Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-23
VETERANS STILL
MAKE PROTEST
ONE INMATE OF HOME AT SAW
TELLE SATISFIED
Claim Members of Colony Are Used
as Criminals or Supplicants for
Favor-CompIaints Are
Numerous

That the soldiers at the National
home at Sawtelle intend to continue
their fight for a thorough investigation,
and to overthrow the present board of
managers, which they assert has en-
croached on their constitutional rights,
was evidenced from the activity of the
veterans yesterday.
With the prospects appearing bright
er of deposing the present govern
mental monarchy" the soldiers of the
home are anxious to have the public
realize the true conditions.
With this object in view The Herald
received number of letters from the
inmates yesterday, and among them
was one letter defending the present
management of Sawtelle, the first that
has been offered.
All the other letters arraigned the
present governor and his management
in scathing terms. One of the letters
is as follows:
"SAWTELLE, June 81, 1909.
editor Herald.
Dear Sir: Deprived of our constitu-
tional rights of petition, and having the
constant dread of 'dishonorable dis
charge hanging over our heads, it is
difficult to express the gratitude we
feel that we owe you for your interest
in our behalf The situation has been
unbearable for a long time at the Sol
diers home, ever since the present Off
GERS came into power, eighteen months
ago. We have had a veritable carnival
of absurdities Orders and contra
orders have followed so fast that now 1t
| is impossible to turn around without
breaking some trifiing rule proposed
by these popinjays, who seem to labor
under the hallucination that it is their
duty to make the home as much of a
hell as possible.
Says Insults Given
'If any of us have business at head
quarters we may be sure to be inSulted
or browbeaten, or at least treated in a
supercilious and oVerbearing manner
by either the governor or some of his
understrappers.
"It is exactly as if we were criminals
or supplicants for favors. Even the
governors messenger can assume airs
that would put an English butler TO
shame, and the treasurer is an English
snob of the purest water, endowed with
the most profound contempt for the old
veterans who simply ask what is their
due.
Governor Cochrane hardly had been
appointed in charge of the home when
he ordered all the seats removed from
the walks in the parks, so that the old,
tottering veterans, crippled as they
were. should have no place to rest. Next
he ordered us to sleep on bare mat
tresses, only covered by a sheet.
During the coldest part of the year
we had our beds turned over morning
and evening by the captains and SER
geants to see if we used one of the
blankets furnished us to sleep on. In
order to understand how atrocious this
order was let me state that these mat
tresses are fraudulent affairs that, even
when reinforced with a blanket, allow
the wires in the spring bottom to make
deep impressions on your flesh, and one
would be cold with a covering of a
stack of blankets.
Slept on Mattresses
"In regard to these mattresses, let
me state here what General Woods re-
ported about them. He said: They are
inferior to the mattresses furnished to
the army at $1.S61a each, yet ours cost
the government $649 each, which
would make trifling amount of about
800 900. That is for this branch alone,
and in the aggregate for all the
branches of not less than 100000
which can be attributed to the dis
appearing fund This is only one
small item. Talk about grating.
Bring on the investigation and we
will show up the grating.
1.-THE eXasperating nagging and
gratuitous insults that we have suf-
fered from Governor Cochrane these
last two years can only be explained
on the theory that he is not mentally
competent. He has become unbear-
able and this condition will some time
result in a reign of terror.
"Ie showed this condition when he
put the worst men he could find on the
police force and encouraged them to