The National tribune., 1904-06-23
. PENSION VIEWS PlTiilLY PUT.

PENSION VIEWS PlJnlEY PUT. :.
one Of the Lite 0nrs ssys His Little Say
NJ. J. Gilstfaps Jusction City, Ore, tells
| a story and suhmiAs his opinions thus:
Perhaps this OBJ tS Be printed . IN II the ,e
can squeeze into Picket Shots. Little Pet,
was always schaming Tor and often got
sweet crackers, canned peaches, cake, pie,
poultry, puddin4b, ham, eggs, tenderloins
and fresh cream, with springhouse butter;
but he thought that hardtack and army
bacon was good enollIh for the rest of us.
Now, the per,diem pension proposition
is Little Pet s6henes - s:s,s.s I II.
Il was born sMarch 4, 1874; enlisted
March II, 1862. in CO.: b, I'd and -11th
Consolidated 'Mo: 8. n. Cay. Served there
ing into. Co. u, 42d Mo. Honorably dis
charged June %, 1865.
You boys who enlisted in 1851 at the
first call for three months men and then for
three years, were brave boys. No one will
contradict that. 1t is you who favor the
Little Pet pension scheme, nevertheless.
You were brave and YOU were patriotic;
but you had no more courage nor had you
greater patriotism than the late comers,
good comrades! What had you to do with
| fixing the date of your birth, that you
should be paid for being born first, any
way?
when you first went to war you and all
others in the North believed that suppress
ion Of the rebels was to be before break
fast job and some of yeu feared that the
war would be over before you could reach
the front You were patriots, and brave,
and you felt that the rebels deserved more
punishment than they were likely to re-
ceive, and you were in a hurry to make
picnic excursion down South and clean out
the Confederacy.
"Of course, in time you learned that the
guessing machine used when the first call
was made was shy cog and had loose
resistance pin that should have been tight
ened. After few big battles and several
retreats of the 'sOOnerS-nOW, mark me,
you did not lack pluck nor did you need
another grain of patriotism-y0u were all
right in those respects! Well, after be-
ing resisted and battered and beaten and
butchered, your bravery grew with neces-
sity for It and your patriotism was sOlidi-
fed to the point of save the country or die
trying; but you were anxious for the help
OF those boys who responded to the call of
| their own patriotism and the offer of 500
bounty. You had learned that it was to
be real war, without any picnic entice-
| ments. You had not finished your before
breakfast job, and it was mighty hot day,
and yet early in the forenoon, with no time
for breakfast. But you put high figure
on your patriotism Uncle Sam had to pay
you $4OO to get the further use of your
bravery. You had the bravery % sell, and
you had the patriotism to sell it when the
country must have it or collapse. You got
your $4OO and bonus--in a 6O-days' fur
| Tough in which to go home and urge the
| late-cOmers to join the sOOners at the front.
There was no befOre-breakfast picnic ex-
cursion inducement to offer the late COM
ers. 10 entice their patriotism was given,
bloody, fierce, terrible, deadly war. To 60
| to the front then required deal more
patriotism and deal more bravery than
was required when you went on your be-
| fore-breakfast picnic excursion! You had
| the patriotism and you had the bravery
necessary to take you, even had you known
the condition of unrepair of the guessing
| machine relied upon when you went in
1861 but you didn't need it all. Therefore,
| l say that more was needed in the late
cOmers than in the sooners. i am far from
| saying that the late comers had more; they
needed more and they had all that they
needed. They filed your depleted ranks
| and they made better soldiers in 80 days
than you did in so days, because you were
there to teach them; and as you had nobody
| to teach you you had learned by experience
| and you were the best teachers in the
| world.
you had gone ont for a before breakfast
patriotic picnic excursion, and you had
stirred UP hornets nest and the air was
| thick with angry hornets. And they were
ugly insects to meet. for while you were
| acquiring your education in war you were
teaching them more than thing or two,
and they had become an ugly army to as
| sault.
"You had done much: but you had not
done all that there was to do; nor had you
| done at all what you had expected to do
You needed help; you had to have help or
you would utterly fail. The life of the
country was in the very gravest danger
Well, the late comers joined you. You got
the help: with the help you saved the life
or the country; peace was secured, the re-
| beliion was suppressed: the Union was
| cemented. Now, l really feel that the soon
ers should say to the late corners: We'll
done. good and faith comrades Come up
little higher! Share with us the glory we
could not have saved without your help
1t is true that you did not go to work until
the llth hOur--but a parable justifies full
wages in such cases; and il there are TO
be pensions. all should enjoy them. The
service of the late conner was as good for
the Government as that of the sooner
Comrades Of 1861, don't allow anybody
to convince you against your own reason
that you deserve more Of your coun nv for
being born year or two earlier in the 10Th
century than was your younger brother
who was too young to join you when the
hrst call to arms was issued: he reinforced
| you when You needed his help. and when
ne knew deal more about the dangers
and hartships of war than you did when
you enlisted. He did not have more cour-
age and patriotism than you had, but he
deserves credit for more. because he needed
more to take him to the front than you. in
your Ignorance OF war required.
he just: BE fair. Let there be a service
| pensi0n-alike to all who served e zen as
many as 80 days; but don't let it interfere
with disability pension"
AS TO ATTORNEYS. FEES.
Suggestion That conErosS Pass Z Bnl for