enactment of law to be passed by both houses of congress and approved by the executive that will give an age pension without reference to disability to the surviving heroes of the civil war; and under the provisions of which a pension may be accepted with dignity because of the con- sciousness that it comes as a just due from the people through their chosen rep resentatives. and not as largess distribu- ted by the chief executive.