Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1912 — Union Veteran, How About Tote Pension. [ARTICLE]

Union Veteran, How About Tote Pension.

There are three leading candidates for President. Pensioners should know how they stand on the pension question. Governor Wilson once wrote to Hoke Smith, Who was Cleveland’s pension commissioner, as follows: “I am very much opposed to the great expense ir the increase of pensions. lam not in favor of any one drawing a pension who is financially able to take care of himself. lam in favor of all old soldiers who are not able to work, and who have not means to take care of themselves, being sent to the soldiers’ home in the state in which they live. I think all of those who are able to take care of themselves should be dropped from the rolls. If I am elected I shall do/ all in my power to keep the expense 1 of the government down to the lowest notch.” How does that sound to you, Union Soldier? Theodore Roosevelt says he stands on the so-called progressive platform. Have you considered what the progressive platform says on the pension question? Well, here is its declaration: “We pledge ourselves to a wise and just policy of pensioning American soldiers and sailors and their widows and children by the federal government. And we approve the policy of the Southern states in granting pensions to ex-confederate soldiers and sailors and their widows and children.” Here is a pledge not to pension the Union soldiers but all American soldiers with easy inference that it will be the plan to pension confederate soldiers by the federal government. Roosevelt’s platform makes absolutely no reference to the Union soldier. Pensions for all American soldiers means to pension the confederate soldiers who fought to disrupt the government; a plan to pension men who were traitors to the flag. President Taft’s achievements tell where he stands. When the pension question was recently an issue before congress the President took the ground that it was the patriotic duty of the government to repay the great debt due to the men who fought that the nation might live. MoCumber, Sherwood and others who fought for the soldiers’ rights, testify to the part President Taft took in bringing about pension legislation that has increased the revenue to old soldiers throughout the land. President Taft on May sth, signed the Sherwood pension law, thereby increasing the average annual income per pensioner $61.28. The pension roll . thereby increased $25,797,702. President Taft says: “It is the most just, liberal and satisfactory pension legislation ever enacted by the American congress.” The National Tribune, the paper that is published for the old soldiers, and looks after their interests with keen insight, says that: “The names of Senator Porter J. McCumber, Gen. Isaac R. Sherwood and President William Howard Taft will be inseparably connected with this legislation, for without their individual and united co-operation the bill could not have become a law.” Do you realize, old soldier friends, that the election of Wilson may mean the curtailing of the revenues to such an extent that your pensions will have to be reduced or cut off? You know that the republican party stands for your greatest happiness and welfare. Don’t vote against the President who so willingly signed the law that gave to you more than $25,000,000 each year. You have been a republican, you voted with the republicans for half a century after ybu returned victorious fron% the war and by your united efforts had preserved the Union of the States. Now, vote with the party that has stood by you and with the President who will stand by you. Don’t spoil the last ballot that many of you will ever cast.