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THE NATIONAL TREBUNB: "WASHnfOTON, B. C, MAY 13, 1882.
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The Rational Tribune
(Estaoiisheo 1877.)
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
TO CARE FOR HIM WHO HAS DORNC THE DATTLE, AND FOB
His wicV and ORFHAN5." Abraham Lincoln.
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The validity of the public oebt of the United
States, authorized dy law, including dedts incurred for
payment of pensions and dountie6 for service6 in sup
pressing insurrection or rebellion. shall not be ques
TIONED." Sec 4, Art. XIV, Constitution of the United
States.
ENTERED AT THE WASHINGTON fOST-OFriCC AS SECOND-CLASS UATTCR.
WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 13, 18S2.
In forwarding hi3 subscription for The
National Tribune from Lawrence, Mass.,
Gen. George S. Merrill, Commander-in-Chief of
the Grand Army of the Iicjmblic, says :
"The bold advocacy of The National
TRIBUNE of the rights of the soldier elicits my
hearty approval. Keep on as you have begun,
and do not consider your work accomplished
until every soldier who is entitled to a jiension
receives it, and every soldier's widow and every
soldier's child arc provided for by the Govern
ment. (Signed) Geo. S. Merrill."
It is the aim of The National Tri
bune to voice the wish of the soldier. His
cause is its own; his rights its steady pur
pose to maintain. With its aid the soldier
can make himself heard by Congress and the
people. Self-interest alone should prompt
him, therefore, to subscribe to it.
i-Jri f.nr. nrinr.a
Tkthe State of California, Decoration
Tii- iu nlrpnrlT- n. lffrnl rinlir?n.V flTlfl tTiA
,.,, - ....WUJ .. .., J , - llj
firvw? Army should endeavor to secure a
fei.jiilur n cognition of the day in every other
bt.iUi in the Union. The public generally
h.ivo come to regard it in the same light as
tlie Fourth of July or Washington's Birth
day, and it is quite time that it received the
same legal sanction everywhere as these
revolutionary anniversaries. As we said
last week, the subject should receive the
formal attention of the approaching National
Encampment.
Our ex-soldiers who depend upon the
daily press for information concerning the
status of pension and bounty bills are likely
to be disappointed in the expectation. The
National Tribune is the only journal
which makes a specialty of such news and
that can be relied upon to furnish full and
authentic intelligence in regard to legisla
tion affecting their interests. Subscribe at
once, so as not to miss tho reports on the
measures that are about to come up for dis
cussion in Congress. Price, only one dollar
per year.
It has been suggested that it would be a
pleasant innovation on the customs of Dec
oration Day to plant flowering annuals on
the graves of our dead heroes instead of
strewing their mounds with perishable blos
soms, so that the floral bloom may last the
whole summer long. There is sense and
poetry in the suggestion, but why should
its adoption involve the abandonment of the
present beautiful ceremonial? Surely no
consideration of expense need prevent the
combination of the two, for the generous
hands that contribute the flowers would be
glad also to aid in carrying out this plan of
permanent decoration. Each Post might
select a portion of the cemetery as its special
territory, and doubtless a friendly competi
tion would soon spring up between them in
this new mode of decoration that would be
attended by excellent results.
The passage of the Tariff Commission
bill by the House of Representatives on
Saturday last is a death-blow to the hopes
of the Free Traders, and makes it certain
that during the life of the iiresent Congress,
at least, there will be no interference with
the Tariff. This result will be hailed by
business men with universal satisfaction, for
in the present condition of trade nothing ig
more to be dreaded than any disturbance of
values. When the Tariff Commission shall
have concluded its labors it is reasonable to
expect that its investigations will afford the
basis for such an intelligent revision of tho
Tariff as will relieve it of its incongruities
without destroying its essentially protective
features. It now remains to be seen whether
Congress will display equal wisdom in deal
ing with the question of internal revenue
taxation. It goes without saying that the
passage of the Tariff Commission bill wan
largely due to the magnificent speech that
was made in its support by the Hon. Wm. D.
Kelley, of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the
"Ways and Means Committee,
" God Knows "Who was Right."
The sessions of the United States Senate
were enlivened, last week, by quite a vigor
ous debate over tho question of permitting
ex-confederates to enter the Regular army,
and naturally tho discussion revived all the
old issues of the war. Senator Edmunds
referred to the rebellion as a "crime" and
Senator Hampton replied that " God alone
knows who was right."
We are not among those who delight in
rekindling tho embers of national hate at
every opportunity, and we would willingly
consign to oblivion everything relating to
our unhappy civil strife, except the valor of
the American soldier, but it is a little too
much at this late day to have the insinua
tion hurled in our face that after all it is
still an open question whether those who
laid down their lives for tho preservation of
the Union or thoso who fought to destroy it,
were in the right and that God alone can
decide. If that is tho sentiment of tho
Southern people generally, to permit the en
listment of ex-confederates in tho Regular
army would indeed be a blunder, for if de
terred by no consideration of principle there
would be nothing to restrain them from en
gaging in a now rebellion, should tho oppor
tunity ever arise. It has not yet been for
gotten that the Republic clothed, fed, and ed
ucated at its own expense the officers who af
terwards conducted the war for its overthrow.
Wo are disposed to think, however, that
Senator Hampton does not fairly represent
the Southern people, but only the oxtreme
Bourbon element of his section an element
which is destined to grow less and less pow
erful as education reduces the gap between
the old slave -holding class and tho poor
whites and tho growth of manufactures
compels the recognition of the dignity of
labor. A broad distinction must be made
between this element and that whose ac
tivity is concentrated on tho industrial de
velopment of the Sonth. It is not to bo
expected that professional politicians like
Senator Hampton, who have perpetuated
their power by the debauchery of tho ballot
box and appeals to the prejudices of their
people, should admit that the rebellion was
a crime, but the time is comiijg when even
at the South the miserable deception which
was practiced upon that section by the am
bitious leaders of the confederacy will be
thoroughly understood and properly de
tested. The war has had some results
which the wisest did not anticipate. It
emancipated not only the black but the
white race from the rule of caste. It has
given schools not only to the colored but
the white youth, and, as illiteracy decreases,
we may be sure that the influence of the old
governing class the planter's aristocracy
will steadily decline.
But even were the moral change which
the war has brought abSuti in life condition
of the South not as radical as it is, the
physical revolution which ,it has wrpught
would be all sufficient to disprove Senator
Hampton's bold asset on that the righteous
ness of the struggle for tho preservation of
the Union remains unestablished. The very
prosperity of the country bears testimony to
the worth of tho cause for which the north
ern armies contended, and even tho Senator
from South Carolina must admit that during
the period that has elapsed since tho war the
industrial development of the South has
eclipsed that of any previous epoch in its
history. Northern capitalists have lent
their aid to the construction of railroads,
the opening up of mines, and the establish
ment of manufactures, in every southern
State, and in place of tho utter ruin which
the folly of the confederate leaders invited,
a prosperity hitherto unknown has blessed
the land. Senator Hampton would turn
back the hands and reverse tho wheels of
progress. He would have us believe that
the southern people, while submitting to
the inevitable, have not changed their opin
ion of secession, and that "God alone knows
who was right." God forbid that such
should be the case. Tho existence of such
a sentiment would be a perpetual meuace to
the peace and safety of tho Republic; and
we should feel that, although an integral
portion of the Union, the South could never
be trusted to battle for its preservation
should its security be endangered by a
foreign power.
But we do not believe that Senator Hamp
ton voices the opinion of aught save his
fellow Bourbons. In the judgment of the
nation God has already decided who was
right, and it is only tho self-seeking poli
cian who refuses to recognize the infinite
wisdom and mercy of His decree.
Let Us Havo Talr Play.
The Friday evening session of the House
of Representatives is devoted solely to tho
consideration of privato pension bills. As a
rule, they are for the relief of persons whose
applications have been rejected by the Pen
sion Bureau on some technicality generally
either because they have not been able to
furnish all the evidence required by law
for the establishment of their claim, or be
cause there is no general law applicable to
their cases. Tho bills are first considered in
Committee of the Whole, and it is usual to
call for the reading of tho Pension Commit
tee's report in each case, which generally
recapitulates tho evidence upon which the re
port is based, and gives the reasons which tho
committee had for reporting it with a favor
able or adverse recommendation, as the case
may be. We have from time to time quoted
from the Congressional Record to show what
hardships have attended the endeavors of
deserving soldiers to procure the relief due
them from the Government, and we might
fill column after column -with the pathetic
stories which are incidentally brought to light
by the investigation of this class of claims.
They all illustrate, with more or less clear
ness, the suffering to which applicants are
subjected by tho grievous delay which at
tends the adjudication of pension claims
when, from one cause or another, they are
taken to Congress as to a court of last resort.
Yet, vexatious and lamentable as this delay
is, it is of small moment compared with that'
which exists in the Pension Bureau, for in
the former case it is unavoidable, while in
tho latter it is caused solely by the lack of a
sufficient clerical force to properly transact
the business of the office. It is not to be
expected of a congressional committee even
when composed of such patient, patriotic,
and persevering members as make up the
House Committee on Invalid Pensions tat
the present session of Congress that.it
should be able to dispose of any considerable
number of claims during the session, for, of
necessity, the time at its command is limited
and it cannot delegate the work to others.
But the case is different in the Pension Bu
reau, where the rate at? which applications
are disposed of depends simply on the size of
the force employed to examine them. We
can tolerate delay in the first instance, but
not in the latter, because, as wo have said,
one cannot be avoided and the other can.
We put it squarely to the members of the
present Congress whether it is just to our
ex-soldiers or creditable to the Government
to permit two hundred and seventy thousand
pension claims that have never received
even a preliminary examination to accumu
late in the Pension Bureau and thereby de
prive as many thousand families of the sup
port to which they aro entitled under the
terms of the contract which Congress itself
made with tho men who risked their lives
for the Union? No other Department of the
Government and no other class of legal
claims havo been so shamefully neglected,
and yet, if any be entitled to precedence in
consideration, surely it is the very interests
that have been thus ignored. It is impossi
ble not to grow indignant at the contempla
tion of this state of things, for the Treasury
is full to overflowing, and the consideration,
of expense cannot be set up in justification
of the niggardly treatment which the Pen
sion Bureau has received at the hands of
Congress. If, as there now seems (o be good
reason for believing, provisiou will be made
in one of the appropriation bills, shortly to
be reported, for the necessary increase in
the clerical force of the Pension Office, let us
hope that Congress will have the manliness
to insist upon its adoption with the least
possible delay.
Decoration Day Oratory.
The Fourth of July used to be the favorite
occasion for the appearance of tho great
American orator, and indeed no celebration
of tho day was thought complete that left
him out of the programme. Then it was
that he let loose his eloquence upon the
breathless multitude, and the mult -
having heard, as they fancied, the h
scream of the American',eagre1,f'diS r
with the feeling that the Republic wa ."
' , .7''.- a
for another year anyhoAV. BujtjthpJ ' ...r
of July orator has become a personag . 1 1: -past.
The deeds of the Revolutionary
Fathers which were the principal sourceof
his inspiration lost their interest for ike"-'
public when the Rebellion broke out, and
the orator suddenly found himself displaced
in popular esteem by the soldier. The
country had not tho patience to listen to
him while the struggle for the preservation
of the Union was being fought out before
its very eyes. In the presence of the grim
reality of war his high-ilown periods some
how seemed absurd, and he was forthwith
consigned to oblivion. The modern Fourth
of July celebration retains tho fireworks
but omits the oration. We confess, never
theless, to a sneaking fondness for the typical
Independence Day orator. He had such a
sublime confidence in the destiny of the Re
public, and he was so generous with his
figures of speech! It is true that his
rhetoric was apt to bo stilted and his stylo '
bombastic, but ho was so ver" much in
earnest that one could not help being affected
by his enthusiasm. It does one good some
times to become patriotic without especial
reason, and tho traditional Fourth of July
orator undoubtedly did his full duty in
keeping alive that spirit of independence
which descended to us from the founders of
the Republic. He has been the subject of
the most unsparing ridicule, but in his day
and generation he was unquestionably a
very useful personage. But ho has been
permanently relegated to the past, as we
have said, and in his placo has appeared
who ? Who, indeed, but the Decoration Day
orator, his lineal descendant!
It is by the grave of the soldier, rather
than in the crowded public square of the
city that the invocation to patriotism is now
spoken, and it is the simple language of the
soldier rather than the ornate periods of the
rhetorician to which wo now listen with
beating hearts. It is meet that it should be
so. Decoration Day has a meaning an in
spirationfor this ago that no other anni
versary could possibly have, and by so much
as tho theme of his eloquence is nearer to
its sympathies, by so much the power of the
Decoration Day orator is greater to kindle
the patriotic sentiment of the country. Thou
sands of orations have been delivered in com
memoration of the valor of our fallen heroes,
but never one more eloquent than the first
Decoration Day address pronounced by Abra
ham Lincoln, in which the duty of the hour
was summed up in the touching sentence:
" To care for him who has borne tho battle,
and for his widow and orphans." The orator
of tho present day cannot go astray if he ad
heres to the simplicity of thought and manner
that characterized that memorable address.
It is tho recitation of the deeds of their
fallen comrades that will havo the deepest
inspiration for thoso who celebrate the day,
and the orator may be sure that no panegyric,
will so quickly touch their hearts asjdnei
which simply recounts their triuinJhs'P
There is no eloquence so thrilling as0ftW1
silent eloquence of the soldier's nameless
grave, and long after the glowing words of
the orator have passed from memory, the
'virtues which we celebrate will
"Smell sweet and blossom in the dust."
Pinnace and Common Sense.
The financial condition of the Government
continues to be a cause of intense solicitude
to some of our statesmen. They profess to
seo in the plethoric state of the Treasury the
shadow of a great calamity in the near future.
If tho yearly revenues of the Government
Continue to bo so largoly in excess of its
ordinary requirements, and this surplus is,
as now, devoted to paying oft the nationl
debt, they say the time will shortly come
when all the bonds that it is practicable to
'call in will have been paid off, and there
will then be no use for this surplus. The
"consequence of this, in their opinion, will be
that tho money will accumulate in the Treas
ury, and bring about a contraction in the
circulating medium in the country, which,
in turn, will precipitate a panic in the busi
ness world. Up to May 1st, or during ten
months of the present fiscal year, tho reduc
tion effected in tho national debt amounted
to 128,000,000, and it is estimated that tho
total reduction for the year ending June 30th
will fall little if any short of $150,000,000.
At this rate of payment it would only re
quire about three years to dispose of the
500,000,000 of outstanding 3 per cents,
which aro the only securities that can be
called prior to 1802, when the U per cents,
fall due, and at the end of this period, ac
cording to these statesmen, there would be
no way of paying out tho surplus revenue in
the Treasury and preventing the disastrous
contraction of the currency which otherwise
must ensue. To quote their favorite illus
tration, the country would then find itself
on the brink of a precipice, with no alterna
tive but to take the fatal plunge. We agree
with the prophets of evil that the occurrence
of such a catastrophe ought to be prevented,
if possible, but we are disposed to think that
they havo made, a mountain out of a molo
hill, tho more easily to reconcile the public
to their plan for surmounting it. This plan
to state it plainly is simply to so reduce
the internal revenue taxes as to wipe out the
present annual surplus in the Treasury, and
we need hardly say that it meets with tho
open approval of the whisky and tobacco
interests, which would profit largely thereby.
Our objections to this plan necessarily in
volve the repudiation of the considerations
upon which it is based, chief among which
is the assertion that withiu the next three
or four years tho Government will have
reached a point when it can no longer pay
out its surplus revenues in the process of
debt paying. In addition to the 500,000,000
of 3J per cents, to bo taken up, there is,
in the way of extraordinary expenditures, the
x of $300,000,000 on Arrears of Pension Ac-
at to be provided for, making a total of at
j itOUQO.OOO to the payment of which
1 '-o? annual surplus can legitimately bo de
" .iterd."T Suppose this surplus to remain at
,50,000,000, it will tako some six years to
make these payments. This will bring us
to 1S88, or within four years of tho time
when $250,000,000 of 44 per cents, will be
come due, and when the premium on these
bonds will doubtless havo fallen to a point
that will admit of their jmrchaso in open
market for Treasury account. It will be
seen, therefore, that the danger which the
advocates of revenue reduction profess to
seo in the present state of tho Treasury has
no real or tangible existence.
Aside from this fact, however, we aro op
posed to tho remedy which they put forward
for this fictitious ovil, because it is in reality
worse than tho disease, supposing any ex
isted. In the firat place, the internal reve
nue taxes ought not to bo disturbed until
the Government has reduced the fixed
charges upon the Treasury to the minimum,
and in tho second place when any change is
made it ought to take the form of the abolish
ment of the entire system of internal revenue
taxation. As to the first x'oint, it is clear that
by the extinguishment of the 3 per cents,
an annual interest charge of $17,500,000 will
bo saved, leaving the interest ($28,000,000)
on the $700,000,000 of 4 per cents, due in
1907 and that ($11,250,000) on tho 4 J per
cents, due in 1S92 as the only interest ex
pense to be provided for. As soon, too, as
the amounts due under the Arrears of Pen
sion Act have been paid, the annual charge
on pension account will be reduced to
$35,000,000, and it will be possible then to
abolish the internal reveuuo taxes without
in any way impeding tho progress of debt
paying.
As to tho second point, it is evident that
confusion and disturbance to trade must
result from anything short of tho entire
abolition of the internal revenue taxes, and
tho effect will be to strengthen monopoly at
tho expense of tho small manufacturers;
but one of tho most serious obstacles to
partial reduction is the fact that it will cost
the Government just as much to collect 50
per cent, of tho present taxes as it now does
to collect them all. It is impracticable to
make any corresponding reduction in the
machinery of the Internal Reveuuo Bureau.
But above and beyond all these considera
tions is tho fact which no ono will venture
to dispute, that the good faith of tho Nation
is pledged to tho payment of tho national
debt at tho earliest day possible, and that
tho people are abundantly ablo and willing
to bear tho present rate of taxation until
that end is accomplished.
-
A Chicago paper expressss its regrets
that no " reductions have been made by the
railway lines to visiting members of tho
Grand Army in the coming National Con
vention at Baltimore." If our contempo
rary had taken the trouble to inform itself
properly it would not havo fallen into such
a stupid blunder. Tho last issuo of The
National Tribune announced a reduction
oT rates on all trunk lines to three-fifths.
Read The Tribune if you wish to be posted
in all matters of interest to the Grand Army.
Tho End of it All.
The finding of the dead bodies of Captain
De Long and ten members of his party puts
an end to all doubts concerning their fate,
and renders it extremely improbable that
any better fortune attended tho efforts of
Lieutenant Chipp and his crew to reach the
Siberian settlements. According to Lieu
tenant Danenhower's thrilling narrative of
the retreat from tho Jeannette, the ship's
company were divided into threo nearly
equal parties, commanded respectively by
Captain DeLong, Engineer Melville, and
Lieutenant Chipp. They held together dur
ing the long and perilous journey across the
ice, and even when open water was reached,
at last, and they were able to launch their
boats, they succeeded, at first, in keeping
within sight of each other. But they met
with heavy seas and rough weather, they
were repeatedly in danger of being swamped,
and, finally, during a violent gale at night,
they were separated forever. Engineer
Melville's party eventually succeeded in
reaching the Lena River Delta, in Now
Siberia, and were succored by tho natives,
and it was while they were awaiting the
means of transportation to the nearest Rus
sian post that word reached them of the
arrival of two sailors who had been sent
out in advance by the Captain in search of
provisions, and they were thus assured that
he had also effected a landing. It was
impossible, however, owing to the season of
the year the ice in the rivers not yet being
strong enough to make travelling safe
their own feeble condition, and the scarcity
of supplies, to go to the Captain's rescue,
and as his party had exhausted the ship's
stores which they had brought with them
two days before tho two sailora were sent
ahead, as a forlorn hope, it is doubtful
whother, under any circumstances, aid could
havo readied them in time. Instead of
endeavoring to enter the Lena River by one
of the openings along the eastern coast of
New Siberia, as Engineer Melville succeeded
in doing, the Captain seems to have shaped
his course so as to clear the northern
extremity of the island, and when he, at
last, made land, he was at the greatest
distance from Bulun tho nearest Russian
station. No language can convey any idea
of the sufferings which he must have under
gone in that bleak and desolate region while
waiting for death to release his starving crew
from their misery, and although we shall soon
knew from the books and papers which wero
recovered at the scene the details of that
last struggle for life, no description, however
vivid, can do justice to tho horrors of such
a calamity. They perished almost within
reach of the friendly hands that were out
stretched io them, yet with no hope of
rescue, and it is unutterably sad to think
that so much heroism, fortitude, and man
h'6ofl4avaired neither to save their lives nor
accomplish any memorable achievement-fox,
science. 'Martyrs to a rash ambition, they
have left behind them only the record of
their futile voyage to commemorate their fate.
Doubtless the search for Lieutenant
Chipp's party will be pursued until-every
possiblo place of refuge has been explored,
but as yet no trace of their whereabouts has
been discovered, and it is more than probable
that they never succeeded in reaching land
Their boat was far from seaworthy, and it
was so scantily provisioned that even if they
succeeded in overcoming the perils of the sea
they could not long have eluded death from
starvation. More cruel than the fate which
overtook Sir John Franklin, theirs befel
them at the very moment when escape be
came possible.
So this, then, is the end of the Jeannette
expedition which was to have accomplished
such great things in the way of Arctic ex
plorations. It is pitiful ; yes, it is shameful!
What can ever compensate tho widows and
orphans that this hapless voyage has made
for the loss or their dear ones ! A plague on
polar expeditions and the ambitious minds
that project them! Better that the frozen
seas that girt the Pole should remain un
fathomed and their barren islands go un
named than that the lives of the great, tho
good, and the bravo should bo sacrificed to
the Thirst for the Unknown.
A Transition Period.
The death of Ralph Waldo Emerson, phi
losopher and poet, following so swiftly upon
that of Longfellow, once more reminds us
that our raco of intellectual giants is rapidly
becoming extinct. One may count on his
fingers the great men who remain. The
school of New England thought, of which
Hawthorne, Longfellow, Thoreau, Holmes,
Whittier, Lowell, Alcott, Sumner, and Emer
son will always be the most illustrious
exponents, seems at last to bo losing its pro
ductive power, and although its influence
will long be felt in American literature, its
glory is departing. Mrs. Stowc's description
of New England as tho hotbed of American
cnlturo is no longer true, and the time is
coming when its literary eminonco will lio
altogether in tho past. It could not well bo
otherwise. The last quarter of a century
has witnessed as wonderful a change in the
structure of New England society as has
taken place in tho character of our western
civilization. Manufactures havo trans
formed, not only tho faco of the country,
but tho disposition of the people, and the
influx of foreigners has had a very marked
oftectin modifying tho existing conditions
of life. Wo do not mean to say that there
has been any positive decrease of culture,
but simply that tho sources of original
thought seem to have been exhausted, and
positivism, which was always the distin
guishing trait of New England character,
given place to indifferentism. Tho new
generation of writers lacks the vigor, the
aggressiveness, and tho virility of the old,
and one instinctively feels that what has
been gained in style and polish but par
tially compensates for the loss of original
ideas.
It does not follow, however, because there
has been such a perceptible falling away
from the old standard of intellectual force,
hat the decline will be permanent. It may
only mark the transition from one epoch of
thought to another. Just as the epoch of
Jonathan Edwards was followed by that of
Ellery Channing, and that of Channing in
turn by Emerson, so tho Concord School of
Philosophy may be succeeded by something
infinitely better. It helps to console U3 for
the loss of such profound thinkers as these,
to know that their ideas act as a continuing
force, leavening public opinion in every part
of the country and stimulating, no one can
tell what, prodigious growths of reason. It
is cheering, too, to feel that the intellectual
progress of the day is all in the direction of
larger, more liberal, and more humanizing
views of life. Thus, Jonathan Edwards
would have unhesitatingly consigned to
perdition the great scientist whose remains
were entombed last week in Westminster
Abbey with all the honors of Christian
burial, while the tolerant sentiment of this
age withholds from neither the homage that
belongs to great minds. Let us be thankful
that, although death may despoil us of our
Emcrsons and Longfellows, it cannot rob us
of tho wholesome, vitalizing influence of
their lives and teachings. At some unex
pected moment, in somo unknown writer,
and in some obscure corner of the land, we
may be sure there will appear tho founder
of a new school of thought and the pioneer
of a new field of literature.
Nothing could be more cheering than the
tone of the letters we are constantly receiv
ing from the readers of The National Tri
bune. It is a pleasant thing to know that
our efforts to advance the cause of the soldier
in Congress and the Departments are so cor
dially appreciated, and wo cannot but feel
that if all our friends and subscribers dis
play the same practical interest in the success
of this journal, its circulation will soon show
a gratifying increase. It is our hope that
the time will come when TnE National
Tribune will be a regular visitor in every
soldier's home in the land, and the realiza
tion of that hope depends upon the willing
ness of our veterans to co-operate with us
in the work that lies before us. The great
need of tho hour is tho concentration of
effort. Instead of dividing their support
among a large number of newspapers that
care nothing for the soldier and even go out
of their way to antagonize legislation in his
interest, they should throw their whole in
fluence to the aid of a journal like The
National Tribune, which is especially
devoted to the advocacy of those measures
in which their welfare is bound up, nvft
whose power to secure their adoption i
inevitably increase in proportion as its
of,ubscribers lengthens. To accomplis
that .they,, desire in the way of. pension ,.
.bounty legislation our ex-soldiers must" .
stand by the other, and all by The "
tional Tribune.
The agricultural department of The
.National Tbirune has, since Mr. William
Saunders assumed charge of it, been recog
nized as one of the most valuable to agri
culturists published by any journal in the
country. As an evidence of the high ap
preciation in which these articles are held
we may mention that many of them are
reproduced in leading agricultural journals,
and, we regret to say, frequently without
extending credit either to The National
Tribune or to Mr. Saunders. A recent
article from the pen of our agricultural
editor on the "Planting of Trees in Cities"
has been widely copied without any credit
being given. Wo desire to enter our protest
against the injustice of such a course. It
will rather heighten the interest and add to
the value of the articles to give them proper
credit, as Mr. Saunders is widely known as
one of the originators of tho Grange move
ment in the United States. He is at present
at the head of tho Parking Commission of
the District of Columbia.
In another column will be found the
details of tho assassination in Dublin of
Lord Cavendish, the designated successor of
Mr. Forster as Chief Secretary for Ireland,
and Mr. Burke, Under Secretary. The
crime, perpetrated as it was in a public
park, almost under tho shadow of the vice
regal residence, is unparalleled for its bold
ness, and certainly nothing more atrocious
has been recorded for a long time. Aside
from the brutality of tho act itself the
double murder at this juncture of affairs in
Ireland is to be deeply deplored. When
there were good reasons for supposing that
the conciliatory policy of Great Britain
towards Ireland would have done much
towards restoring peace to that unhappy
land the world is startled by the cold
blooded murder of two unoffending gentle
men, tho responsibility for which will by
many unthinking persons be placed upon
tho Irish people; but .suchia view; of the
case is by no means warranted; and the
people and press, withoutrregard to political
affiliation, both in England and America,
havo been prompt to denounce the monstrous
deed. It is therefore to be hoped that the
policy of concession which Great Britain
has inaugurated under such great difficulties
may be carried out. There would be as
much reason in attempting to hold any class
of the American people responsible for the
act of tho assassin Gnitean as to place the
responsibility for this unnatural crime upon
the Irish Land League or tho Irish people.
By none is.it moro deeply deplored.
Now is the time to subscribe for The
National Tribune. The events of the
next few weeks in Congress will probably
have a decisive influence on the course of
pension legislation, and this is the only
journal in the country which gives full
reports in regard to all matters affecting
soldiers' interests. Tho subscription prico is
only one dollar a year.
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