The record. [volume] (St. Maries, Idaho) 1913-1918, 1917-09-07
DEMocRAcY's DUTY TO ITS
DEFENDERS

The plan for furnishing our
soldiers and sailors life and in
demnity insurance and allowances
to dependent families, embodied
in a bill now pending in Congress,
seems to meet with the cordial
appreciation Of the people and
the press of the country. Some
extracts from editorials in vari-
GUS papers follow:
The Philadelphia Public Ledger
When we draft the wage
Garner, says Secretary McAdoo.
we call not only him but the en-
tire family to the flag. This Is
the fundamental argument for the
war-insurance bill now before
Congress. 1t is the absence of
any provision for those left be-
hind which leads so many who
would gladly give themselves to
their country to ask exemption.
when military service is OBJ
ligatory other things are obliga-
tory too. The national con-
SCIENCE as the Secretary puts it,
will not permit Americas SOL
diers and their dependents to go
unprovided with everything that a
just, generous, and noble people
can do to compensate them for
the sufferings and the sacrifices
eXacted from them. That has
never been the American way.
1.-THE aim of the war-insurance
bill is to do justice to the SOL
diers without doing injustice to
the taxpayers"
Under the title that heads this
article the New York Times says !:
mot a dollar of the billions
given to the deserving is re-
GREETED. If the proposed plan
shall secure that only the deserv-
ing shall be carried upon the
country's resources, even billions
would be paid and leave still a
debt unpaid. There can be no
real money indemnity for death
or disability. The feeling of duty
done and appreciated by country
men is all that can be offered
against such suffering"
The New York World calls army
insurance "A square deal for our
fighting men, and comments:
What the chief industrial
States are doing in insurance and
compensation of workers in peace
the Federal Government now pro-
poses to do with its lighting men
at war. No one could know what
the old pension system would
cost as applied in this war. Under
this plan the cost will be known
as we go along. Evenhanded jus
tice will be assured. Political
and personal favor will go for
nothing. There should be no
doubt of its adoption"
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
indorses the plan;
"Since the Government has be-
nevolently insured ships and car
goes, seamen and pilots engaged
in perilous war enterprises, it
seems eminently proper that off,
GERS and men of the Army and
Navy, who run UNNECESSARILY
greater risks, should be gener-
ously indemnifed in case OF
manning or death. The proposed
legislation is designed as a sub
stitute for postwar pensions, a
circumstance which further re-
commends it to us"
The Atlanta Journals closing
paragraph of an editorial COM
mending the plan is as follows
THE needs anticipated by the
bill are so numerous and the
mantle of protection which it
would throw about the cOuntry's
defenders and their families is so
broad that only an extensive re-
view could do it justice, but its
great principles really need no
commentator. They speak for
themselves, and they will appeal,
we feel sure, to the mind and
heart of Congress as they do to
the mind and heart Of the country.