Evening star., 1898-08-20
Neglect of Returning Soldiers,
: Of The Evening Star:

To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
Day after day brings fresh tales of
wholly needless suffering by our brave re-
turning soldiers. who find, by terrible ex-
perience, that the merciful Kindness of
their own government is far more to be
dreaded than the Mauser bullets or the yel-
low fever risks. The horrors of the trans
ports chartered to bring back to their
he mes these gallant soldiers are only COM
parable to those told of the mid-ocean
cruelties suffered by the helpless victims
OF the slave traders greed in the past CEN
tlries OF African slavery, when, simply by
over-crowding, the poor blacks persisted by
the score, fattening the sharks that ever
accompanied those floating hells.
These thoughts are suggested by the
stQry this morning of the coming in of the
transport Mobile, loaded with 1860 sol
dters, of whom 300 are seriously sick, ten
Wers buried at sea, and three are dying"
Eight of these dead We're members of the
I'd MaSSac huSettS regiment, the volunteers
who won undying fame at Ell Caney.
All the soldiers before Santiago were
needlessly compelled to such exposures and
deprivations as have left them in de-
plorable condition physically, and the
authorities thare and here are we'll aware
of it! So they load 1,6O0 on vessel where
not more than half that number could be
decently accommodated. and send them off
with no provision for the poor half-starved
men other than army rations. 1t is crimi-
nal. These boys ara the flower of Massa-
chusetts-men who left good homes, pros
porous business, loving families, at the
first call of their country; men for whom
those at home have sent every provision
for their comfort and care if sick, none of
which they have been enabled to receive.
Victory covers multitude of crimes, and
the landing of our troops, without their
tents or clothes, or the guns which should
have been used in a siege, and the thrust
ing them into the trenches with no shelter,
no anything and not sufficient food-all OF
which was wholly needless-has been passed
by, with hardly a comm mt: but the brutal,
filthy, shameful manner in which our SOL
diers have been brought home is as dis
81 aceful to our government was the
''hlack hole" of Calcutta 10 the savage
fighters of India.
But with Camp Alger suffered to become
a braeder of typhoid almost within sight
of the capital. under the very eyes of the
heads of the army, what can surprise US?
A people who a quarter of a century ago
took to and from Philadelphia hundreds of
thousands of travellers, without injury to
any; who repeated the marvel in moving
the million of visitors to and from Chicago
in 1893, certainly could have transported
twenty-five forty thousand men to and
from the Island of Cuba without infiictng
on them such horrors as it has been well
established our soldiers have suffered.
What youth, knowing that this is the
treatment his government gives its voiun-
teers, would ever again be tempted to vol
uiteeFe lHe treatment given TO theSe SOL
diers is treasonable because it saps the
very foundation of good government. What
son, or brother, or acquaintance of those
starved, worn ard abashed heroes of the
I'd Massachusetts would ever bs induced
to volunteer in thu United States armies
again?
Were not there stores of food for invalils Is
in the custody of the Red Cross people in
Cuba? Has not the War Department any
power to provide proper food for invalids?
If they have, why has not such been pro-
vided? In this case it is said physicians and
medicines were provided But men worn
cut by under-feeding, excessive exposure
and fevers mead other food than army
rations, and no other was provided.
The camp at Montauk Point Is not ready
Why?
Such are some of the queries of your in
dignant SON OF MASSACHUSETTS,
August 20, 1898.