The times., 1898-09-06
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER G, 1898
UnavniIing whitewnsh.

Among the whitewash journals, only
one is more jealous than the Chicago
Evening Post. Its latest dip into the
calcimine bucket results in this: "A
death list of thirteen hundred out of
a total enrolled army of nearly three
hundred thousand is so small as to be
almost incredible 1t amounts to less
than one-haIf Of one per cent. This Is
practically the same death rate that
prevails all the year round in Chicago"
If these deaths were reported among
anything like that number of men in
the course of year. it might not cause
surprise to a resident of Chicago. No
account is taken of the period during
which the soldier mortality occurred,
or of the real number Of the troops.
From four to eight weeks will cover
the time for the greater part of the
list and much less than two hundred
thousand men, the number among
whom the thirteen hundred deaths are
recorded.
As matter of fact, the most of the
fatalities were limited to the forty
three thousand soldiers who were at
? Camp Thomas for four weeks, the
4. twenty thousand who were at Camp
AIger for a similar period, and the
fifteen thousand at Santiago for an
even shorter time. That is to say,
fully one thousand deaths took place
in from thirty to sixty days among
about eighty thousand men. On that
basis we have an annual death rate
far greater than the whitewash state
ments imply.
The population of a city like Chicago
is made up Of not merely the young
who have passed the critical period and
the people of the most robust age. but
also the very young and the very old
Of confirmed invalids and persons in
all stages Of disease. The soldier popu-
lation in which this high rate of NOR
taIity was reached was composed ex-
clusively Of absolutely healthy young
men. Every soldier went through a
critical examination and was found to
be over eighteen and under forty-five
years of age. perfectly sound in body.
within the wholesome average of height
and weight. and capable of using his
muscles freely These young men
were, in short. the very flower of ply
steal manhood.
There was no reason why a single
one of them should die for many years,
unless subjected TO abnormal condi-
tiOns that would utterly sweep away a
population of the usual city material
There was no reason to look for half a
dozen to die in a year of out-of-door
life under the normal arrangements of
a camp, If they were properly fed. On
the contrary, these conditions could be
expected to put them all in the vigorous
state of an athlete. ready to break rec
ords. Under new and severe climatic
influences, they could be expected to
resist the approaches OF disease better
than any other persons in the world
Only when their camps should be stu
Rted and managed or neglected so as to
cause a pollution of the water and the
air. and their food of a kind and guam
city to deny the proper degree of nour-
, fshnent, could it be feared that these
healthy young creatures would die.
That some thirteen hundred have
Perished without the aid of Spanish
bullets. and probably more than fifty
thousand are reduced to mere wrecks
OF the sturdy young fellows who left
their homes a few weeks ago, is proof
to any sane and impartial physician
that the camp conditions were crimi-
nally bad. There has been murder.
The more the whitewash brush is used
the clearer becomes the ugly truth.
There seems to be some accidental
chemical element in the calcimine that
brings out what 1t is intended to con-
zeal