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FULL PAY FOR CAPTURED SOLDIERS The Treasury Department has ruled that full pay and allowances including allotments to dependents shall be allowed to all soldiers taken captive by the enemy whether they be officers or enlisted men This country has not been able to reach an agree ¬ ment with Germany in the matter of officers pay and the ruling promises relief ill a number of cases in which the stoppage of allotments might have caused distress distressUp Up to the present no ruling has been made with regard to the pay and allowances of men and offi ¬ cers repyrtfil missing The government should adopt toward them a generous attitude It is of course possible that its generosity would be abused in some cases a few worthless fellows who can no more be excluded from the army than they can be from other organizations might desert and their dependents get their pay But the number of in ¬ stances in which this would occur would be negli ¬ gible and the imposture could not be long sustained To be swindled out of a few dollars or a great many dollars would not be so bad as to deprive of support the families of brave men suffering misadventure misadventureIn In fighting for justice and liberty the United States can afford any expenditure of money but it cannot afford to be petty and mean Nor can it afford by any act of parsimony to check the won ¬ derful and inspiring spirit of nationalism that now animates the people New York Sun
