The San Francisco call., 1904-09-12
BROAD LIBERALITY
FOR THE MEN WHO
FOUGHT FOR UNION

This order was made in the performance
OF duty imposed upon the President by an
act Of Congress. which requires Nthe executive
70 make regulations to govern the subordinates
Of the Pension Office in determining who are
entitled TO pensions. President Cleveland had
already exercised this power by a regulation
which declared that seventy-hve should be
set as the age at which total disability should
be conclusively presumed. Similarly President
Mckinley established sixty-hve as the age at
which half disability should be concIusyely
presumed. The regulation In question, in
the exercise Of the same power supplemented
these regulations made under Presidents Cleve-
land and Mckinley.
The men who fought for union and for
liberty in the years from 1881 10 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 to-day
have country TO what they did; and the ma
ton has decreed by law thai one of them.
II disabled from earning his own living. shall
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,
10 treat the veterans Of the Civil War in a
spirit OF broad lberalty. The order in ques-
ton carried ont this policy and is justified
grounds Of public morality. 1t is matter of
man who depends for his wages upon bodily
labor has reached the age of sixty-two his
earning ability is in all probability less by
half than IL was when he in his prime;
and that by the time he has reached the age
Of seventy he has probably lost all earning
the doubter examine the employees doing man
ual labor in any great manufactory or on any
proportion OF men between the ages of sixty
two and seventy ana whether these men are
they did in their prime. AS a matter of fact
many railroads 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
IN this stts 70 s ' orer 1GF D sincerity
vocable at the pleasure Of the executive. If
our opponents come into power they can
woke TINS order and announce that they will
treat the veterans Of sixty-two to seventy as
presumably in full bodily vigor and not en-
titled to pensions. VIII they authorita-
lively state that they intend to do this? If
SO. we accept the issue. Il not. then we have
meet.
In addition to those acts Of the administra-
ton which they venture to assail only after
misrepresenting them, there are others which
they care not oVertly or officially attack and
yet which they coyertly bring forward
sons for the overthrow of the party. In
tain great centers and with certain great in
terests our opponents make every effort to
show that the settlement Of the anthracite
ccal strike by the individual act of the Presi-
ern Securities Company-the merger suit-un-
dertaken by the Department OF Justice, were
acts because OF which the present administra-
ton should be thrown from power. Yet they
dare not openly condemn either act. They
dare not in any authoritative formal man
ner say that in either case wrong was done
or error committed in the method Of action
that action into efect But what they dare
not manfully assert in open day they seek to
use furtively and through special agents It
is perhaps natural that an attack so conducted
should be made sometimes the ground
that too much. sometimes on the ground that
too little. has been done. Some of our op-
ponents complain because under the antitrust
ard interstate commerce laws suits were un-
dcrtaken which have been successful; others,
because suits were not undertaken which
would have been unsuccessful. The Demo
with the anthracite coal strike by demanding
in deliberate and formal fashion that the Ma
tional Government should take possession of
vertion's cause now condemn the fact that
there was any action by the President at all
though they must know that it was only this
action by the President which prevented the
movement for national ownership Of the coal
been an irresistible impetus; Such mutually
measure OF the chance for coherent action
or constructive legislation IL our opponents
should be given power.
SO much for what our opponents openly or
oovertly advance in the way of attack on
the acts of the administration. When we
profess TO stand we are met with the difficulty
always arising when statements of policy are
ferent ways. On some Of the vital questions
that have confronted the American people in
ton that silence is the best possible way to
convey their views. They contend that their
what others have accomplished entities them
10 be made the custodans Of the financial
honor ana commercial interests which they
have but recently sought to ruin. Being un-
able TO agree among themselves as to whether
the gold standard Is 4 curse or a blessing, and
as to whether ought or ought not to have
free and unlimited coinage OF silver they have
apparently thought IT expedient to avoid any
committal on these subjects and Individually
each to follow his particular bent. Their
nearest approach TO a majority judgment
seems TO be that II is now ineXpedient 10
assert their convictions one way or the other
and that the establishment OF the gold stand
ard by the Republican party should not be
disturbed unless there is alteration in the
relative quantity Of production of silver and
gold.