LaCROSSE TRIBUNE

March 21, 1923

(Found on Wisconsin Historical Society Website)

 

G.A.R. MEN WOULD BAR WAUPACA HOME TO OTHER VETERANS

Oppose Admission of Spanish War Soldiers as Provided Under Price Bill

 

            MADISON, Wis. – Civil war veterans opposed the admission of veterans of the Spanish-American war into the Wisconsin Veterans’ home at Waupaca at a hearing before the joint committee on finance of the legislature Tuesday afternoon.

            Their opposition followed a hearing on the bill by Assemblyman Clinton Price, Mauston, which would include men who served in the later war, their wives or widows.

            Hosea Rood, Madison, Frank A. Walsh, and Walter Pietch, Milwaukee, members of the G.A.R., asked an extension of time before others than G.A.R. veterans be admitted to the home.

            A suggested amendment by Assemblyman Price that only Spanish-American war veterans with wives be admitted to the institution until 1927 was supported by Rood but was opposed by the other G.A.R. representatives.

            The home which has held as high as 714 inmates now has but 412, Mr. Rood declared, but he asserted because of advancing age, the veterans and their wives need more care and as a result more room is required.  He asserted that where formerly several men shared one room it is now necessary to give them a room each.

            Delay in opening the veterans’ home of five years was asked with the statement that the ranks of the G.A.R. veterans are thinning rapidly and that less facilities would be needed to care for them at that time.

            “I am surprised that veterans of the civil war should object in associating with veterans of the Spanish-American War,” Assemblyman Price declared in answer to statements that civil war veterans would not feel at home in the institution if there were younger men among them.

            “I believe that men who volunteered for their country in any war did so with the same motives of patriotism and in spite of differences in the hardships they encountered, they all expected the same experiences at the time that they volunteered.

            “At the present time I know of but two men who would take advantage of the veterans’ home if they could.”

            Assemblyman Price stated that he is willing to effect a compromise if necessary to satisfy members of the G.A.R. but asserted that the same question has been put off from year to year while a few Spanish-American war veterans are faced with entrance into the poorhouse because they cannot gain admission into the home.