The National tribune., 1910-01-27

W nlle uflnIy maintaining tn1S need
of economy the President has shown
his sincere sympathy with the veterans
by the appointment of Comrade James
l.. Davenport as Commissioner of Pen
sions. No man in the whole country
is more imbued with a feeling of abso-
lutte justice to the veterans than Com
missioner Davenport; no one is more
learned in the pension laws and ad-
ministration; and no one more capable
Of executing these laws according to
their true spirit.
Congress has its face firmly set
against any additional expenditures, not
only for pensions, but in every other
department of the Governments dis
bursements. Every proposition imply
ing any new expense is met at the out
set with chill negative and firm
demand for a further reduction. Every
Congressman has come back from his
constituents inbCed with an aggressive
feeling of retrenchment. The metro
politan press everywhere is particular
ly severe upon the amount now being
disbursed for pensions, and loud in de-
mand that it be cut down. it must
be kept constantly in mind that this
metropolitan press now represents i'm
mense constituencies in which there is
but a small sprinkling of soldiers and
which are largely made up by foreign
ers, who have come into the country
since the war, and by generation that
has come upon the stage since Apo
mattOX. These know little of the war
and the men who fought in it, and care
less. They are absorbed in their own
selfish plans for material gains and i'm
patient of any payment of debt to the
men without whose services and sacri-
fees they would have none of the op-
portunities which they now enjoy.
No matter how much we may de-
plore this condition of things, it is a
stern, hard fact which we must as
bravely face as We have others in the
past.
At the time that The National Trib-
une bill was proposed it was hoped
that the relief of the pension roll from
the expenditures of many millions that
Commissioner Warner had properly dis
bursed in adjudicating the long stand
ing claims and bringing the business
up to date, together with the rapid de-
crease of the roll by death, would make
such marked diminution in the ex-
penditures as would allow the passage
of The National Tribune bill or por-
tions Of it without materially increas-
, ing the annual expenditure. We now
fear that this hope cannot be realized
in any degree by the present session.
The demand for absolute reduction is
so insistent and so general that Con-
gress will not fail TO heed and to act
upon it.
At present we have, we are sorry to
say, little hope of any substantial leg
islation for the benefit of the veterans
and their dependent ones by the pres
ent session. Our hopes must now go
out to the next session. By the time
Congress meets in next December there
are the strongest grounds for belief
that the operations of the new revenue
law will have borne their legitimate
! fruit, that the Treasury will be in a
far more satisfactory condition, and
that propositions for the benefit of the
| veterans will receive a far more kindly
consideration.
The Endorsements of The National
Tribune Pension bill will not be lost by
any means. They have indicated to
Congress and the country in the most
unmistakable manner that which the
veterans are practically unanimous in
wishing and feeling that they deserve
and what It, is needful to give them as
a proper expression of the country's
justice and gratitude. The bin is be-
fore Congress for its consideration and
| for its action whenever it shall consider
the time fitting for enactment of the
bill or any portion Of it. The indorse-