The National tribune., 1908-04-30
THE UNJUST DISCRIMINATION
AGAINST WIDOWS.

full to Congress and to the Presiden
for it's passage. 1t will do world o.
good to 100000 widows, whom it lift
from penury to comparative comfort
Twelve dollars a month will keep every
woman above actual want and relieve
here from all fear of the future. Tint
expenditure required is certainly Yer,
great, but after all it is but a drop ir
the bucket compared with the amount
which the husbands of these widow:
and the widows themselves sacrifice
upon the altar of the Nations safety
| Considerations of economy enforced
by the condition of the Treasury and
the urgent demands on it from many
sources compelled Congress to retain
the unjust discrimination against those
widows who married their husbands
subsequent to June 81. 1890.
| However strong these considerations
may have been in influencing the ac-
ton of Congress we feel that they
have no force as against the eternal
justice due from the Nation to the
! widows of all veterans. 1t has been
a constant and undertaking policy of
the Government to make no distinc-
tions whatever in regard to date of
marriage, and tho we have been COM
PEELED to accept this discrimination in
order to get half loaf instead of no
bread, we have never ceased TO protest
against it and shall continue to do so
as long as it disfigures our statute
books.
As we have frequently remarked, the
United States, which must represent
the highest morality of the people, can
not as matter of high public policy
make any distinctions in marriages. In
the eyes of the law, which is the su-
preme exempIar of the morals of our
a marriage and all marriages equally
honorable. To draw a distinction be-
tween marriages of different dates or
for any other reason is to make back
ward step toward the bad old practice
of concubinage.
This is the strictly legal and moral
point of view. AS a matter of senti
ment and justice the women who mar
ried their husbands subsequent to the
passage of the Act of June 81, 1890,
are in every way just as deserving as
those who had contracted unions prior
to that date. The arguments and con-
siderations are equally strong for both
classes. The woman who married a
veteran in his youth had all of his
vigorous manhood in providing for her
and giving her what comforts and lux
uries his strength and abilities in their
prime could supply. The woman who
became his second wife took him when
he had begun to travel down the op-
pesite slope and when he had even
more need of a wife's love and devo-
ton than in his youth. She rendered
services to him and to the country that
were invaluable in bringing up his
children properly, in making them
good American citizens and in patiently
and faithfully nursing him as his physi-
cal powers deteriorated toward the last
sad days when death came to claim
him.
he fdS
always, until the passage of the Act
of June 81, 1890. regarded widows of
veterans in this light and young women
who married Revolutionary soldiers
and the soldiers of the War of 1912
and of the Mexican war have been
gratefully given their places on the
pension roll as cherished legacies from
the men who had accomplished great
works for the country.
It1sis uncomfortable that there should
be different policy toward the widows
of the veterans of the war of 1861, and
The, National Trihune, hereby gives no.
tice that it shall enter upon an active
for justice to the women who
have been excluded by the recent act
and shall not rest until it has succeed
ed in placing them on full equality
with their sisters who have been prop
erly dealth with in the law which has
just taken effect