The National tribune., 1907-09-26
WIDOWS PENSIONS.

: month puts that action SQuarely or
the carpet 1t has now become lead
:, ing issue for veterans and their friends
and upon which we can all concentrate
our energies.
There has never been a pension prop
osition presented by the National En-.
campment upon which the comrades
D and all who sympathize with them are
more cordially united There has never
been one the justice of which has been
more generally admitted by all who
remember with gratitude the soldiers of
the Union and their inestimable work
in preserving the Nation.
If a man earned a pension by his
services to the country in the days
when its existence was in peril, GER
tainly the woman who stood by him,
J who was the partner of his life and
shared with him all his joys and sor-
trows, deserves no less than he. There
does not enter into this even SO much
of question as interfered in the grant
ing of proper pensions to the veterans.
AS to the veteran, it might be said with
some show of reason that he did not
need a pension; that he was able to
take care of himself. This specious
objection cannot be made to a pension
to his widow When he has died she
dI7Q lou Hgm pue Su!uliLeAe lsoI seu
becoming an object of charity in her
old age. The honor of the Nation de-
mands that no woman who was a vet
eran's honorable wife shall be left sub
ject to the charities of cold world.
The question also enters into the deep
est affection and sensibilities of the vet
eran himself. Every veteran would
rather not have a pension for himself
than have his widow denied one. The
feeling that he may leave the woman
| to whom he owes more than words can
| tell, destitute and dependent, is a griev-
Gus ache in every veterans heart AMI
adds much to the sorrows which
thicken around him as he goes along
the downward slope to death. II has
been the unbroken policy of the Gov
ernment ever since it's formation to
give pensions to widows of veterans
with even greater liberality than it has
to the veterans themselves The in
justice and dishonorable limitation of
pensions to those widows who have
married the soldier before 1890 is in
the highest degree discreditable to the |
Nation. 1t casts a repruach upon the
marriage bond and stigmatizes Ameri- |
can women in an utterly indefensible |
manner 1t is something unheard of
in American jurisprudence, in our
methods of thought and social tradi- |
tons, that marriage at one time |
should be different from a marriage at
themselves and slandered American
womanhood by assuming that girls
married old men for the sake of the
pitiful little pension are now thoroly
ashamed of their calumnies. The Gov
ernment has never before drawn any
such a discreditable line as that made
between the women who married SOL
diers prior to 1890 and those who con-
tracted unions subsequently. 1t has
been we'll said by many writer's to The
National Tribune that if there was a
question of deserving the greater credit,
il should be to the woman who mar
ried a veteran late in life when his abil-
ity as wage-earner was diminishing.
ne had family TO support and educate
and he was beginning to succumb to
the diseases and disabilities which re-
quired faithful and patient nursing
The Government has upon its pen
sion rolls women who in their girlhood
married veterans past the meridian of
life and were faithful wives attendants
years there have been Representatives
OF this class from the Revolutionary
War and there are still some 500 wild
ows of veterans of the War of 1912 on
the pension roll. These have been held
in the highest love and reverence as
precious legacieS from the men who
gave us our independence and by the
second war secured worldwide recog-
milton of our nationality. There is no
reason why the widows, without excep-
ton, of the veterans of the war for the
salvation of the Union should not re-
ceive the same high place as was un-
grudgingly. even enthusiastically, ac-
corded to the widows of the veterans of
the Revolution and the War of 1872
No date line was drawn on the pen
aions granted to the widows of the
Mexican war, of whom there are about
1000 on the roll. 1t is a most un-
worthy reflection upon both veterans
and widows that there should be a date
on the marriages of the vet
Grams of the war of the rebellion.
The present imperative duty for all is
to unite with all the force that can be
mustered in an effort to secure the
passage of a law giving a pension Of
$12 month to every widow of a vet I
eran regardless of when she married
him. The only condition is that she
should have been lawfully united to e,
him. We can secure the passage of this ;
legislation by proper ef-
fort, and we hope that every Post, every
Corps, every Circle. every department
will at once address itself towards Sc /;
curing this highly laudable object.
The Crncarv World nf Na,,, vn,r,