The National tribune., 1906-08-09
THE NATIONAL ENcAMPMENT.

THE NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT.
The following letter from Past Com
mander Orr. Of the Department Of New
York. is a sample Of the very many
which The National Tribune has been
receiving from all over the country conn.,
mandatory of our course in telling the
exact truth about the National Encamp-
ment at Minneapolis:
Buffalo, n. z, Aug. 4. 1906.
Editor National Tribune: 1 am just In
receipt of The National Tribune of Aug.
2. i congratulate you on your victory
on the valuation Of tickets. You have
performed a grand service, and the rail-
roads ought to know that the expert
ences at Boston did more to cut down
the attendance at the Encampments
than any other one thing. The boys will
appreciate what you have done in this
matter.-Charles A. Orr. Buffalo. N. Y
The plain facts are. and they are those
which every veteran in the country is
familiar WITH that the citizens of no
town wake up fully to the bigness of the
gathering until the National Encamp-
ment has actually settled within its
gates. 1t is exceedingly hard to make
those citizens who are not familiar with
military matters and with gatherings of
the Grand Army understand how much
a National Encampment surpasses any
other gathering that they have seen.
This was particularly true in Minneapo-
lis, where the preparations for the En-
campment were in the hands of citizens
who had never seen anything bigger
than a conclave of knights of Templar
or a political convention. It is to the
credit of the Minneapolis people that
they responded to the admonitions of
The National Tribune and walked up to
the job they had undertaken. 1t was
highly desirable that they should do
this, not merely for the credit of their
beautiful city, but also for the comfort
of the veterans. The veterans, who
take such colossal amounts of money
to the cities where they hold their gath
erings, deserve for this reason, If no
other. that they be properly cared for
and made to suffer no unnecessary dis
comfort We believe now that this will
be the case in Minneapolis, and that
their entertainment there will be equal
to that they have received in any other
city.
The valuation Of tickets has of recent
years been serious distress to the COM
rades in attendance, and COmrade Orr
in his letter expresses what every COM
rade who was at Boston remembers
painfully and what he breads at all fu-
ture Encampments. By energetically
calling attention to this evil, and an evil
which we are convinced is wholly un-
necessary, The National Tribune has
succeeded in greatly mitigating 1t at
least, and we are glad that the COM
rades, who look forward with fear and
trembling to that part Of the Encamp
ment, recognize and appreciate the
value of the service that we have rem
dered in diminishing the probability Of
a distressful time.
The National Tribune has done far
more than any other paper in the Unit
ed States, possibly more than all the
other papers in the United States, in
bringing comrades to Minneapolis, in
increasing the attendance upon the Ma
tional Encampment and in contributing
thereby to the filling of the Golfers of
its merchants. 1t deserves far more
thanks from the newspapers and busi-
ness men of Minneapolis for what it has
done than they owe to any other agency
whatever.