The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-18
II. r.. AND THE OLD SOLDIERS.

| II. IL. AM O14D 0OAAOAA1AASs
| Whenever Colonel Roosevelt spies
an old soldier or two in an audience
he delivers a panegyric to the surviv-
ors of war. who are far more re-
nowned in his eyes than any hero of
peace possibly could be. He wants
the old soldiers to know that he adj
mires them beyond all men; that he
is for them first, last and all the
time Wasn't he a soldier himself
once? Doesn't he know the rewards
and the praise that are due the old
soldiers? To be sure he ~es. Moth
ing would please him more than to
get the support of all the old soldiers
of the country, they are such worthy
men, they are SO deserving of honor.
Nor are there many people who will
deny the old soldiers any of the
praise that Mr.. Roosevelt has a habit
of bestowing IN them when he needs
their votes to help him crafty his
boundIess ambitions for power. And
bearing in mind the attitude of the
Colonel towards the old soldiers, when
he is on the stump, it is interesting to
parallel it with the stand that was
taken by The Outlook on the Sher-
wood pension bill. Colonel Roosevelt
is Officially styled as the contributing
editor to The Outlook, but it is not
without warrant to believe that he has
been, until lately, the controlling fac
tor in the position The Outlook has
taken on all the questions it discussed
editoriaIly On the Sherwood bill,
which is in high favor with the old
soldiers almost to a man, The Out
look had this to say under a heading
of Reckless Extravaganza"
THAT a Democratic house of rep
resentatives publicly pledged to econ
omy and retrenchment should pro-
pose to increase the national pension
expenditure by from fifty to seventy
five millions year augurs i'll for the
record of this congress. 1t makes the
matter worse rather than better to
say that the lower house expects the
bill to be held up in the senate or
vetoed by the president; insincerity is !
more reprehensible than eXtrava- |
gance; and, if those observers are !
right who attribute this action partly
to a demagogic desire to gain votes
in the next campaign and partly to
desire to put the senate or the presi- |
dent in a hole the men who voted
for the bill are guilty of cowardly
and contemplate conduct. 1t should
be pointed out, however, that some
Democratic leaders, notably Mr.. I'm !
derwood, and Mr.. Fitzgerald OF New |
York, spoke strongly against the
measure, and that it was passed with
the aid of all but eight of the Re
publican votes and against a Demo- |
cratic vote of about eighty. Never !
theless, the control of the house is !
with the Democrats, and the bill could
not have been passed, as it was. hasti- /
ly and with inadequate debate, had !
it not been so willed by the party in
power. In his speech in opposition |
Mr.. Fitzgerald pointed out that five
of the greatest and most warlike |
powers in Europe spent for pensions
last year thirty-three million dollars |
less than the United States, while in |
the last thirty years Great Britain, /
with it's enormous navy and great mil
itary establishment, has actually ex-
pended for all military and naval pen
sions nearly three thousand million |
dollars less than this country. 1t is |
true that we do not wish to let other |
nations set the standard of generosity /
for our treatment of old soldiers, but |
the discrepancy is so enormous as to |
be preposterous We are now paying |
out about $3.50, 100000 yearly for pen |
sions, and there is good reason to |
think that much of this goes to those |
" hose claims are slight or non-ex-
istent. The Sherwood bill, popular |
ly known as the dollar a day BILL |
gives a service pension of SIS a month
to any soldier who served ninety days, =,
and increasing amounts up to $50 a |
month for longer service without
regard to the mourning of wounds or
disabilities, the nature and place OF
service, and the present condition and |
needs of the pensioner. No doubt !
the time may come when the princ4- /
pie of service pension may be prop |
erly applied, but that it has not yet
come is shown by the continued enor- |
nous burden of the pension legisla-
ton already existing on the statute |