Arizona republican., 1898-09-14
THE INFLUENCE OF rALsEHooD.

Concerning the management Of the
 war, a topic now uppsrmost in the
 r'lblic mind, the Washington Post
 makes the following timely statement: we rOte ln enc of those New York papers which have. for weeks past,
 been dealing in 'pest-hole camps and
 horror ship transports, and death,
 and suffering, and emaciation general ly, lurid headline to the effect that, in case of $ resumption of war with Spain, 1t would be impossible to induce
 men to volunteer for military service We do not believe a word of this, but ill case it wera true, where would the
 responsibility for such a disgraceful
 condition of affairs be found? Where, indeed, except with these yellow jour- nais which have made a daily business of alarming the country with their tmcndacious and vile misrepresenta- tions? They have exhausted every re- isourco Of hurlan ingenuity to make the American people believe that their kinsmen who went to war are martyrs to the neglet,, the inlbecility and the callous wickedness of the federal gov ernment. They have told and are still telling thousand lies each day about They have taught or are trying to teach the country that the soldiers are treated worse than cattle; that they are deliberately sent to camps where
 the most pesiiferous conditions pre- vail; that the government officials ac-
 tually delight Tn sacrificing them on the altar of their brutal selfishness and limbecility. Some of these newspapers have gone so far, indeed, as to intimate that the division chiefs of staff under Secretary Alger absolutely revel in rurdering and starving the unhappy creatures over whose destinies they temporarily preside
 We say it will be no wonder if, in the event of revival of the war witt, Spain, our young men should refuse to enter the army. There are very few native Americans who would hesitate to take up arms when the Union and it's hallowed flag were in danger; but in the face of this vile chorus of men daclty-confronted with the proposi- tion that they are to be starved, neg lected, left to perish Of disease and ha1dship-the bravest patriot might well pause ard hesitate. The newspa- pers referred t. have magnified the terrors of war thousand times over They nave left men to suppose that douth oil tho battle field Is the least alarming of the contingencies they may expect They have made 1t ap- pear that those who escape the foe mans bullet have nothing to look for ward to but the slow torture of starva- tion and disease. In any case there is no hope for them. They are doomed to martyrdom, either by violence or by neglect.
 We often wonder whether the peo- pie ot thls country, usually so intelli- gent and cool, will continue indefinite ly to swallow falsehoods so palpable. It Is already matter of record that the mortuary list of this war of ours is insignificant compared with the mag nltuGe of the issues at stake and the results accom- pIished. In any enc of dozen battles of the civil war of 1861 that we could rame, single divisions lost more mar after two hours en- gaSement than have been killed,
 wounded and died of disease in the
 whole Cuban campaign. This hap pened to the Union army In the first days battle Of Gettysburg, at Cold Farbor, or at Fredericksburg, and to the confederate army at Fort Donelson or in the deadly camp of Corinth, Miss, after the battle of Shiloh in the spring of 1862 Compared with any of a hun d-ed battles in the war between the states the affair of Santiago was 6 petty skir1nsh, and the treatment of the troops at Chickamauga, Camp AL g.r, or Montauk Point would have been regarded as sumptuous thirty-five years ago.
 "We are amazed that sensible men, especially the soldiers themselves,
 should accept with patience the vicious
 accounts that have been printed touch
 ing their condition. Yet we have faith
 in their manhood and intelligence, and
 we believe that they will soon awake
 from the srupor into which they have
 been plunged by falsehood and by
 treachery."
 1 It is worth while to listen to MT.