OCR Text |
Show GIVE-UNIFORMS TO IN DISCHARGED URGESSOLON i Senator Ashurst in Bill Also ! Includes 90 Days' Extra Ex-tra Pay. By Newspaper Enterprise Association. WASHINGTON. H. i lec. II. Olve every discharged I nlted Ptatea soldisr, sailor or marine his uniform and with It ninety days' extra pay. That's the plan Senator Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona wants the government govern-ment to adopt as part of ita demobilisation demobili-sation program. Senator Ashurst knows that the Jayer.;. Mf.l.li.ait mill u mil Af Hi army without a Buffalo nickel to his j name, and that he'll have to buy a j suit of civil an clothes to replace his ' uniform, under existing- laws. Mo he has combined two objects It. ( one bill which he has introduced In the seriate. It was the first hill Introduced Intro-duced t the December session of con gross SOLDIERS PRIZE UNIFORMS. "It must be obvious," said Senator Ashurst In explaining the purpose of his meamire to me, "that every soldier highly prises his uniform. Some are so circumstanced that they will want to wear their uniforms and save the expense of an extra suit of clothing after they are discharged. "Moreover, as the years go by and reviews are held, each soldier will want to wear his uniform In parades. In September, 191ft, 1 saw thousands of Union and Confederate veterans march up Pennsylvania avenue the" asmef, avenue up which they marched after t the close of the Civil war fifty years before and a few of them wore the same uniforms they had worn In '15, which they treasured as priceless. "The government can make no use of discarded uniforms, and if it retains them they will only be moth-eaten and destroyed. NINETY DAYS' PAY. - As to granting ninety days' pay to each soldier, sailor and marine after his discharge, we must not forget that we have taken these men out of gainful gain-ful occupations and have wrenched them from civilian life, and they have ! served civilisation with a courage and : valor beyond -eulogy. "It will cost the Cnited States 1240.-000.OO0 1240.-000.OO0 to grant ir men this extra ninety days' pay, but the patriotism of the people has been so well proved in the war that while this sum of money seems large. It will he cheerfully paid, in my judgment. It means only 2 40 per person for th o not) Ooo people in this country. "This paym-nt. amounting to approximately ap-proximately $ton to a patvate. will give the soldier soma means on which to travel gnd replace himself in civil life. "I am going to appeal to the American Ameri-can people to support this bill by writing writ-ing their senators and representatives urging early and favorable action on it." |