The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-23


God never created men of greater
courage or patriotism or who suffered
more for obeying their honest convic-
tions than those men to whom ! have
referred. If you were to double and
treble their pensions you could not re.
pay them for what they lost and for
what they suffered. 1t cost something
to be loyal to the Union in Eastern
Tennessee. The soldier from the
North left his family among friends
to succor and care for them. but it
was quite different story away down
there in the Southland. Yes, we owe
our priceless institutions to the bray
cry of the Union soldiers We have
extended our borders and planted our
loved flag i'm the distant seas. We
have the richest, the greatest govern
ment, and We are the greatest people
on the face of the eartn; but there is
not money enough in our national
treasury to pay these old heroes for
all that they have done for your coun-
try, my country, our country--'laud Of
the free and home of the brave" CAD
plause on both sides of the House,
A Roll Of Honor
Mr.. Willis: The Grand Army of the
Republic, the soldiers throughout this
country, stand for clean pension roll.
and they believe we have pension
roll that is a roll Of honor. What does
this investigation disclose, after all
the talk, after all the magazine arti
cles, after all the villifcatiOn that
members may sometimes hear, as
somebody referred to it, in the smok-
ing compartment of Pullman cars? 1t
is an easy thing to villify old soldiers
while sitting in the smoking compart-
ment of Pullman cars, and it is an
easy thing to villify old soldiers while
sitting in palatial offices.
! But want you to remember that
back in 1861 to 1865, when men were
bidding goodEy to home and friends
and loved ones, and going out to DO
battle for the Republic, to face an
enemy as brave as ever unsheated a
sword, then it was a different PROPOSE
ton. It is an easy thing to criticise
now; but after all this claptrap, after
all this talk about the pension roll be-
ing honeycombed with fraud. let us
,,., nd no
80 of the report of the commissioner
of pensions. They Investigated last
year 47,1S1 pension cases, investigat!
ed them carefully; and any member
acquainted with the business methods
of the present administration knows
that that investigation was carefully
carried out. Almost $4,000 cases were
investigated, and what did they find?
They found that in those $4,000 cases
there were five Union soldiers whose
title to a pension was questionable
They found five questionable cases out
of $4,000 In other words, throughout
all these. years, when it has been said
that fraud has been creeping into the
Pension Bureau, taking it far and
wide and all of it, there is only one in
10000 approximately whose title is in
any way questionable. They went on
and investigated other cases involving
widows pensions, the pensions of or.
/ phans, and so forth, and they found
that in these $4,000 cases all told, in.
Guiding the pensions of orphans, wild.
ows and old soldiers, there were TWEEN,
ty-siX, or, roughly speaking, only one
case in 200O about whose title there
could be or was any question at all.
In other words, ] resent the imputa-
ton that this pension roll is not a roll
of honor. | think it is roll of honor
and of very distinguished honor.
A revolutionary Bill.
Mr. Sulloway of New Hampshire:
am opposed to this bill and in favor of
a better one. applause on the Re
publican side.) This bill, as has been
stated on the floor, would, upon the
partment, take $3OOOO,OOO more from
the treasury than the one generally
and commonly known as the Sulloway
: bill, which in truth and in fact was
the bill asked for from the Atlantic to
the Pacific by the veterans of the
Civil War almost without exception,
There is scarcely a Grand Army post
that did not indorse it. Twenty-eight
legislatures assembled in as many diff
ferent states, sweeping the country
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, after
it had passed this House almost four
to one, requested and demanded of
their senators at the other end OF the
Capitol that they should vote for it.
That is the bill which favor ora bill
drawn along those lines. Such a bill
was asked for by the Grand Army at
its last annual encampment at Roches-
ter N. Y. / believe IL to be the fair.