The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-04
THE REAL SPECTACLE.
Minor Matters Are Obscuring the
Glory of the War.
New York Sun.

new YORK sun.
On the I'D of June the army under COM
mand OF Major General Shafter landed at
Baiquiri in Cuba On the 14th Of July, after
a campaign of three weeks, conducted with
brilliant impetposty, sam came the surrender
Shafter relinquished the command of the
department of Santiago de Cuba to General
l!awton. and embarked for the camp at
main part of his army having already been
removed thither
All these great events. it will be observed.
occurred within the space of two months
only; two months of the hottest and I'M
healthiest season in Cuba. Our troops were
transported eleven hundred miles; in three
weeks they forced the enemy to surrender
force greater than their own, and in two
months they are back in their own country
crowned with complete victory.
Losses occurred among them in battle,
chiefly among the regular troops, for only
three volunteer regiments were engaged
against the Spaniards, and honorably to our
especially large. among the commissioned
officers. Sickness also occurred in camp,
and very much of it, though happily and
unexpectedly it was chiefly malaria lever.
and was mortal so rarely to make the
death rate notably small, considering the
circumstances. This fever has remained
with many of the troops since their removal
to MOntauk, as was inevitab BILE; but there,
also, the death rate has been low for such
camp. The great mass of the sick are re-
covering their strength.
Now, is there any precedent in the his
tory OF war for campaign of such brevity,
with results so glorious in their complete
ness and with losses so small relatively to
the difficulties encountered and the ends
gained? At any rate, 1t was one of the
most remarkably successful military opera
tons ever conducted. Faults of detail may
be found in 1T, but as a whole it was unas-
sailable. 1t was quick work, we'll and
would or could have done better.
Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, who sought
to diSSuade the Harvard students from vol
unteering for the war and denounced it as
discreditable to this country, now seeks to
deprive us of the glory rightfully belonging
cradle spectacle of incompetency, for which
account must be rendered and penalty ex-
acted" And why? Because he has read of
''sufferings' of soldiers which he regards as
needless"
Actually this has been a war which has
afforded to all the world a spectacle of the
American competence for the most trying
of military operations, a spectacle which
is recognized by all the world as affording
such a demonstration. War sacrifices hui
man life and health and comfort and wastes
material wealth on an appalling scale of
the magnificent results secured in such a
war as We have won. Thus measured, the
loss, the suffering the waste are small and
actually the economy of life in this war has
been great, relatively almost unexampled,
so far as concerns our own side.
The attempt of men like Professor Norton
and of newspapers sympathZing with him
to dim the glories which belong to this
country and to its valiant and invincible
soldiers is a. shameful exhibition of a spirit
of unmanliness which would be a symptom
of hopeless and disgraceful decadence If it
was prevalent among the American people.
That it Is not prevalent this war has dem
onStrated to the world.