Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-09-12

: that IS should be set as the age a
: which total disability should be con
clusively presumed. Similarly Presi
dent Mckinley established 65 as th'
s age at which half disability should b.
. conclusively presumed. The regula
g tion now in question, in the exercise Of
? the same power, supplemented these
regulations made under Presidents
Cleveland and Mckinley.
"The men who fought for union and
for liberty in the years from 1861 to
1865 not only saved this nation from
ruin, but rendered an estimable ser
vice to all mankind. We Of the United
States owe the fact that today we
have country to what they did; and
the nation has decreed by law that no
one of them, if disabled from earning
his own living, shall lack the pension
to which he is entitled, not only as a
matter of gratitude, but as a matter
Of justice. It is the policy Of the Re-
publican party, steadily continued
through many years, to treat the vet
Grams Of the Civil war in spirit of
broad liberality The order in ques-
tion carried out this policy, and is
justified not merely on legal grounds,
but also on grounds of public moraIi-
ty. 1t is a matter of common knowl-
edge that when the average man who
depends for his wages upon bodily la
Dor has reached the age OF 90 his earn
| ing ability is in all probability less by
half than it was when he was in his
prime, and that by the time he has
reached the age of 20 he has probably
lost all earning ability. If there is
doubt upon this point let the doubter
examine the employees doing manual
labor in any great factory or on any
great railroad, and find out how large
is the proportion of men between the
ages of 90 and 20, and whether these
men are still employed at the highly
paid tasks which they did in their
prime. As a matter of fact, many rail.
roads pension their employees when they |
have reached these ages, and in nations
where old age pensions prevail they |
always begin somewhere between the /,
two limits thus set. II is easy to test |
our opponents sincerity in this mat
ter. The order in question is revoc-
able at the pleasure of the executive. !
If our opponents come into power they |
can revoke this order, and announce !,
that they will treat the veterans of |
sixty-two to seventy as presumably in
full bodily vigor, and not entitled to
pensions. win they now authoritative i
ly state that they intend. to do this7
II so, we accept the issue. II not, then
we have the right to ask why they
raise an issue which, when raised, they
do not venture to meet.
In addition TO these acts of the adj
ministration which they venture to as.
sail only after misrepresenting them,
there are others which they dare not
overtly or officially attack, and vet
which they eovertly bring forward as
reasons for the overthrow of the party.
In certain great centers and with GER
tain great interests our opponents make
every effort TO show that the settlement
Of the anthracite coal strike by the in
dividual act of the President, and the
successful suit Of the Northern Securi.
ties Company the merger suit under
taken by the department Of justice,
We're acts because of which the present
should be thrown from
power. Yet they dare not openly con.
denim either act. They dare not in an
or formal manner say
that in either ease wrong was done or
error committed in the method OF ae.
tion, or in the choice of instruments
for putting the action into effect. But
what they dare not manfully assert in
open day, they seek TO use furitively
and through special agents. II is per.
haps natural that an attack so conduct, {
cd should be made sometimes on the
ground that too much, sometimes on the
ground that too little, has been done.
some ef our opponents complain he.
'ause under the antitrust and inter.
state commerce laws suits were under.
.aken which have been successful; 9th. .
'rs, because suits were not undertaken
which have been unsuccessful, The
Democratic state convention in New
York dealt with the anthracite coal
strike by demanding in deliberate aud
formal fashion that the national gov.
'rnment should take possession Of the
'oal fields; yet champions OF that con.
'ontion : cause now condemn the fact I
hat there Was any action by the Presi.
lent at all though they must know
hat IL was only this action by the
President which prevented the move.
aent for national ownership Of the coal
N.