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Report To The U.S. Sanitary Commission. On A System For The Economical Relief Of Disabled Soldiers, And On Certain Proposed Amendments To Our Present Pension Laws

Creator: John Ordronauz (author)
Date: 1864
Publisher: Sanford, Harroun & Co., New York
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The organization and supervision of these industrial exchanges should remain in the hands of the Government, and they might be carried on at very slight expense, or even, perhaps, without any. Thus, in every large city, where there is a Pension Agency, there might be an exchange of this kind established in connection with it, and placed under the charge of an intelligent invalid. He should have the exclusive duty assigned him of superintending this department, subject only to the control of the Pension Agent, to whom he should make monthly reports of the business transacted by him. And, in order to stimulate his zeal in behalf of invalids seeking employment, he should, in lieu of a fixed salary, receive a trifling fee from each person obtaining the services of an invalid through his agency. By these means he would be induced to exert himself to the utmost of his ability, knowing that his official gains depended upon the number of invalids for whom he found employment.

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At this exchange should be kept a register in which all invalids, or discharged soldiers seeking employment should enter their names, age, nationality, married or single condition, regiment in which they served, trade or profession, nature of their disability, and what they are able to do. But only those should be so registered who have been honorably discharged from the service on account of disability, and can produce certificates of good moral character. The object of the institution being to open the doors of opportunity to the industrious and virtuous -- none wanting in either of these qualities should be admitted upon its register. This course, if rigorously followed, would inspire general confidence in the honesty and efficiency of the men obtained at these agencies. They would be more sought for, on this very account, and would run less risk of wanting employment than if seeking for it at large, and without being identified with some industrial exchange. It would, therefore, be a permanent benefit both to employers and employees to establish such a bureau as this, laying aside even the predominant motive of humanity which appears in its organization. And as the public would thus directly share in the advantages afforded by it of honest and reliable workmen, while the workmen in turn would be better assured of speedy employment than if left to themselves to find it, there can be little doubt of the success and popularity of such an enterprise.

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PROPOSITION NINTH.

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Could not a Sedentary Corps be established from Invalids, and with which forts could be garrisoned, and all the lighter duties of military life be performed?

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Since the first promulgation of this proposition in February 1863, the War Department has formed what is nominally an Invalid Corps, although not in the sense in which it is contemplated above. The present Invalid Corps is enlisted for three years only, and unless this enlistment is made renewable at the expiration of that time, the practical benefit of such a corps to disabled soldiers will be slight and at best temporary. The fact, also, that drafted men, found upon preliminary examination to be disabled for field-service, are to be placed in this corps, entirely changes its character, and renders it a mere half-way house of reception for all classes of disabled soldiers, both those who have been honorably discharged from the service, and those who have never before been in it. The proposition above is intended to apply, as do all its predecessors, to disabled soldiers, honorably discharged as such from the service and drawing pensions therefor.

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An Invalid, or Sedentary Corps should, at the very outset, be a permanent organization, designed to accommodate those whose tastes or predilections cause them to prefer a military to a civil life. The enlistment might be for any length of time desirable, as for three, five, or seven years; but it should also be renewable, so that any one so electing might remain in service throughout life. Being essentially a corps of honor, every inducement should be given invalids to continue in it as long as they can possibly be serviceable. Many a man, especially if unmarried, would prefer the easy, regular duties, without exposure, of this corps, to the more active, but more feverish necessities of civil life, where the spur of competition enables the strong to distance with facility the weak and ailing. Besides which, habits of industry and self-directed occupation resulting in the perfecting of skill, when dissipated for any length of time by service in the army, are not easily nor even voluntarily re-acquired. A majority of those who have been soldiers long enough to become thoroughly saturated with the atmosphere of their profession, prefer to continue in it, especially when, recognized and honored as veterans, they are allowed the indulgence of lighter duties, and immunity from exposures of life or health. Hence, there is no reason why, under the peace establishment of our army, a majority of the troops designed for garrison duties should not be recruited in this way. It would certainly open a very wide field of employment to a class of men who, otherwise, would chafe sadly beneath the tameness and the responsibilities of civil life, and often, too, to a degree sufficient to render them only indifferently good citizens. All these considerations dictate the necessity of continuing for some time the opportunity of re-enlisting, and resuming the discipline of military life. They are better pleased and happier, and in that sense dis. charge their individual duties to society more acceptably to all.

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