The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1898-06-23
PLAIN TALK.

First North Carolina regiment In
camp at Jacksonville, Fla, has re-
turned to his home and, in an inter
view with a News and Observer cor
INDUCES in some plain
talk which, We trust, will prove help
full in speedily remedying the troubles
pointed out by him, and to this end,
we take it, Col. Carr has spoken
so freely.
From the interview we make this
extract:
"The First North Carolina is the
most poorly equipped regiment at
Jacksonville, and tor that reason
they are made somewhat the butt
of the troops there, but believe 1t Is
the finest body of men In camp.
General Arnold's statement concern
ing the bad conduct on the part OF
some of the soldiers on the streets IN
Jacksonville, does not apply to the
North Carolina troops; l have been
with them about ten days, and
know what l am talking about. He
will have to retract this, and apollo
gize to the First North Carolina
Regiment, or / shall prefer charges
AGAINST him before the Secretary of
War. The camp is nicely situated
and we'll watered; it is true the water
has a peculiar taste to our men, but
there is nothing unpleasant about
it."
Col. Carr suggests that the friends
of the First Regiment send assist
ance at once and emphasizes the need
of money and that the "whereWlth'
| will better meet the necessities OF the
! soldiers than contributions in any
other shape. The troops have been
| in service about a month and a hall
and have not yet received a cent OF
pay and the government declined to
permit Col. Carr to loan the boys a
months pay upon the ground that
it would reflect upon the government.
We think, however, that it is a much
greater reflection that the payment
for the first months service has not
| been made.
Col. Carr says the health of the
troops is very fine, everything con-
sidered; that the weather is more
delightful than would be imagined;
that the soldiers are the most cheer
stances he has ever seen; that the
condition of the troops has improved
at least twenty five per cent in the
last ten days and he hopes it will
continue to improve for the next ten
days.
We make the following further ex
tract from the interview, which shows
very bad management, which seems
to be due to ignorance and possibly,
| also, to the exercise of favoritism
rather than merit, based upon eX-
perience, in some of the appoint
ments:
"The army is top heavy, and the
management at Jacksonville is very
poor, and is worse at Tampa than
| at Jacksonville. l know that it is
| easy to throw slurs at "the powers
/
is following Gomez such moi as
there is at Tampa. There is too
much gold buttons and lace in the
way OF organization. People whose
business it is TO do, do not know
| how, and the result is the organiza-
ton is not what you would expect to
find in the army backed by the rich
est government in the world"
Ofcourse, it is to be expected that
matters will get to working more
smoothly after awhile, but we refer
to Col. Carr's statement particularly
because of the immediate need of aid
on the part of our soldiers and to
give prominence to his suggestion
that contributions be made in money.
The boys can then buy what they
most need and there will be the
further advantage of escaping the
heavy charges demanded by the
Express Company for the trans
portation of supplies.