The National tribune., 1910-03-24
! awIDOWs, PENSIONS.


There is no finer exhibition of united.
vehement, forceful patriotism in history
than the support which Pennsylvania
gave during the war to save the Union.
The way that Pennsylvanians rallied to
the defense of the Flag was a glorious
chapter in the history of that grand
old commonwealth. However. there
was one discordant shrek set up TO mar
the harmony of the magnificent chorus
of the Union. This was from the mis-
named Patriot, of Harrisburg. which
spewed Copperhead venom from first
to last. 1t was amazing the loyal peo-
pie Of Pennsylvania allowed it to exist.
They only did so to demonstrate the
great principle of freedom of the press,
which should not be trenched upon
even in the time of such intense excite
ment and stress. The spirit which DOM
mated the Patriot during wartimes has
existed ever since, and we see a rccru-
descence in an editorial recently on the
subject of widows pensions, which says:
THE law which prevents the pension
ing by the United States Government or
widows of civil war veterans, unless
they were married to the veterans
whose widows they are, before June 70,
1890, is a wise one.
Its purpose was to protect the Unit
ed States Treasury from raids and at
the same time save foolish veterans
from the wiles of designing women,
anxious to marry them in the eXpecta-
ton of pensions when the old men had
answered the last roll call. The law
has worked no hardships, for every wo-
man who has married a veteran since
its passage had fair warning that she
would not be entitled to a pension at
her husbands death.
1T is proposed now to repeal this
law and put upon the pension rolls the
names of some 20, 900 widows which do
not belong there under present laws
If the repeater is enacted it will at once
increase the pension appropriations
nearly $4,000, 900 a year.
The bill has been favorab1y acted on
by the Senate Committee on Pensions,
but Senator Root, of New York, has
given notice that he will oppose it, and
he is, right.
THE law which makes no distinction
as to pensions between a woman wild
owed by the war and one who married
a veteran after the war. provided the
marriage took place not more than %
years after the war ended, is certainly
sufficiently generous
1T is the duty of the Government to
be just to the taxpayers while it Is, has
been, and. we trust. always will be.
generous to the civil war veterans, their
orphans and their bona-fide widows"
The plea that the law as it stands at
present protects veterans from design
ing women has been SO thoroly dis
e,;f bat a. fc- ha I'd N
while discussing it again. Where there
has been one unworthy woman who has
taken advantage of some poor old SOL
dier there have been tens of thousands
of the noblest women in the country
who have married their husbands from
pure love and affection. and have done
a great work in taking care of him and
his young children, bringing up the
latter with all of mothers care, and
in all things being the truest of Ameri-
can wives and mothers. 1t Is a gross
SANDER on American womanhood to say
that any considerable number of girls
are willing to sacrifice themselves to an
old man for the sake of his pension.
1t is now 20 years since the Hmita
ton was put upon marriages of veter-
ans. and in those 20 years very many
thousands of American women of the
highest type have married men who
were then in their prime, but who were
bereaved of their wives and left with
young children to care for. No praise
can be too high for the women who
have voluntarily taken upon themselves
the lifework of being a mother to moth
erless children and of being wives to
bereaved husbands and have discharged
their duty conscientiously during all
these years. 1t is a shame that, these
women shall be cut off from receiving
the allowance given to women who have
married their husbands a few months
or a few years before they did.
1t is not that the Patriot is animated
by any sense of regard for the United
States Treasury or considerations OF
justice, but that it shows its old animus
against all veterans and those associat-
ed with them who fought for and saved
the Union.