The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-05-16

vice.
 Under all these adverse circum- stances the army of the Philip pines accomplished it's task rapid ly and completely. It put an end to vast system of intimidation and secret assassination by which the peaceful natives were kept from taking part in government under American authority. Utilizing the lessons of our Indian wars, our army followed the guerrilla bands to their fastnesses in mountain and jungle and crushed them. It cap- tured or forced to surrender all the leaders of the insurrection. It gave way to no discouragement and stopped at no obstacles. It added honor to our flag which 1t defend ed, and justified increased confi- dence in the future of the Ameri- can people, whose soldiers never shrink from labor or death, yet love liberty and peace.
 In Cuba, our army covered it. self with credit by pacifying the island, running down bandits, stamping out the dreadful yellow fever, which had long destroyed shO 1lNCo SlIlu Ile CO1Il- mercial prosperity of the Cubans. It collected revenues amounting to over $60,000,O00. Under the administration of it's officers a gen. eral system of free common schools were inaugurated throughout the island, in which over 100000 chil- dren started their first education. l. Housewives dumped refuse into the streets of Havana at night. The city was a miasma of odors, a hot bed of disease, not only yellow fever, but typhoid, malaria, dysen- try and other maIadies associated with filth, which caused yellow fever. In the earlier part of the war if the Spaniards had been able to hold out a little longer, it is probable that our army would have had to be withdrawn, and the Cuban campaign would have failed.
 The prisons were filled with wretched creatures living in inde- scribable filth and squalor. An early inspection of the woman's prison in Havana disclosed the fact that the women had no other place to sleep than on the floor, and were unable to appear in a body before the inspector because they were without clothes to cover their nakedness, and they came before the inspector one by one, passing the same garment to each other. The soldier of the period, now the spanish War veteran, went where he was told, asked no questions, and neither in the Philippines or Cuba, vas there an injury or in- suit to man or woman by our sol- diers. All bore themselves with dignity and self control. These are the men to whom help is re- fused in the late days of their lives.
 The Veteran of 1s1e-1s.
 Said one the other day q cant show 8 scar. went through all of it. The hell of it, but I escaped unhurt. But it did things to my face. It aged me, grayed the old bean, but can't prove any serv- ice connection. I'm only 33 but look 40, I need job, but they tell me I look too old"
 The Bonus Army
 Organized veterandom while in favor of the payment of the bonus, Ao aSdihob OOiuS llldICH6S. w HdI all veterans of all wars are re- | quested to do by their buddies is to join up their forces with organ ized units like the American Legion, V. F. W. or D. A. V. and United Spanish War vets, instead of scattering their forces in futile attempts to get action in Wash | ington.
 | nt, ,ntr sc c% sf~ weakest link, and the weak link in veteran organizations today is those who are riding free, and fail buddies. Every vet is now badly needed for team work. It is a case of all for one and one for all.
 On July 1st. many outside the wold will realize the truth of the above.
 Asking Spanish War veterans to prove disabilities connected with service is very much like asking an Esquimo to prove his connec- tion with the Nordic race. It often occurs that soldier who is ad- vancing in years is unable, because of the lapse of time or the failure of memory, to specify even the nature of certain disabilities that he may have incurred in service, much less the localities in which he received treatment for them. In the case of widows and children who must prove if the dead soldiers had a service connected disability, they are unable to give the names i of the hospitals where he was an inmate, or give any other particu- lars of his service
 Some time ago a Spanish War veteran applied to a pension agent to put in claim, and could not remember the name under which he enlisted. This is a recorded case in the books of the pension agent quoted. In the case of such records as were kept in the field, the writing and parchment through frequent handling were in such a condition that they were of little use. Before the government adopt ed the card index system, previous to 1898, there were more than twenty thousand registers, each one pertaining to some particular hospital or command, and all of them together containing more than ten million separate and dis tinct entries.