The National tribune., 1909-06-24
RESTIVENESS UNDER THE PEN
SION LOAD.

Press, from whom much better thlnGs
are expected and usually gotten has its
lapses when a brash young man OF
slender acquaintance with tho history
of his country gets a chance to put in
little piece" in the editorial columns
on something that the yellow papers
are yelling about. This is the great
trouble with our daily papers. They
have in the editorial rooms young men
who are learning the trade, and who
have been started out from college with
a bountiful supply Of language and few
practical ideas. They naturally think
that there are whole lot of wrongs
and abuses which 1t is their duty
to correct, and that the world. and par
ticularly the United States. has been
suffering all the time it was waiting for
them to be born and get their educa-
ton. Their tendency is to take the
clamor of the professional shriekers for
something worth the while and to sail
in regardless.
This particular young gentleman. who
has probably not had more than year
or two of actual acquaintance with pub
lie affairs, writes an editorial under the
head of "Restiveness Under the Pension
Load" Five years from this time he
will be very far from writing such a
thing. because in the meanwhile he
will have learned many things about
the history of his country of which he
is to-day ignorant. His first indictment
reads:
"I. The list of surviving pensioners
who in verify incurred, in actual mill
tars service. disabilities which incapaci-
tate them from earning living is
now very small"
This alone betrays the caIIowness of
the recent graduate, who is as yet un-
able to write clear. lucid English. He
also shows the slenderness of his in
formation. According to the report CT
the Commissioner of Pensions for last
year there were on the roll 1904 vet
Grams who had clearly proved their dis
abilities incurred in line of duty during
the war. Beside this were 75,515 wild
ows whose husbands had been killed or
died. during the war, or died since as
result of their service. There were
1,069 helpless children of veterans and
1858 dependent mothers. About 3S, 600
of these were lost to the roll during
the year. nearly all by death. so that
IL will be seen that the pensioners are
relieving the country of its burden with
mournful rapidity.
His second count in the Indictment
reads:
"2. OF the pensioners on that list. the
of those who have comfort
able incomes, and would suffer not at
all II they received no pension, is very
considerable"
Anybody but a poorly informed young
man would know that the incomes have
no relation to pensions. Men are PEN
stoned because it is their right, and in
accordance with the promise of the
Government to give them pension If
they were injured in its service. His
third count reads:
'3. OF those whose only claim. aside
Is tF
portion also are comfortably fixed aside
from their pensions"
This Is answered above. His fourth
count is:
"A. A great number of widows have
been foisted upon the Nations charity
who were married to soldiers after the
war. and could have no possible just
claim upon the Government aside from
a perverted sentiment"
This is exquisitely ignorant. It has
been an unbroken policy of this Gov
ernment, as of every other civilized
Government In the world, to pension
the widows of veterans. His fifth count
is:
"5. Thousands OF hale and hearty
men, actively engaged in money-mak-
ing pursuits. are drawing pensions on
account of alleged disabilities which.
II they ever existed. long since disap-
peared."
This is downright falsehood. We
only wish it were more nearly true than
1t possibly can be. Every man who
served in the United States Army any
some degree from the intensity and
long continuance of that awful strug-
gle. This young man is to-day reaping
the benefits of all that those men fought
for, without thought of what 1t cost
them to make the Nation what 1t is.
He has no more consideration for their
service and sacrifices than the Dig
which has broken into a cornfield has
for the sweat and labor of the\ man
who planted the corn. His sixth is:
"6. Fraud in the obtaining of pen
sions has become as customary and
fashionable as in locating homesteads
and timber claims"
IF the young mans memory extended
back to the time of Cleveland's Admin
istration he would know what Hercu-
lean efforts that President made to
prove the pension roll 'honeycombed
with fraud" and how brilliantly the in
tegrity OF the roll was vindicated by its