The National tribune., 1910-03-10
THE BURDEN ON THE STATES.


Editor National Tribune: must most
strenuously protest to your trying to
persuade the States and Counties and
municipalities that they are being so
enormously burdened BY their volun-
tary contributions for the support and
comfort of their old soldiers. their wild
ows and orphans. You seem so very
solicitous about the poor States. Coun-
ties and municipalities. If they are not
complaining, why need you? You say:
Take the burden off the States. We say:
What States have complained of any
burden: and if one State sees fit to care
for its soldiers. what is that to any other
State2 Moreover, the Southern States
have enough to do to take care of the r
own soldiers, their widows and orphans.
These Overburdened States are proud Of
their record. and why need you put
straw in their way? Why need you
dampen their ardor when they are will
Ing and proud of their record in help
Ing the old soldier? If you will come
out to western Pennsylvania and see
our citizens forming Rolls of Honor
and pledging themselves 10 pay all the
expenses of the Posts and see our city
paying all the expenses of Memorial
Day. even to street car fare and car
riage hire. you will return home with
a different opinion of the people of the
States to what you seem 70 have. You
are trying to show the States the great
burden they are under. and that if they
would adopt that pension bill of yours
it would take all this burden off their
shoulders. Gour pension bill would be
as but drop in the bucket compared
to what the States are doing for their
old soldiers, their widows and orphans.
Yet you would take away the bucketful
and give them the drop. Ever since
the time that Grant vetoed the first
good pension bill and signed the one
part giving himself the double sal
ary we have been getting periodical
gushers about pension bills. and mostly
just before some election for somebody,
and we see also that yours will be relc-
gated to the place of the Others. As for
myself. I served four years and a half,
from 81 to SO, and was in q battles
and many other minor spats with the
Johnnies, and was three times wounded.
yet the man who served 80 days and
got the big bounties gets as much pen
sion as / do, tho he never even heard
the sound of a battle. The pension bill
which Grant vetoed was Just bill, and
if you would take that bill and double
the amount you would have a bill that
would be a just aud equitable bill, al
lowing for wounds and disabilities and
by repeating the restrictions as to wild
aws. Give every man a square deal
T. c. Stockdale. 9th Pa. r. c. and 7th
L. s.. 1i23 Orangewood avenue, Pitts
burg, Pa.
Our cOmrade has entirely mistaken
our attitude. The first and strongest
point that we have endeavored to make
is that the great amounts paid out by
the States for the relief of veterans and
their dependent ones is a strong proof
that the present United States pension
laws are inadequate, and that they have
to be supplemented in the Northern
States by grants from the State and
County Treasures. 1t seems to us that
this affords the best possible argument
for the liberalization of the United
States pension laws. In the Counties
and States the communities are much
closer to the veterans and their widows
than is the General Government and
are much more sensible to the worth
of this class and their needs. If, there
fore, the sense of justice and gratitude
by these neighbors of the veterans is
so strong that they supplement the Gov
ernment pensions by allowances from
their own Treasures, it shows conciu-
sively the need of the Government do
ing more than it is at present doing.
We do not expect that the State Homes
will be abolished, for there are good
reasons for their maintenance, but
large portion of the money now paid
out by the States and Counties for out
door relief should come from the Ma
tional Treasury instead of from those
of the States and Counties. The vet
Grams did not fight for their State or
County, but for the whole United States.
and the United States should take care
of them. Furthermore, there is an in
equality and injustice, since the veter-
ans in the richer and more populous
States receive advantages which those
of the newer and less populous States
and those of the South do not get.