The National tribune., 1910-06-30
WIDOWS PENSIONS.


would give a pension to women who
have married veterans Of the civil war
since 1890 upon the death of their hus-
bands is a vicious one, and 1t is to be
hoped that IL will not be enacted into
law. As the law now stands, every
woman who married veteran up to
1890 is entitled to a pension upon her
husbands demise, and this is very
liberal provision, for it enables wo-
man who married a soldier % years
after the war to obtain governmental
support
The passage of such a measure as
the one proposed would only encourage
| tain type would take advantage of the
pension scheme and marry bachelors
and widower veterans, not for love, but
for the money the marriage would bring
| to them. The measure would not help
the veterans, nor would it help any
one to whom the country is under the
slightest obligation. On the contrary
the measure, if passed, will provide fo1
class whose proper home is more apt
to be in some institution of restraint.
THE Federal Government has been
liberal to the men who went out from
their homes in 1861 and the four sub
Sequent years to save the Union. 1t has
been liberal to the women whom they
left behind, or whom they married dur
d
shot was fired. Indeed, our pension bill
has been quite as large as the cost of
maintaining one of the great standing
armies of Europe Very few people
among us have offered any objection to
the money which has been raised by
taxation and paid out year after year.
The old saying that Republics are un-
grateful has not conveyed a pleasant
sound to our ears, and our Republic re-
co arlX- h1t ha pi iNfl war vol =
Grams should never be compelled to echo
the adage. Every one knows that our
pension policy has been too liberal
rather than not liberal enough. for
many a man who never Smelled gun
powder during the entire four years, and
others who ran away as soon as they
did smell it. have been provided for,
and their widows likewise. Surely there
has been no parsimony manifested here.
Every citizen is supposed to be a
patriot. and a patriot is a man who
loves his country. A patriot loves to
live for his country, and II necessary
will die for her without hope or desire
of reward. When Nathan Hale was
taken to the place of execution, he said
that his only regret was that he had but
one life to give to his country. and in
this statement he was only voicing what
every whole-souled citizen feels. George
Washington refused to receive any COM
pensation for his services, and for the
seven years of the Revolution he fought
for America without receiving a cent.
Nation of Hales and Washingtons
would be invincible. But a Nation made
up of men who care more for pensions
than the land which gives them is not a
Nation destined to endure forever"
All this>shows as much ignorance of
history as 1t does misconception of
T,t.
ment has always up until the passage
of the act of June 27, 1890, pensioned
the widows of veterans without regard
to the date of marriage. A practice
that would seem good enough for
Washington. Adams, Jefferson and the
other fathers of the Republic would
seem to have the same merits to their
successors.
Furthermore. the country has ten
derly cherished the widows of the Rev.
olutionary veterans and of the War of
1912 as precious legacies from the men
who had fought the great battles for
us. They have been put upon and kept
upon the pension roll of the United
States without question or grudglng,
and when they died there was a pc
culiar regret at their passing. Yet the
most of these women whose passing
in late years has been the subject of
much sincere regret must have been
quite young when they married their
veteran husbands.
The next thing is that there is actual
immortality in the great United states
Government, which should represent
the highest morality at all times. IN
making distinction between mar
riages. Marriage is a sacred thing
which should be held in the highest
reverence, ard the moment there is a
distinction made between one kind Of
marriage and another we begin to re-
vert to the old barbarism which DIFF
ferentiated kinds of marriages until
concubinage was the result.
To say that a pension of s12 a month
encourages adventuresses to marry old
men for their pensions is to put a stig-
ma upon American womanhood.
So much for the theory and senti-
ment of the matter
facts The Limitation upon widows
pensions was placed on the Statute
Book June 27. 1890, just 20 years ago
At that time the great proportion of
the women who are suffering from this
unjust discrimination were compara-
lively young. and they married veter-
ans In the prime of their lives, who
had probably been recently bereaved of
their first wives. They had been left
with families Of young children who
sorely needed the care of good women
AS a class the very best young women
OF the country assumed this duty, and
discharged 1t with the fidelity and low
ing devotion that are the glory of
American womanhood. They brought
up the children as they should have
been, they made homes for their hus-
bands, and when the latters' physical
powers began to fail they nursed them
tenderly thru long years of growing
decrepitude until at last they followed
them in tears to the low green tent,
where their comrades laid them away
TO sleep until Resurrection. But be-
cause these women happened to marry
their husbands after June 27, 1890,
their 20 years of devotion and loving
labor count for nothing. They are all
now far past middle life. and justice