Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-09-05
Work Of Yellow Journals.

From recent developments in the So
called scandal in the Wal department
it is safe to say that yellow journalism
did not go out of business when the war
ended.
Fora number of weeks past the coun-
try has been treated to series of criti-
cisms On the management of the War
department, in which charges have been
made sufficient to hang every man con-
nected with that branch of the govern
ment. So persistently have the charges
of corruption and inef1iciency been
iterated that a large majority of the
people of the country had come to believe
them, and a righteous Indignation was
taking possession of the whole country.
But a change is coming over the situa-
ton and it is being realized that there
is another side to the story.
Much has been heard of the suffer-
ings of the men in front OF Santiago for
the want of food and clothing, and from
sickness. 1t was claimed that indiffer-
ent and criminally careless department
| officials were to blame for all the troubles
experienced in that campaign and Secre-
tary Alger was hauled over the Goals in
a fierce manner by ''the great journals"
for his inefficient management of a mat
ter of such Importance. Since the men
in the ranks have returned from Cuba
and have had an opportunity to do a
little talking for themselves, it is learned
that there was no lack of supplies of all
kinds for the expedition sent with the
ships, but the roads were so nearly i'm
passable that provisions, medicines and
clothing could not be transported to the
| front until roads could be constructed,
bridges built and the forest cleared
away. BY that time the men in the
trenches were weakened by exposure
and hard fighting, and when disease
came were physically unable to combat
it. In regard to the condition of the
transport ships which broughthe troops
| back to the United States from San
| tiago, tropical heat and moisture are
responsible. No matter how carefully
the ships were fitted out with food and
supplies for the sick, decay caused by
humidity soon rendered them unfit for
use, and the men were compelled,
through no fault of the government, to
put up with the coarses,and unpalatable
rations not so easily affected by climatic
| conditions.
The country has been RECALLED with
long accounts of the unhealthy locations
selected for camps, and much has been
said c~ondemnatory of Camp Wikoff and
Camp Thomas, in particular. OF the
former perhaps it will be as well to say
that Surgeon Massie, who is well known
in Santa Fe. says that a better place for
a camp could not have been selected.
From a sanitary standpoint it is nearly
perfect, but that it is impossible to keep
any place healthy into which hundreds
of men suffering from fevers contracted
in the tropics are brought daily. Camp
Thomas at Chickamauga has been care
fully examined by persons of known
reputation as authorities on such mat
tiers, and declared to be free from the
objections which have been urged
| oroiOct tho Damn
These instances have been given
merely to show that in all the hair-rais-
ing articles which have appeared re-
Gently concerning the camps and the
neglect of the soldiers, the able CORE
spondents have been actuated more by
a desire to write readable matter than
to tell the truth. That some mistakes
have been made in the management of
the troops was to have been expected,
for the simple reason that men who
never err in judgment are entirely too
scarce in this life to ever be heard of,
but those mistakes have been few and
far between and have in nowise affect
ed the health or endangered the lives OF
the soldiers. OF the reported controver-
sizes between different officers in the
army, they may or may not be true. In
fact the pablo cares very little about
them
The inside facts of the scandal" as
matters now stand, can be stated in the
following words: With the coming of
peace the yellow journals lost the SUI
preme opportunity fer sensational mat
ter, and in casting about for new ma
terial to dish up to the yellow portion
lof the population, hit upon u war