Year: 1878

DEMOCRATIC ECONOMY.


Tho Democratic portion Of this Congress
have been crying economy, retrenchment,
and reform for more than six months, prac-
ticing their economies and retrcnchments in
cbeese-paring policy which reaches the
clerical force and machinery of the Govern
ment with a crippling power, while It's re-
trenchments are Of the most spurious and
startling character. If they retrench by
cutting down the salary or in dispensing
with the services Of poor clerk, that act is
offsct by some scheme Of wrong and plum
der that takes millions from the public
Treasury. Indeed, II has become proverbial
with the Democratic portion of the present
Congress, which is controlled by the South,
that its patriotism is measured by the length
Of the arm and the breadth of the hand
that finds its wdy into tho Treasury Of tho
nation.


On the 9th day of March Inst one Of the
greatest Southern plundcring schemes
known TO the history of this nation was
contaminated in an act ostcnsibly to relieve
those engaged in the war Of 1912 and in
oil the Indian wars and the widows Of the
same. The effect and scope Of this meas
publicans in both Houses Of Congress, or VIC
feel assured that its real character would
have been revealed and its passage in Its
present shape would have been resisted.
This law provides that all persons who per-
formed fourteen days service in any of
these wars, whether as soldiers, toamsters,
suffers, OF camp followers, we have right
to assume-for it Is but 1imsily guarded
or their living widows, shall have a pension
Of So per month during their natural lives.
1t is impossible now to conjecture the num-
Der that this ominnm gatheum measure
will entail upon the Treasury; but present
indications are that their name is legion
1t does not involve the question Of wounds
or disability at all neither Is it confined to
those who bore arms; but II includes all
who served in those wars in any capacity
for the brief period of fourteen days.


That this Is q Southern scheme for plum
dering the National Treasury lis evident
from its peculiar character and the fruits II
is bearing. 1t restores to the rolls all those
who had forfeited their pensions by rebel
lion, and IL brings TO the surface every
Southron who chased Indians for fourteen
days in the wars with the Southern tribes.
1t is not confined to the widows who were
married prior to or during the war, but any
one who was identified with the service in
any capacity and who has since married, no
matter how recently, and has since died,
his widow is entitled to her s. per month
for life, whether again married or not
Now for the fruits that are being rcaped
from this measure. At the time Of its pass
age there were on file 100000 applications
on ground of disabilities, which have been
vitalized by this bill, so far as the applicants
or their widows are living. The examine
ton and classification of these involve
q herculean labor, which now must
be provided for. Since the passage of
this law, less than two months ago,
there have been filed in the Pension Bureau
full ten thousand applications, mostly from
the South, for pensions under it. This il





only the beginning of the raid, which Is
liable to be increased to forty thousand Z;
but, admitting that only twenty thousand
of these exhumed and reviviied applica-
tions are allowed, that will bring direct
tax upon the National Treasury of about
two millions Of dollars annually, chiefly in
the interest of the late Confederates, and all
in the interest of Confederate Democratic
economy, retrenchment, and reform.


The Republicans in Congress must have
slept while the Democrats sowed these tares
in the national field. The next scheme of
plunder is to protect the farms Of the late
Confederates from the overflow of the Mis-
sissippi River at the expense Of the Ameri-
can people. Thus raid follows raid upon
the National Treasury to exemplify Demo-
cratic economy and crafty the demands ol
Confederate patriotism.