The National tribune., 1910-12-15
ABUSING TIE EDITOR.


An old lawyer once said to younger
colleague: when you have a bad
case, make it up by abusing the oppos-
! ing attorney" T'his advice the Worlds
/ Work has been following in abusing
the editor of The National Tribune.
We shall pay no attention to it, The
editor is used to this. 1t has been his
experience for more than quarter of
a century that he has edited the paper.
Every time that anyone has made an
attack upon the Nations justice to its
defenders he has begun with abuse Of
the man and the paper that seemed to
Finn most active in the work of de-
manding that justice. The personality
of tae editor or the paper itself are Of
no consequence in the discussion of a
great question like the management of
the pension system. The only issue
before the public is whether the Ma
ton should take proper care of its aged
defenders and whether the method that
has been built up for that purpose is
properly executed. As to this We can
very confidently refer to a much higher
authority than the Worlds Work or
any man employed upon it. We can
try the case. as it has been repea tedl'
tried. before that greatest of all tri-
bunals, the american people. Long
before the writers for the Worlds Work
were beginning to manage pen in
following the set copies of their teach
ers the pension system was under sharp
discussion by the ablest 'men in the
Nation It was an issue before the
people in their conventions, Legisla-
lures and Congress. 1t was more thoro-
ly discussed than any other except the
tariff temperance and sound money.
Men of incomparably more ability and
Judgment than either the editors of The
National Tribune or the Worlds Work
gave the subject their best thought, and
the result is found on the United States
statute books. All the Presidents since
the war, all the Senators and members
Of Congress and all the great editors
from the Atlantic to the Pacific have
had every detail Of the pension laws
before them for the most earnest con-
sideraton. 1t has played a great part
in political campaigns. The novices on
the Worlds Work have come TO the
consideration of the question with as
little previous practical knowledge as
If they had been sent to describe the
condition of things at 10 miles below
the surface of the earth They are
ignorant of the history of the war;
they are grossly deficient in their
knowledge of the immensely of the
struggle and the inconceiyable number
Of men who took part in it. If they
could once grasp the idea that there
were more than 100000 individuals
in the Union army, that they fought for
four years such bitter and destructive
war as the world had never before seen,
that approximately 175, 900 men were
actually killed or starved in rebel pris-
ons during their service. that as many
more died of their disabilities after
their discharge, that more than 200. 900
had to be discharged on account of the
breaking down of their systems by the
hardships OF the service. that. in short,
the enormous number of 1000, 900 must
have suffered the greatest injury by
reason of their service in saving the
country, they would begin to have some
comprehension of what the pension
system means. Nor do they comprehend
for a moment that the pension expendi-
ture is not on account of being so many
large pensions, but so many small ones. |
According to the report of the Commits
sioner of Pensions for the year ended |
June 80, 1910, the average annual value
of each pension lwas only $171.90. This
is a very meager allowance for a man
now verging on to 20. who gave the
best years Of his life to the arduous
work of carrying on the greatest and
the most breaking war known in his
tory. These are facts which the young
men of the Worlds Work should have
been studying instead of the personali- |
ty of the editor of The National Trib-
uhe. sis