The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-05
OLD SOLDIER BEING
ALMOST FORGOTTEN
Modern Tendency Is to Ignore
Veterans, Writes Mrs.
John A. Logan.
DRIFTING FROM PRINCIPLES
DECLARES THE COUNTRY is FOR.
SAkING THE IDEALS THAT LED
TO THE CIVIL WAR AND MAIN
TENANCE OF THE UNION.
BY Mrs. John A. Logan.

noted the disposition on the part of
the present generation to beIittle the
glory that was won by the soldiers of
the Civil War. There was time
when they were considered in all
great movements, especially politi-
cal ones, and it was deemed a fatal
thing to make Presidential nominal
tons without securing a soldier on the
ticket. But it seems they have had
their day and are not to be included
in the program in the future We
near constantly murmurings of the
amount of pensions that are paid and
we read in very important maya
zine a complaint that Congress could
not provide for the building of four
ships because of the fact that the
pension list was so long and required
such heavy appropriation.
The question might well be asked,
Would they have had any occasion
for ships, or would the country have
been in its present progressive state
if it had not been for the soldiers
who prevented the dissolution of the
Union?
There seems to be a great desire for
eXtravagant appropriations for every
thing under the sun but for the men
who really saved the Union. Now
and again officials who need the votes
of these veterans essay to say some
thing in public in their behalf, but
for the most part they have to beg, en-
treat, and implore for recognition by
Congress, the departments and the
powers that be. Naturally many Of
these men have grown old and are
perhaps not quite as efficient as the
young men who have had the advan-
tages of the blessings of education
and training secured for them by the
sacrifice made by these soldiers. At
younger blood will perform more
faithfully or more acceptably the du-
ties assigned to them than will the
very oldest veteran now in the en-
| ploy of the Government.
With all due respect to Spanish War
| soldiers, we think it was a genius of
the highest character who caused the
| word veteran" to be used in connec-
| ton with the Spanish War Associa-
tons. We hear nothing now but
Spanish War Veterans" or Veterans
of the Spanish War and their Auxil-
iaries." No one has more cause than
myself to honor the courage and pa
triotic devotion to their country of
the American soldiers in the brief
war with Spain. My only son lost his
life while leading his battalion against
Aguinaldo's entrenched forces at San
Jacinto, P. l. Had he lived, he would
never have called himself a "veter-
an" But in the light of the way in
which they are coming to the front as
veterans to the disadvantage and dis
count of the veterans of the Civil War
emphasizes the genius of the man who
originated the cognomen of Spanish
| War Veteran" and one loses sight of
the short service and youthfuness of
most of these soldiers when they are
spoken of as veterans"
The disposition to magnify into dar-
ing heroism the simplest act of every
soldier in the Spanish War calling
them heroes" is not altogether agree.
able to the survivors of the Civil War
who over and over again performed
heroic, but TO which little attention
was paid or little note made of them
at the time or subsequently.
The inclination to discount the
great generals of the Civil War and
to compare them with these latter
day officers has led some at least into
the fatal mistake of trying to discredit
their true nobility and to charge them
| with weaknesses which they assert
had brought discredit upon them be
fore the Civil War offered them an op
portunity in which to display theil
great military genius. If this tenden
cy continues, the next generation
may believe that the Civil War was
a small affair, and that the heroes OF
the Spanish-American War are the
ones who are entitled TO all the credit
for the place the United States occu
pies in the galaxy of nations. 1t is &c
be hoped that the sober sense of the
American people will soon gain the
mastery and that the latter-day idols
may have full acknowledgment for ev
erything they have really done anC
be given their proper place in history
without detracting from the glory o.
the men who saved the Union and in
augurated the march of civilization
which has followed with charity fol-
all and malice toward none" the close
of the great Civil War after nearly
five long and bloody years.
We are drifting away from the prin
ciples for which we have sacrificed
so much blood and treasury and it be
hooves the men of affairs TO be more
deliberate in their recommendation:
MRS LOGAN Galley Two.
was made in the last half century o
the nineteenth century was but tn,
> foundation for stupendous achieve
, ments which will be worked out be
, fore the dawning of the twenty-firs
century.
! We are glad to note that educator
, ere paying some attention to the phys
/ ical and moral. as we'll as the mental
development of the pupils and stu
dents who come under their tutelage
If teachers and pupils have done thei
duty, they should be far better pre-
. pared than were thase who hav
wrought so nobly in the past Ever,
, avenue has been opened for men an,