The National tribune., 1906-07-12
PENSION LEGISLATION.

While the session or Congress WHICH
has just adjourned did an unusual
amount of good work and passed bills
of the utmost Importance, yet it left
undone a considerable amount of mo-
mentous business which confessedly it
should have transacted. Among this
are pension bills of the highest justice
aud merit and which all who have ac-
uuainted themselves with them unhesi-
tatingly say should have been passed.
At the head of these stands the Service
Pension bin. Everyone except the most
hardened of pension haters cordially
admits the justice and righteousness of
the service pension and that 1t should
De passed at as early date as possible.
The age and necessities of the veterans
of the war of the rebellion and their
widows make it an emergency measure
of the first class While 1t may be true
that we, need a more complete system
of Notifications, more big battleships,
more public buildings in the small
towns, yet these can wait. The public
interest will not suffer from their being
put off year or two. The veterans
and their widows cannot wait. En-
phatically they cannot. Time moves
on remorselessly with them and every
day brings them nearer the grave.
Every day their wants and needs cry
more UNANIMOUSLY for assistance, and if
the relief is not given when needed it is
lost forever. With $4,000 veterans
passing away every year and a propor-
tionate number of widows there can be
no question that any delay in giving
them what the Nation richly owes them
is the meanest form of reputation. In
all justice. gratitude and in the fulfill
ment of the Nations most sacred
pledges there should be placed on the
statute books with the least possible
delay law giving every one of the
survivors of those who saved it's life in
it's hour of deadliest peril pension of
S12 month, with a similar allowance
to the widows of those who have died.
The pension to the widows should be
without regard to date Of marriage. for
the woman who took care of her vet
eran husband in his last years was un-
questionably discharging the Nations
duty in caring for him who had borne
the heat and burden of the battle, She
is richly deserving of a pension because
of what she did for him. A few years
will be regarded with contempt and
the man who has been foolish enough
to make speeches against giving PEN
sions to these widows win blush to see
his words preserved in the Congress
sionai Record. He will be heartily
grandchildren reading over his record
will find there that he was SO meanly'
ungenerous and unjust to those to
whom the Nation owes everything.
The Ex-Prisoners of War bill is an
other of these meritorious measures
of other matters. No class of veterans
deserves more than those who suffered
Imprisonment in the Southern torture
pens, and they have been treated with
conspicuous neglect, Indifference and
ingratitude. There are only moiety
with a rapidity greater than that of
other veterans. 1t must necessarily be
so. More is the pity. Men who passed
through an ordeal in which three out
of four of their comrades succumbed
to the terrible starvation and fardships
stitutions and be less able to resist the
| decay of old age than other men.
Therefore, the bill for their relief is an
emergency matter of most pressing inn
portance. 1t is most modest in its
terms, asks for far less than the men
cries out imperatively for its immediate
passage.
The bill for equalizing the pensions
of those who have suffered disability
equivalent to the loss of limb is an
other most meritorioas measure which
up Immediately upon the reassembling
of Congress and placed upon the stat
ute books.
We call renewed attention to these
three important measures. that the
comrades may get together and outline
the campaign for action at the mex
session of Congress The Nationa
Tribune will do all in its power to Sc.
1 cure this rightful and Just legislation
land it wants sll of the veterans and the
friends of veterans to rally upon it.
standard for one more supreme effor
to secure what is eminently just ant
right for the veterans and their wild
ows. Let us all get together upor