Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-10-25

from Par srsburg boy. Captain VII
s. Monroe, Of the Fourth United state,
Immunes. from Camp Cuba Libre
This letter was NOT written for pub
LEGATION nor for effect on the election
but was a private communication t.
Captain Mcnroes father. Had Captain
Monroe been writing for the public
he would probably have refrained from
| any criticism; as he was writing pri-
vately to his father, he spoke his mind
freely. He says:
''The greatest annoyance we have had
! to contend with here is the incompetency
. of many of the officers of the quarter
master and commissary departments. 1t
is a burning shame that a government
! that takes such good care of it's soldiers
in other respects should jeopardize the
health and lives of their soldiers by APP
pointing incompetent civil ans to such im-
portant staff positions in the commissary,
4u>sf .ermaste- as s-r.eoD-3eAsfa .e-
partment. When the men get sick, great
complaint is made in many regiments that
the men do not get good trea tment, and
when they are well, they are not properly
fed. but often have to go for days with
out rations, on account of some incompe-
tent official. We had a little taste of that
ourselves, this week, when we ran short
of nearly everything and could not get
more in spite of the efforts Of Colonel
Petit. simply because some officials did
not know their business"
We quote this letter, which is ex-
tremely mild, indeed, compared to some
that come from the front, because it is
from a West Virginia boy we'll known
and highly respected here, whose word
is goodwill every one who knows him.
1t will be seen that he fatty contra
diets the Intelligencer's correspondent,
who writes for publication and whose
letter the Intelligencer uses for politi-
cal effect in an effort to counteract the
horrible revelations of Algerism-rey-
Citations that have been made freely
and on every hand since the mCDiliza-
ton of cur volunteer army in death
traps selected at the behest of certain
railroads and other favored interests.
Further comment is unnecessary.
The story is told in the simple fact that
about ten men have died in these death
traps Of starvation ard neglected dis
ease to but one in war. Those are
figures which can't be explained on any
other than the true ground Of gross
and criminal incompetency at Wash
ington, and the people know it.
Probably the most infamous piece of
work in connection with this matter is
the fact that the furlough privilege is
being used where possible by the Repub-
lican managers so that soldiers known
to be Republicans and living in close
States are to be allowed to remain at
home over the election to vote, while
those known to be Democrats are not
granted that privilege. No one would
hold the administration managers too
high to engage in such a trick even ii
it were not known to be fact that they
are engaged in that very work. The
volunteer army represents many tens
of thousands of votes and the con-
scienceless politicians at Washington
purpose to take all the political advan-
tage possible out of the situation The
main object, however, is to keep the
rank and file in camp to prevent them
from talking about their camp life to
the people at home until after the
election. Then we will witness the
gradual disarmament of about half the
volunteer army now kept so strictly in
camp on the pretense of being ready for
garrison duty in our foreign posses
sions-although every intelligent per-
son knows that not half Of them are
needed, or will be used, for that pur-
pose.
This is the political thimble-riggin
game by which the administration poll
ticians hope to gain advantage in close
States. Judging from the temper of the
people, however, and they are not igno-
rant of the situation, this effort to de-
feat their will at the polls will but re-
act upon the schemers as will the
shameless attempt to whitewash the
criminal mismanagement of our volun-
teer army by an incompetent war de-
partment that gave more care and at
tention to furthering political schemes
and ambitions than to securing the well
fare of the troops.
At least two Republican spellbinders
in, N oit 1oc ;ubt