The National tribune., 1909-01-14
THE Ex-pRIsoNERs OF WAR BILL


loway, of the House Committee on In
valid Pensions, that the Ex-Prisoners
of War Bill belongs properly to the
War Claims Committee is not accepted
by any of the best lawyers in the House
as being consonant with Congressional
practices. The War Claims Committee
is strictly judicial body, which takes
cognizance of the purely legal features
of theswar and regularly tries claims
on the principles involved in the laws
of war. The claim of the Ex- Prisoners
of War is something entirely different
| from that of a man who has had his
house burned to make room for forti-
ecations, or has had his cotton seized.
A man who has suffered loss of prop
armies of the United States has a case
/ based upon regularly recognized judi
cial principles. and it is decided by the
War Claims Committee strictly in ac-
cordance with them
The Prisoners of War, on the other
hand have a matter which is as strictly
within the jurisdiction of the Pension
lated the laws now on the statute book
providing for most of the injuries which
man might receive in the course of
his service. That is. it has made laws,
for example. giving an allowance for the
loss OF leg, of an arm, of hearing,
sight, etc. Now the committee is asked
10 provide legal compensation for
a lrnthpr ole of int vi
arge portion OF the Prisoners of War
Every man who was confined for any
time in Confederate prison was more
or less injured physically, and in a way
not covered by the existing statutes
The extraordinary mortality among the
prisoners affords very definite ground
upon which to affirm the injury to his
body that every man must have re-
ceived. We know that out of every
four men who so much as set foot in
Andersonyille one died there within a
few weeks. This does not count those
who had their health broken by a com
paratively short imprisonment there and
who died in other prisons. where the
mortality was equally great, but the
evidence as to which cannot be made
so specific. Beside the absolute and def |
mite injury to the bodies of these men, /
which must undoubtedly shorten their
days, If nothing more, all of these men
suffered in many other ways-from loss
of clothing. property, chances of pro-
motion and scores of other grave det- |
riments which only those who expe- |
Tipnped fbnn1 ran a anpracfafn IL 4. tt,a |
duty of the committee to take cogni- |
=ance Of these things and report a law i
which will go as far in reparation to |
the Prisoners of War as the other laws |
do in the way of compensation to those |
who suffered the other unavoidable in
juries from the terrible struggle. The |
Prisoners of War point out that their |
retention in prison for so long a time |
was of inestimable benefit to the Union |
cause, since they were the means of |
keeping four or five times their num-
Der in Northern prisons, and from |
fighting against the Union soldiers at
most critical times in the struggle. |
There were, altogether, about $4,000 t
Union prisoners reduced to possession |
desperate struggle, running over the
whole of 1864 and the first three
months of 1885. At least, one-half of
these men were dead by the time the
war closed. At the same time there
were about 230. eco Confederate soldiers
confined in Northern prisons, and il
these had been returned to the field
they you'd have taken their places,
with calamitous results, in front of
Grants and Sherman's armies 1t will
be thus seen that every man who died
in Confederate prison sacrificed his
life to as good a result as those who
fell in battle. The injury to the health
of these prisoners was incomparably
greater than any detriment suffered by
the men in the field. The roster of
every company which was captured will
show that it suffered a far heavier loss
in Andersonville. Salisbury and other
prisons than If it had been kept con-
stantly at the front and took part in
every battle in which its army was en-
gagged.
Therefore. the Prisoners of War Bill
is one eminently within the purview of
the Invalid Pensions Committee and
has no place whatever with the War
Claims Committee.
|
FOR DEPARTMENT COMMANDER.
The veterans of the Department of