The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-06-18
MORE ANrr-pENsrox RANT.

| MORE ANTI-PENSION RANT.
The Western Methodist, published al
Little Rock. Ark, with Rev. James A
Anderson, A. c. Millar and P. r. Eagle.
barger as editors, displays the GUS
tomary lack of knowledge of religious
editors as to the pension system. In
a long editorial it says:
l 1--WE have not the least objection to
the pension system as such. Every
i Government ought to stand by those
who have been disabled in Government
service, ought to make good to the full
all the disability which has really been
| incurred by men who have suffered to
uphold the honor of the country. That
is one thing. To be willing to loot the
| treasury of country which one has
sworn to defend is another thing A
pension list of S165, 600. 600 is plain
| loot, albeit it may be done under the
| forms of law.
What is more serious, this kind of
stealing. like all other kinds of steal
ing, will debauch the manhood of the
recipients. Our men ought to be men.
| Nor would we tax the patriotism of
men with bearing the burdens of war:
let the country bear those burdens. pay
every soldier a fair wage while he is
| in the service. and pay every man a
full indemnity for all he has suffered;
but for every old codger who comes up
with the toe-ache 40 years after the
war to be put on the pension rolls of
his country is contemptible
Now, what basis is there for the al
legation that "a pension list of $685.
10000 is plain loot Every man
who is at all well-informed knows ex-
actly on what principles the pension
system stands, and there is no excuse
for the reverend gentlemen who are
editing the Western Methodist to be
as grossly ignorant as they seem. The
United States is paying a part of the
pensions to men who suffered actual
wounds. hurts and other disabilities in
the war. which have been fully proven
up according to severer tests of evil
dence than are the practice in the civil
courts of the land where matters OF
far more import are tried. That is.
it requires n greater volume of evil
dence for a man to get an allowance
of from Sc upward for a disability
manded by the courts to establish
rights to property worth many thous-
ands, possibly millions, of dollars. The
system of evidence required by the
Pension Bureau has been severely at
tackled by the enemies of pensions, but
when these enemies came into power
and subjected it to the most crucial ex-
animation they could find no defect in
it and could make no suggestion to in
crease its rigidity. Therefore, the pen
sionS which are obtained under the
old law are absolutely as just and are
supported by more proof even than the
title to any property in the country.
So much for them. As to the pensions
under the more recent laws granting
pensions for old age and disability that
is a matter of National policy and
justice. This Government has wisely
followed the policy Of keeping the
army at its smallest numbers
and relying upon volunteers to aid the
Regulars in time of war. Therefore, |
it has been considered good public pol |
icy to give these survivors q pension |
for the last few years of their life 1t
has been done with every war in which |
the country has been engaged, and the |
and of the McCumber bill were pre-
cisely according to the precedents as
to the Revolutionary War, the War
Of 1912 and the Mexican and Indian
Wars. The only difference is that
there were vastly more men in the |
civil war than in any other war and
the amount that has to
be paid them greatly exceeds the sum
given any of their predecessors. This
is all there is OF it, as the editors of
the Western Methodist should know.
If the United States does not want to
have big pension lists it must not fight |
big wars; that is all. The public
opinion at the time demanded the war
and the justice of it is apparent to
every man who acquaints himself with
the history OF the country. Even with
the unusual increase on account of the
of the McCumber bill, the
United States is getting off much more
cheaply in proportion to the size of
the war and its duration than other
nations have. When the editors of the
Western Methodist make the mean
filings that they do, it shows how diff
cult it is for ministers 30 keep abreast
Of the times. They are only now ar
irving at the point where Grover Cleve-
land was when he entered office in
1889, with a proclamation that the pen
sion roll was honeycombed with fraud.
He spent millions of dollars in trying
to prove his allegations and had to adj
NIT a humiliating failure. The result
Of the efforts made by himself and
By his subordinates to help him, vim
dicated the pension roll in the highest
degree, as the most honest of all the
forms of Government expenditure
Less fraud was found in the pension
roll than in any other branch of the
disbursements.
THE PENNSYLVANIA MONUMENT.
Gen. st. Clair A. Mulholland, Post
Office Building, Philadelphia, the Chair