The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1911-12-21
Measure Which Passed Con-
gress Wednesday Favored
by G. A. r. Members.
EXPECT EARLY AMENDMENTS AN INTERESTING COMPARISON
Members of Grand Army Led by Col
Watrous Declare That Men Who
Never Saw Service are Not Entitled
to Pay from Government

Ken0sha members of the Grand
Army of the Republic in common with
veterans in all parts Of the state are
taking d lively interest in the discus
sion of the Sherwood service pension
bill recently passed by the house Of
representatives and while all members
of the Grand Army seem favorable to
the passage of such a bill they are
making criticisms on the bill in the
form it has been adopted The bill
provides a graduated pension based up
on the service of the applicant ninety
day men receiving $15 month while
those who served year or over are
to receive $50 month.
cit is virtually the bill approved
by the national G. A. R. encampment
at Rochester last August said Col.
j. A. Watrous, U. S. A, retired, of
Milwaukee, and commander in chief of
the Loyal Legion.
every likely strong pressure will, be
brought to bear upon the senate to
amend it so that those who served
ninety days will receive the same pen
sion as those who served four. years.
''I can not see how this bill, if it
becomes law, will call for an addi-
tion to the pension appropriation of
$75, 100000 as has been claimed. 1t
may add $35,000,000, but the probable
death Of $4,000 pensioners in 1912 will
make the following appropriation
smaller by at least $18,000,oo0, and
five years from now, am sorry to say,
the appropriation for pensions to civil
war veterans will be $1oO,O00,o0o less
than it is now.
[ am satisfied that a patriotic pub
lie, both north and south, is calling
more loudly for pension law as liber-
al as the Sherwood bill proposes than
the soldiers themselves have ever call
ed or are now calling"
~ am a long service man myself,
saw four years of it, and 7 think the
bill in the shape it passed the house
all right said Col A. g.. Weissert,
commander of Wolcott Post, G. A. r.,
and former Grand Commander of the
G. A r.. cit was Endorsed by the
G. A. r. at the last encampment, with
notifications to bring it closer to the
Sulloway bill, which preceded it. To
the suggestion that it will cause howl
from the ninety day men, all have to
say is 'let them howl! -
'My idea always has been that men
who possibly received a bounty of
81 900 or more and in some instances
never got to the front at all, are not
entitled to the same consideration as
the men who bore the brunt of battle
for four years or longer" said Capt.
Amos p. Foster, secretary Of the
Loyal Legion.
% think the bill just and right in
the shape in which it has passed the
house. Some men received as high as
81, 400 or $500 bounty and never saw
battle and some of these have done
most Of the talking since the war;
"The Sherwood bill seems fair to
me-" said F. A. Walsh, past comman-
der, "but there were some ninety
day men who were sent into the thick
of the fight, being rushed right to the
front in the closing days of the war
and such men don It think the bill
quite just.
fThey assert, and the argument
seems logical, too, that a man can be
killed just as dead in thirty days
service if struck by bullet as in a
year IS service, while some of those who
didn't get to the front claim that was
their misfortune and that they ought
not to be blamed for something they
couldn t help. However, as / have
said, the bill seems all right to me. =