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Show COMMUNICATIONS lidi or Sandardt-Bxamldn , Dear Sir: Your editorial in Wednesday's Wed-nesday's edition headed. "Ronus for the Soldier." is certalnily very timelv. If there Is any man tha deserves a reward, re-ward, it is he who risKs his lifc for his country. There Is now before Congress a bill to Increase the service pension of the ( ivil war veteran from $40 to $71' a very timely and needed measure, fur the evory-da liing necessities of these old soldiers. It is to be hoped that the advocaten of these two measures will not lock horns and smother both. If in any way the Bonus bill Impedes the pension pen-sion bill. I believe the able bodied oi Id War veterans, considering their own probable needs 50 years fiom r.ow will willingly wait a short time, thai these relics of the Civil War may co 2S- or 30,000 this year) peaceab)v and comfortably to then- graves. These men. without thought of re-ward, re-ward, or pay for Services, at the call grasped an old musket that was handed hand-ed them and met the enemies that would destroy the Union, on a line which slave interests had drawn and fortified, through the middle of the country, from ocean to ocean. 'hMi the war was won. the survivors, that no lure for gain had sent forth and whose wages of $10 per month w:is paid with a promise worth half par In the market, i '.-turned to their homes and as might be said, "grubbed a living liv-ing from any source." Realizing the condition of the country, no pension increase was asked, ask-ed, and for 25 years tho maximum pension for total disabllitv from wounds or disease incurred in the service, ser-vice, was $s per month. A soldier s widow received the same. Today, a Civil War veteran receives the maximum of $72 for permanent total pbysiclal or mental disability requiring re-quiring the constant attention of a nurse. A widow receives $30. The pensions for the World War Veterans are man r,...uL-i t.- total disability, not permanent, he receives re-ceives $S" per month, and If he has a wife, he gets $90. If a nurse is necessary neces-sary he gets $20 additional Por permanent tot;il disability ho is alio -ed $100 per month and $20 ad.lltionil if a nurse is necessary which with $10 for a wife makes $130 a month Conceding that this Is a reasonable allowance for a soldier of middle age should not the veteran of SO years be allowed much more than half that amount tor the .same grade of tllsabil- I Ity and conditions'' The best wav to answer this is for the individual or Congres-man. to imagine his own aged father, destitute and bedridden and requiring re-quiring a nurse, with $7:' a month to pay lodging, food, clothing, incidentals medical and surgical attendance, and with perhaps a wife equally afflicted I At the present time a Civil War vet-1 eran. totally menially, or physically disabled, not employing a nurse, but perhaps an Invalid wife, must both iv c -md perhaps one or both be burred bur-red cm a pension of $o0. Is this as il should be? A CIVIL, WAR VETERAN (C. W. HAJDLEY) |