The National tribune., 1908-04-30
| RELIGIOUS Ep1ToB ON PENSIONS.

- oN
Editor National Tribune: 1 am a
retired Methodist minister, being now
20 years old. I served my country for
over three years in the civil war. going
out under the first call for troops. For
two years l served in the ranks, and the
last year I was promoted TO the Chap
laincy of my regiment, the 18th Ill. I
have known all the phases of soldier
life, in the camp, the battlefield and the
prison pen. AS Chaplain I was made
lconyerSant with the poverty and suffer-
ing of the soldiers family that remained
at home, while father, brother, son or
husband was in the army fighting for
his country. The small pittance of SIS
a month afforded but little opportunity
for the soldiers family to enjoy luxu-
ries, but, rather, were they oftentimeS
reduced to the greatest privations Some
whom have known. who survived the
perils and privations of army life. have
been sufferers in some fern, preventing
their prosperity when placed in compe-
tition with men who had no handicap
of wounds or disease. For only a very
| few years have l been pensioner. and
4 only when the expense of medical treat
ment and medicine made it necessary
to have something to supplement my
salary did / make any attempt for a
| pension. Last year my medical treat
ment for one month cost me over $170,
and for the year my pension was S12O.
The injury | received in battle is likely
| to terminate my life long before it
would be from natural causes. | have
never grudged my country the service
rendered, nor the suffering, nor the re-
straint my injuries have occasioned; bat
what is implied in the clipping / here
| insert has in it a sting that makes
/ sensitive nature recoil. The Epworth
Herald is the paper, published in the
| interest of our Young Peoples Society,
the Epworth League. This paper in its
issue of April II, 1908, has the follow
ing paragraph:
Next year we shall spend more
money for pensions than in any other
year since the war. save one, and the
war is A years behind us. And the
limit has not yet been reached, in spite
of the fact that the veterans are passing
away at the rate of over 10000 a year.
We must soon face the question wheth-
er America desires to create in forrxl
what we possess already in fast !" no
petual pension list. The p,nsion Or
of each year, now over $50, 100000, is
more than all the civil and miscella-
neous expenses which are provided for
by taxation"
Is there any truth in the last sentence,
The pension outgo of each year. now
over $3.50, ,000,0 900, is more than all the
civil and miscellaneous expenses which
are provided for by taxation?" l think
the editor in his haste to make a case
has stepped outside the boundaries of
fact. Maybe he never knew what it is
to take three years of the most impor-
tant part of his life and devote them to
periIs and privations for his country,
and then in age hear the implied taunts
of an migrate, who has peace and pros
perity at another mans cost
I should be pleased to read your com
ment on the disputed paragraph. l am
a subscriber to your excellent paper,
and feel proud of your championship of
the old soldiers just claims.-Arnold 7.
Needham, Chaplain, 18th ILL.,, Berkeley, |
Cal.
A man who processes to be an editor
has no justification whatever for maxi
ing a statement so opposed to we'll |
sideration for the moment his covert
sneer at the deserving men and women
to whom the Nation is paying a just
debt. We do not understand what he
means by perpetual pension list" AS
long as the country has an army and
navy, and as long as it will have the |
need common to all Nations of occa-
Sioiidiy 6oii5 " Wal IL Will nave
pension list, and that list will be in
exact proportion to the size and dura- |
ton of the war.
We have a larger pension list than
any other country, because the men and
women on it represent more actual
fighting than the pension lists of all the
countries of Europe combined
go is more than all the civil and mis-
cellaneous expenses which are provided
for by taxation" is instantly refuted by I
reference to any publication of the re-
ceipts and expenditures of the Govern
ment. For the year ended June 30, |
1907. the total expenditures of the Gov
ernment were $57S,360.592. OF this
only s132,290,910 went for pensions, or
less than one-fourth of the whole.
Such men as the editor of the Ep-
worth Herald had no whimper at the
injustice of paying the bondholders for
years substantially one-half of the Ma
tional income in return for their having
lent the Government much less than
the soldiers gave the Government in re-
linquished wages when they accepted its
pay of s13 north. The pension pay-I
ments, large as tssscy may be, will be but
a small repayment of what the men and
women who supported the Government
thru the war sacrificed in giving it the
support that it vitally needed.
The remarkable growth of sentiment
in favor of a deep-water channel from
the Lakes to the mouth of the Missis-
sippi indicates that the consummation
is not far Off A quarter of century
ago nobody would listen to such prop
ostion. and Is years ago an advocate
of it would have been regarded as a
hopeless dreamer. Five years ago peo-
pie began to seriously consider the
DroDoSitjon. and TODAY the whole Mis- |