The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-14
Makes Plea for Old Soldiers in
Short Speech.
HARD ON VETERANS
VIII Reduce Allowance of Some
OF Them.
Should Be Called 80 Cents 9
Day Bill, He Says.


vigorous protest against the passage
of the measure reported by the Demo
cratic committee on pensions and urged
that it be so amended as to provide a
larger allowance to the old veterans.
Instead of the bill providing a dollar
a day pension. the bin under consid-
Grafton, ne declared, should be called a
/ so cents day or a. 70 cents day bill.
He said the old soldiers have found this
out and that there is a popular demand
for legislation which would give them
at least 81 a day.
His speech, covering ten minutes,
was one of the most forceful argu-
ments in behalf Of the old soldier ever
made in congress. II part, Mr.. Camp
bell said:
DoHt Care for Credit.
I am sorry to have noted a DISPOSE
ton to put the discussion of this bill
on a financial basis. But little has Deen
said Of the patriotism of the men who
have Il4eaue it possible for this house
to be assembled here today, but gentle
men talk constantly of the amount Of
money that it will take to pay them
sufficient pensions to keep them in their
last hours. They did not stop to count
the cost in the sixties, and we must
not stop to count the cost now. There
is but little discussion of the amount
of money in the treasury OF the amount
of money that it will take when we
talk OF constructing an lSLn1Q1t1n Canal
when We talk of making unnaVigaDle
rivers navigable, when we talk of i'm
proving a harbor into which an ocean
going vessel will never come. Gentle
men then grow eloquent in support of
additional appropriations without re
gard to the source from which the
money shall come or the amount OF
it in the treasury when asking appro-
priations for other purposes; but when
we are confronted with a proposition
To 81
last days Of the greatest heroes TINS
country ever produced. to place them IT
a condition where it will be possible
for them to supply the bare necessi-
ties of life, gentlemen begin to talk
about the amount of money that 1t
will take from the treasury of the Uni
ted States.
Some COMPARISONS of this kind have
been made of the Sherwood bill and the
Sulloway bill. It has been stated that
the Sullowav bill would cost more than
would the Sherwood bill It has been
stated upon other hand. that the
Sherwood bill would cost more than the
SuIloway bill. 1t is not material to me
which one of these bills will cost the
most My concern is, which one OF
these bills will do the most good to
the greatest number Of old veterans
and those dependent upon them. Upon
that proposition I have no hesitation
whatever in saying that it is my belief
that the Sulloway bill Will reach the
greatest amount of good; and l would
like to see the best that is in both
nut into one and passed. That is what
I have been working for for years, and
what l am working for now | 40 nol
care who gets the credit il the veterans
and their widows get what they are
entitled to-
IT'S Not What 1t Seems.
There was, some years ago, most
general approval of the Sherwood bill
I have received letters and resolutions
daily by the score in behalf of the
sherwood 81 a day BILL | have look
ed through the bills and could not find
the sherwood 81 a day BILL but I
me and tell them there was no such
bill 1t is now known that there is no
81 a day bill pending in this house, and
that there has not been. This might be
called a so cents day bill or d rs cents
a day bill quite as well as a 81 a day
bill. And since the old veterans and
their friends have found it out, there
is not popular demand for this
bill as there was year and half
ago.
man who enlisted during the last days OF
the war is entitled at this day, so far as
a pensionable status is concerned, to a
place beside the man who enlisted in the
earlier DAYS In the first place, the most
of those who enlisted later were boys,
and they enlisted at the very first Oppol-
tunity. Many of them said they were
older than they really were IN order TO
get in I have long since forgiven every
of them who said that he was IS
years old when as a matter of fact he
was only IS or 16. They did not enlist for
30. So or 30 days. they enlisted for three
years, or until the close of the war
They enlisted after Gettysburg, after
Lookout Mountain, after all the
bloody battles that had been fought up
to 1861 It took courage, it took the
qualities that make the best manhood, for
those boys to enlist in the face of all that
had happened-in three years of war. i'm
prisonment. hunger, fever, wounds hard
the march, and the death Of thousands in
battle. But the brave boys enlisted and
offered every thing they had. Some Of
them were older when they enlisted and
are getting old-age pensions now. I know
men who enlisted during the last days of
month by reason Of age. viii this bill
cut them down to SIS a month. BY its
terms Il will.
Cuts Down Pensions.
Then a gross injustice will be done to the
man who served 80 days and is 70 wears
of age now, while another who served 50
days and happens to be rs years of age at
service would get SIS and another with
the same length of service $50
Mr.. Chairman. my further objection to
the bill IS that it makes no provision for
the widows of the veterans who have
married. since 1890. 7 am aware that there
may be in an exceptional and rare case
an unworthy widow left by soldier or
the civil war. but where there Is one IN
worthy one there are a hundred or thou
sand who are worthy know old widows
who have married since 1890 who were OF
an age almost equal to the veteran that
they married. who took care for Is years
of some of your old comrades. General
Sherwood and I say it to youwith senti-
ments of the highest respect, and these
widows are today absolutely helpless ard
pensionless and they are not given a pen
sionable status under the provisions of
this bill.
Now the fact that this bill is here with
a report from the committee ought not to
guarantee that It shall so through as it