The National tribune., 1906-12-06
LET CONGRESS- LISTEN To TH!s
VOICE OF MERCY AND JUSTICE.

way as the passage of the Service Pen
sion Bill. The American people. the
! American Congress have always been
quick to hear the voice of distress in
! foreign lands and at home, but there
has rarely been any call for help so
| impera tive as that which comes from
the aged men and woman who years
ago gave everything they possessed to
save The Nation from destruction.
1000 veterans of the Union are dying
every week from diseases and disabili-
ties incurred in that terrible four years
of war, it will be seen that there must
be an aggregation of misery, the like
of which has fortunately been rarely
seen in human affairs. 1t is this which
cries so loudly for help from Congress.
Not that we believe that Congress can
release the :ron grip of advancing
years. nor that it can administer {,
of the unspeakable strains of the war,
but it can do that which is always in
reach of human sympathy aided by
abundant means. 1t can give these
dying veterans and their widows such
an allowance from the public Treas
ury as will at least soothe their painful
downward path and spare them COR
roding fear and anxiety as to supply
ing their daily needs. 1t will take but
little of the Nations overf1owing
70 af ha
yond any reasonable anxiety as to
bread. warmth, clothing, and shelter.
The Service Pension Bill proposes to
give TO every honorably discharged
veteran at least So a month This is
roughly $500 week. 1t is not a
large sum upon which to support life
in tolerabie comfort, but it will serve,
and it is as little as it would seem that
a Nation, which boasts of its generosity
and wealth. should give in their old
age and decrepitude to the men who
actually rescued it from destruction.
There would have been very little of
this incomprehensible sum of $1O6, ,000.-
100000 of wealth of which the coun-
try now boasts had not these now old
men fought in their youth as they did;
had they not endured as they did and
had they not resisted every suggestion
of quitting their great work before it
was we'll finished. To anyone who
reads the history of the war it is in
comprehensive why the men who
fought it thru such dreadful slaughters
should not have wearied of it's trials
and exactiOns and its mortal dangers
years before Appomattox. Had they
done so the country would today be
torn by internal dissensions and jeaI,
ousies among little Independent gov
ernments, which would absolutely pre-
vent anything like our present accumu-
lation of wealth. No man can deny
this
Railroads reaching from one end Oh
the land TO the other; great factories,
which sell from Maine to Texas; giant
enterprises which draw their support
from the whole of a country 5000
miles in one direction and 1000 in an
other would have been absolutely i'm
possible if the men of the Union army
had become diSheartened at their task
after the bloody battles of Fredericks-
burg, Stone River and Chickasaw
Bayou In the mid-period of the war.
The greatness of this country would
have been equally impossible even if
they had fought year longer and had
become discouraged by the slaughter
of the Wilderness. at Cold Harbor and
the gigantic losses of the Atlanta cam
paign. 1t cost them a permanent and
incurable injury to all their vital forces
to push on the war for months longer
until Appomattox crowned their ef-
forts. But the reward is seen in the
greatest, the richest, the most pros
porous country in the whole world.
Now. therefore, while it is only mercy
to these poor old men to give them the
small allowance of $500 week, in
volved by the Service Pension Bill, il
is at the same time the scantiest OF
justice for the great Nation to make
that much return for all they gave it.
This is vastly more just, more impera-
lively demanded than any appropria-
tion for greater navy, for fortifica-
tions, for ship-subsidy or for any of
the other projects which are pressing
upon Congress this Winter for money
out of the Treasury. These other en-
terprises meritorious as they may be,
can wait and little harm will be done If
year or two elapses before they re-
ceive what they seek. On the other
hand, $4,000 veterans are dying every
year. This is the sad, sorrowfuI, un-
deniable fact, and every man of them
who goes to his grave sorrowing over
the Nations ingratitude has put himself
past all chance of National justice and
gratitude. The opportunity for the
Nation 20 do the right thing by him is
now before he dies. AS there is no re-
pentanIe in the grave, so can the Ma
ton never make amends to the man
| who has died bewailing its lack of graf.
itude and appreciation to him in the
days when his disabilities and needs
cried out with cruel imperativeness fol
help. Let Congress pass the Service
| Pension Bill, and then it will have
| abundance of time to consider othe,
schemes pressing upon it's attention.
|
The Bible lays down the rule tha