The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-01-14
WHY LONGER DHLAYq

II WAX 1ONVkH U6kAxT
/ A thousand times more impressive than
any speeches made in Congress, any argu.
lments, any editorials, is the simple fact
that over $4,000 veterans are dying every
Iyear.
That is, the. setting of every Saturday
sun is noted by the eyes Of fully LOCO
fewer veterans than greeted his rising the
previous Sunday morning. Every church,
yard in the loyal part of the country re-
ceives weekly additions to the new-made
mounds which dot it's surface, and these
rise above gallant breasts that once stood
| life was assailed.
| Every day in the week hundreds of
church bells, somewhere in the land, toll
out the sad announcement of the passing
of one of the Nations heroes.
/ The wall of the bereft widow rises hour
ly somewhere. The tears of the orphans
fall in perpetual rain.
| This, above all other reasons, is why
Congress should waste no time in passing
men, and to those on whom Death has
set his fatal seal. some measure of the
Nations gratitude and justice.
Every week sees full regiment of men
that were once the pride and hope of their
country mustered out by that fell Ser
geant, Death.
| Every month the country loses full.
strong brigade of men who in their prime
were unequalled soldiers. Every year sees
pass away a stronger army than that with
which Rosecrans breasted the rebel hordes
on the sanguinary hills of Chickamauga,
larger army than that with which Grant
attacked Vicksburg. or Sheridan cleaned
up the Valley. Nearly twice the army that
Grant commanded at Shiloh, or Rosecrans
at Stone River yearly passes into 'Those
low, green tents, whose curtains never
outward swing"
That between $4,000 and 60,0OO vet
Grams die every year is the very best pos
sible index of the physical condition of
those who survive. The living are ply
sicaIly but little better off than those who
die. From the living ranks must be- ev-
cry year drawn the immense levy of from
$1,000 to 10000 more to die the next
year.
| Therefore, to reach these men, to do
| them the justice for which they have long
| waited, Congressional action can not be
too speedy. It's hardness has left $1,000
to die the past year, going to their graves
bereft of that which was rightfully theirs.
In their windowless palaces of rest, under
the signing pines. under the fearful will
lows, they lie far beyond the Nations JUS
| tice or the Nations gratitude. With the
green sod above them, they reck nothing
whatever of the progress of legislation"
or the feryid appeals of their friends to
the dull ear of the money-seeking age
In the sickness of heart they have died
the death of despair, and Congress can do
as little for them as for the dry bones rot
ting in the Valley of Golgotha.
Now it is for Congress to determine how
many more myriads of such men, of the
men Who in the very flower of their young
manhood gave everything to the rescue of
the country--shall he allowed to perish,
before it comes to their relief in the full
filment of promises made in the extremity
Of the Nations danger. Congress can not
give pensions to the more than $1,000 who
died last year, to the hundreds of thou
sands who died in the years Immediately
proceeding last year, it cannot give them
the food, medicine, shelter, and support
which would have in some degree solaced
| their dreary passage to the grave, but
Lit can do this for the hundreds of thou
| sands who are following their comrades
the selfsame way down the valley which
leads to the Beyond.
/ 1t can not diminish the sin of it's for
getfulness to those who have already gone,
fbut, it can prevent an exaggeration and ag-
grayation Of that sin by immediate pro-
vision for those who remain.
| There are hundreds of thousands Of vet
terans and their widows who see before
them only the dark prospect which has
closed tile career of their predecessors.
Every one of them needs the food, medi-
cine, fire, and shelter which their little pen
sions will provide. To them this recog-
Government will bring more cheer and
comfort than anything else possibly can.
They are old, needy, prematurely broken
| by reason of what they did for the Gov
errment. In their day of strength they
supported its weakness, and made it the
strongest of the powers of the earth, be-
lieving that in the days of their weakness,
out of its abundant richess and strength
it would care a little for them.
/ Will the Congress yet do it? 1t should
4 hasten to perform a gracious act of justice
for which there is now the opportunity, but
opportunity will quickly pass. Let us have,
then, service pension bill passed at the
earliest possible moment.
THE coLoMBIAH DEBT.
There is general wish to have Pana-