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The Commoner
Senator Kern on Pensions
plan for the relief of the necessities of civil war
It will he seen that in the great central state
of Indiana, which contributes its full share of
taxes toward the support of the national gov
ernment, there is absolute unanimity of senti
ment on the question of full and ample justice
to the veterans of the civil war, so that In
advocating the Sherwood pension bill here I
am representing no party nor faction of a party
but the whole people of a great commonwealth,
who, without regard to political differences,
demand that the obligations of the government
to its defenders be fully, amply, and generously
discharged
And yet, Mr. President, our people are in
favor of economical government, and unalter
ably opposed to extravagant and needless ap
propriations of the moneys collected from them
by any form of federal or state taxation. But
in Indiana we do not regard any appropriation
as extravagant which is necessary to maintain
the honor of the state or to discharge its honest
obligations.
It has sometimes happened that the burdens
of taxation became onerous and oppressive
when appropriations were necessary for the
payment of our state indebtedness and the in
terest thereon; but when it was known that the
honor of the state was involved there was- no
murmur of discontent, and no man thought of
charging extravagance to the legislature mak
ing the appropriation.
.Then, again, the taxes levied for the purpose
of providing for the care and education of our
unfortunate people the blind, the deaf and
dumb, the soldiers' orphans, and others of that
class that their lives might be brightened a
little, seemed heavy and burdensome, but they
wore paid cheerfully, because the common in
stincts of humanity required it.
And so here, whether the claim of the old
soldiers rests upon the contract obligation of
the government or upon the ground of grati
tude and common humanity, our people can
never be brought to the belief that there can
bo extravagance in any appropriation of public
moneys for the purpose of providing for the
necessities of the old men whose services in that
great war between the states made disunion im
possible and the union perpetual, and made
possible that great development of the ma
terial resources of our country which has made
us the richest and most powerful of all the na
tions of the earth.
Speech of Hon. John W. Kern, of Indiana,
before the United States senate, as in committee
of the whole, having under consideration tlio
bill (II. It. i) granting a service pension to
certain deiined veterans of the civil war and the
war with Mexico. Mr. Kern said:
Mr. President: I rise to speak in favor of a
pension bill that will settle the pension question
for all timo to come; thai will forever put an
end to special pension legislation; that will,
when once put Into operation, enable the gov
ernment to dispense with services of thousands
of examiners and special agents, spies, and de
tectives a measure which has the support of
the groat majority of the soldiers of the nation
who served in the ranks of the union army as
privates during the civil war and who by the
thousand aro registering their protest against
tho McCumber or Smoot substitute now under
consideration.
Mr. President, the last democratic state con
vention of Indiana, held on April 28, 1910,
wus made up of more than 1,000 delegates
representing every township in each of the 92
counties of tho state. By a unanimous vote it .
adopted a platform of principles in which it
pledged the honor of the party that tho candi
dates that day nominated should, if successful,
carry out and perform, in so far as they were
able, tho promises therein made. One of those
platform declarations was as follows:
"Wo favor tho Immediate enactment of a
pension law by congress providing for a pension
of not loss than $1 a day for all union veterans
of tho civil war."
Mr. President, that convention also, by a
unanimous vote, nominated me as the party's
candidate for the position I now hold. I ac
cepted that nomination, fully advised as to tho
declaration of principles theretofore mado by
tho convention, and without hesitation or men
tal reservation agreed that, if elected, I would
honestly and faithfully do what I could to carry
out my party promises.
That convention was not mado up of mere
politicians, but was composed for the most part
of earnest, serious-minded men from overy walk
of life, who for tho time had left the plow, tho
anvil, tho shop, tho office, and the store and
assembled to declare their political faith, to
express themselves upon public questions, and
as patriotic citizens organizo their party for the
contest for bettor government and more equal
and beneficial laws.
Tho platform declaration for a dollar-a-day
pension was not mado as a mere empty promise
to catch votes a promiso to be ignored and
violated in the event of party success, but an
expression of the conscientious conviction of
that great body of men that such legislation as
that promised was justly due to the survivors
of the war not only aB a mark of gratitude, but
as an act of plain and simple justice to the men
who in timo of national stress and peril had
proved their love of country by offering their
lives in its defense.
It was in lino with tho promise of "generous
pensions" mado in the last democratic national
platform adopted at Denver in 1908 and with
the promises mado in the platforms of all poli
tical parties since tho commencement of tho
civil war.
Every delegate in that Indiana state conven
tion at tho timo ho cast his vote for that plat
form declaration had in mind scores of his
neighbors who had served thoir country in the
hour of its distress now grown so old and infirm
ns to bo unable to win bread by their labor and
anxious and distressed because of their inability
to provide for their necessities.
They know that the pensions of eicht, twelve,
and oven twenty dollars per month doled out
by tho government with sparing and cautious
hand to these veterans were utterly inadequate
to provide for their actual wants, and recogniz
ing, on tho ono hand, the great value of the
services of these men to their country, and, on
tho other hand, the vast wealth and great ability
of the nation to deal generously with Its de
fenders, could see no reason why tho few re
maining years of those men should not bo made
at least tolorablo by granting, their request for
a pension of a dollar a day.
The republican state -platform of tho same
year declared with the same unanimity that
"wo. believe iho timo has come for tho enact
ment of what is -known as a dollar-a-day pension
AN OBLIGATION OF HONOR
Measured by its dealings with other creditors,
this government has utterly failed to carry out
the plain provisions of its contract with the
soldiers of the civil war.
Tho armies of the union were made up almost
entirely of poor men. Business men, as a rule,
remained at home and made money while
clerks and employees went to war. Men who
owned farms, especially those who owned large
farms, operated them with great profit through
out tho struggle, while the tenants and farm
hands wero urged to volunteer. Great fortunes
were made by many of those "who took no part
in tho conflict, for the necessities of the gov
ernment were great and the opportunities for
making money unparalleled. Contractors for
supplies of every kind waxed fat, and the manu
facturers who were subject to war taxes were
given special tariff legislation, enacted for the
avowed purpose of offsetting the amounts paid
by them for the support of tho governmentbut
foi the real purpose of enriching them at the
expense of the people.
?; mp rlih whlch was afterwards increased
to ?16. The contract was to nav tho in
dollars. They were paid in currency so dpre
ciated as to be worth on tho average less than
50 cents on the dollar, so that instead of re
ceiving the contract price of $13 and $16 thev
actually received from about $6 to $7 nGr
month. PrifiRR fnv ho : i ,.' per
y.r,n v. , W , "uBBuueB 01 1110 wore
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 16
dollars in payment of their claims stirred tho
financiers of the nation into frenzied action,
and resulted in a great crusade in behalf of
the national honor, which was at once grotesque
and tragic. Oh every stump and through the
great newspapers it was declared that the pay
ment of a just debt in depreciated money was
the acme of national perfidy.
Yet today these same financiers, with tho
same earnestness and zeal with which they
shouted for national honor in 1896, are de
nouncing as a raid on the treasury a proposi
tion to pay to old soldiers who saved their coun
try for them the pittance of a dollar a day, that
they may have food and shelter in their old age,
and that some measure of justice be done them
because in those dreadful days of civil war they
were paid dollars worth less than 50 cents for
their heroic work.
Mr. President, during and at the close of that
war there were two general classes of govern
ment creditors the holders of the government
bonds and the men who had given up the best
part of their lives on the march, in camp, in
prison, and in battle for the restoration of the
union. The first class, had remained at homo
engaged in the pleasant pursuit of money mak
ing, while the second class had endured during
all those long years all the privations incident
to the greatest war of modern times. The bonds
issued by the government were, for the most
part, bought with greenbacks. The bonded debt
of $2,049,975,700 cost the purchasers of tho
bonds at the time they were issued only $1,371,
424,238 in money of gold value, the kind of
money in which they were paid. There was no
question but that the bonds for which green
backs were paid were payable in the lawful
money of the country.
John Sherman so held, and the republican
party of Indiana, then led by Oliver P. Morton,
so declared in its state platform in 1868. And
yet, sir, the government was so jealous of its
honor that in March, 1869, by the famous coin
act, all such bonds were made payable in coin,
thereby giving to the bond-holders a clear profit
of more than $678,000,000 a naked specula
tion something for nothing.
When, a little later, a measure was offered
in congress to protect the national honor by
paying to the soldiers the difference betwSen
the amounts which the government agreed to
pay them and the amounts actually received by
them from the government, it failed of a re
spectful hearing, its author being denounced as
a demagogue for bringing a proposition so pre
posterous into the halls of national legislation.
Mr. President, I now call upon all those men
who were so solicitous for the national honor
in 1896, and whose consciences were so quick
ened at the mere prophecy of 50-cent dollars, to
rally to the support of the Sherwood pension
bill to the end that the old soldiers of tho
union who made hundred-cent dollars, or dol
lars of any kind, possible in this country, and
who were paid for their gallant services in 40
cent dollars, may have before they die somo
measure of justice at the hands of a govern
ment penitent for its one act of debt repudia
tion. It was in June, 1825 mark the date, for it
iS important that. tho pnvnovafr.no nf thft
SE..W' vit tuo fSi!
- . wa 0yiui,u1 many instances wero sun
ported largely by public and private charity
Sir, wo heard much in a recent camnni
about 50-cent dollars and the fnfamy S?
government that would discharge a contract
obligation calling for, tho pay mint of dollars
with money worth only 50 cents on the dollar
The mere prospect or prophecy that, government
creditors would bo compelled to refeive sUver
liunicer urn monument was laid. The cere
monies were so impressive and imposing that
tho event has been ever since regarded as ono
of the most notable in our history. La Fayette,
flushed with such a series of welcomes never bo
fore or since accorded to any foreigner coming
to these shores, was there, the guest of tho
nation, participating in the ceremonies. A vast
concourse of patriotic people had assembled,
ino wealth and the learning of New England
wero present, and so it seemed were all the
?ePue' ,But the seats of honor were occupied
by the old survivors of the revolution, the men
who had followed Washington and his generals
in that war for independence, and some of whom
had witnessed with swelling hearts the surren
der of Cornwallis. .Daniel Webster was the
o,nic!Wh0 day' Tho day ie place, tho
occasloYi, tho audience, the surroundings! What
Inspiration for tho greatest of all American
oonn2!'f A,ncJ Webster rose grandly to the
occasion and delivered an oration that will live
as long as men and women who love liberty read
S?lJWiag0;, Wh0 has read his words ad"
1 flndlreCtly t0 th0 venerable men of the
un?i!, counting their orifices in the
e!SmL W and exPressing tho everlasting
foVill 5?if?f V10 beneficiaries of their valorous
un ('2fOUn such emotions as bring the tears
unuiaden to the eyes?
TfiMMBiJ!? 81fntl1mJonta hG 'expressed touched a
"responsive chord in every heart in that- great
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