New-York daily tribune., 1861-07-07
C0NIlIEasARIAT.

There Is FometbiDg in the popular estimate OF
the ability required to keep hotel, if we may
Judge from the still greater difficulty there seems
to be in keeping an army. The science 70 the
inexperienced mind seems TO resolve into prob
Lem such as this: Given 80 mnch bread and
meat to feed ten men, how much viii it take 10
feed hundred men2 if given quantity to feed
a hundred, how much to feed thousand, ten
thousand, twenty thousand, and so on But the
inexperienced mind knows nothing about it.
The difficulties of feeding seem to increase in an
srithmetieal progression with the number Of
those to be fed; SO that if it requires q certain
degree Of intelligence as well as q certain qusn-
tity Of proyender, TO give their daily bread to
ten men, there is needed not only ten
times or a hundred times as much food for q
hundred or q thousand men, but ten times
or q hundred times as much ability TO admins
ter it. If this be the case, no wonder that the
popular synonym Of extraordinary cleveruess is
hotel.kee ping.
Either such is the fact, aud the obstacles TO be-
surmounted in feeding great numbers of men arc
almost insurmountable and quite incredible, or
else there orc faults objectionable in the admin
istTation of our military commissaIiat. We are
by no means disposed to underrate the actual diff
fculties Of such a service; to provide the requis-
ite feed in the requisite variety for large body
Of troops requires knowledge, energy, resources,
time and, we may add, honesty. But all these
being given, except the first and tho last il
seems to us that failure must be owing TO lie
absence Of either one or the other, or OF both
these qualities. If the actual material is within
reach, the time to gather 1t allowed, and the
means to transport it at hand, then the failure
to do promptly and efficiently all that is required
of cOmmssariat must be because the work ia
in the hands either Of knavcs or fools,
We fear there is some little defect Of this sort
among our volunteers, which will probably cost us
q few thousand lives Wo are constantly receiving
letters from tho different camps with the one in.
variable complaint of want Of food. CON-
plain. so universal must have some foundation.
and would deserve attention even if we Ind no
other evidence that it is not unreasonable. But
We have; from various sources information reaches
US that there is great neglect and sometimes
great suffering and sickness consequent thereon
in tie distribution Of food, ts character, and its
quantity. letter is before us at this moment
from an officer in the 10th Regiment in Camp
Hamilton at Fort Monroe, ayerting that the lii
Of fare for his men is q cup of coffee and two
soda biscuits for breakfast; a cup of coffee. one
p0tat0e, and one cracker for dinner: and cnn
Of coffee and soda biscuit for supper. We
trust there is some exaggeration in this, but the
writer adds, in evidence OF its truth, that those
OF the men who are still in good health are kept
so by supplies from their friends at home, and
that many of the rest, to the number Of 233, are
in hospital.
Allowing for some latitude of imagination in
this statement, we know that the men of Other
regiments have been compelled to suffer for tho
want OF necessary food, sometimes in camp and
sometimes on the march. The fault, we believe,
with single regiments lies usually with their
own officers, generally the Quarternaster. Some.
times this fuoctionary is ignorant of the proper
form Of demand upon, or cyen of the exist.
encs of the COmmissarys Department at Wash
ington, Department which we are glad to sny
We bslieFe to DO always in admirable condition,