Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1910 — SENATOR B EVERIDGE AND DOLLAR A DAY PENSIONS. [ARTICLE]

SENATOR B EVERIDGE AND DOLLAR A DAY PENSIONS.

That there may be no question as to the" truth of the statement in Saturday’s Democrat by Major Robbins of Indianapolis, regarding Senator Beveridge’s treatment of a committee of old soldiers who called upon him in behalf of the proposed dollar a day pension legislation, we clip from a recent issue of the Indianapolis News’ “Voice of the

People’’ column the following letter front Mr. Robbins: To the Editor of The News: / Sir—l am unable to see why any veteran of the civil war should support Senator Beveridge for re-elec-tion. The more J think of the treatment Newton M. Taylor and I received at his hands last winter the less cause I see for supporting him. N. M. Taylor came to me at my desk in the circuit court and said I had been designated to go with him to present to Senator Beveridge a petition containing more than four thousand naim-s of ex-Union soldiers of Indiana, asking the national congress to enact a pension law providing for not less than sl. a day for all Union veterans of the civil war. I asked Mr. Taylor .when he desired me to go. He said he had an appointment with tfie-'kehator at 11:30 a. ni., next day, and asked me to join him at his office, which I did, and we reached the senator’s rooms at 11:30 sharp and waited until T o’clock p. m„ before being admitted (so many politicians ahead of us); then we were called into his presence. Mr. Taylor introduced me to him (as I had never met him before). and at once presented the petition, telling him the purpose of our visit. The senator said: “Gentlemen, if ypu hope to succeed with this .matter you must secure the influence of the President of the United States, the" Vice-President, the Speaker of the house and the committee on pensions.” Just then his telephone bell rang (and I shall always believe he caused it to ring); he asked us to step into the hall a momentwhile he answered the telephone call, and we stepped out and are still out. 1 waited a half hour, Mr. Taylor and I walking up and down the hall; then I returned to my duty at the court. And next morning I asked Mr. Taylor about the outcome of our call. He said: “You know as much about it as I do, for I remained a while after you left , without, being recalled, and then I, too. left.’’ And while we were waiting other persons from the reception room were being called into his private office. Now, comrades, you four thousand who signed the petition herein referred to, are you going, to aid Senator Beveridge to succeed himself after this insult, not alone to the committee who interested themselves' in your behalf, but to yourselves as well? He never uttered one word as to his willingness to aid in enacting this one-dollar-a-day pension law, but now he tells the palsied comrades: “I have pledged myself, and I will keep my pledge ” I have no confidence in his promises. If- you have, shut your eyes to your interests and vote for representatives who will support Beveridge and take the consequences as in the pa t. and instead of living and enjoying yourselves with: your famili'S go and die in some soldiers’ home or poorhouse. The senator said in his speech at Rochester, Ind., that it is infamous to play politics with the old soldiers, and there has never been a line of pension legislation enacted by a democratic congress, and there never will be because the majority of such a congress will be made up of southern men. and they will not vote tor pensions for veterans. Now, senator, all we ask of you is to take these bills out of the pigeonholes and put it up to the non you -peak of. Put yourself on record and let others take the responsibility. W. W ROBBINS. Indianapolis, October 7.