The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-12
REFERS TO ATTACK ON
MINNESOTA CONSUL

Do they object to the fact that Amer
lean WarShlpS appeared promptly at the
port of Beirut when an effort had been
made TO assassinate an American OIL
clai, and In the port of Tangier when an
American citizen had been abducted? and
that in each case the wrong complained
OF was righted and eXpiated? and that
within the last few days the visit of an
American squadron to Smyrna was follow
ed by the long-delayed concession of
their just rights TO those Americans con-
cerned in educational work in Turkey?
Do they object to the trade treaty with
China, so full of advantage for the Ameri-
can people in the future? Do they object
TO the fact that ships carrying the ma
tional flag now have a higher standard
than ever before in craftsmanship and
in Seamanship, as individual units and
as component parts of squadrons and
fleets? If they object to any or all of
these things, we join issue with them.
Our foreign policy has not only been
highly advantageous to the United States,
but hardly less advantageous to the
world as a whole. Peace and good will
have followed in its footsteps. The gov
eminent has shown itself no less anxious
to respect the rights OF Others than in
sistent that the rights of Americans be
respected in return. AS for the navy, it
has been and is now the most potent
guarantee of peace, and it is such chiefly
because it is formidable, and ready for
use.
croachments'' by the executive upon the
authority of congress or the judiciary,
apparently the act they ordinarily have in
view is Pension Order No. u.s. issued I'M
der the authority of existing law. This
order directed that hereafter any veteran
of the Civil war who had reached the age
of sixty-two should be presumptively en-.
titled to the pension of Sc month"; given
under the dependent pension law to those
whose capacity to earn their livelihood
by manual labor has been decreased SO
per cent, and that by the time the age
of seventy was reached the presumption
should be that the physical disability
was complete; the age being treated as
an evidential fact in each case. This or
der was made i'll the performance of a duty
imposed upon the president by an act of
congress, which requires the executive to
make regulations to govern the subordl-
mates of the pension office in determining
who are entitled to pensions. President
Cleveland had already exercised this pow
er by a regulation which declared that
which total disability should be con-.
clusively presumed. Similarly President
Mckinley established sixty five as the age
at which half disability should be con-
clusively presumed. The regulation now
in question. and in the exercise of the
same power, supplemented these -regula-
tions made under Presidents Cleveland
The men who fought for union and for
liberty in the years from 1861 to 1866
not only saved this nation from ruin, but
rendered an inestimable service 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. 1t is the policy of the
Republican party, steadily continued
through many years, to treat the veterans
of the Civil war in spirit of broad lib
crafty. The order in question carried out
this policy, and is justified not merely on
legal grounds, but also on grounds of pub
lie morality.