The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-23
Doubtful IL Insurgents VIII BE of
Much Assistance Except as
Scouts on the Island.
DENIAL OF RUMORED BATTLE
NAVY DEPARTMENT GIVES OUT Bull
LETIN TO QUIET FEARS.
War Depa rtment Announces an Army
of 100000 Troops Has Now
Been Mustered In.
;pecial to the indianapolis Journal.

Special to the indianapolis Journal.
WASHINGTON, May 22.-To a visitor who
wanted to find out something definite about
the proposed invasion of Cuba the Presi-
dent said to-day: There are eighty thou
sand effective Spanish soldiers in Cuba"
That was all. He did not say the invasion
would take place at once, as certain news
paper strategists affirm; nor did he say that
the movement would be postponed until fall.
His reply was quite as enigmatical as that
of the Delphic oracle. Its meaning seems to
be that it would be bad policy to invade
Cuba until we have an army of effectives
capable of coping successfully with those
eighty thousand Spanish electives. The
military policy of the government appears
to be, as outlined heretofore in these dis
patches to form and maintain a huge and
constantly growing camp of soldiers of all
arms at Tampa on the gulf coast of Florida
and hold 1t there, constant menace to the
Spanish, ready to move at any time and
then when all is prepared and the proper
moment has arrived to hurl 1T into Cuba in
overwhelming forces, crush the enemy in
one short, decisive campaign and drive the
Spaniards forever from the Western world.
The plan much talked of at one time of
sending small force to seize and hold by
to have been abandoned. If this could have
been done within week of the declaration
of war it would have been an effective move.
Now there is apparently nothing to be
gained by it until the final forward move
ment is made. The troops, regular and
volunteer, will be kept III the camps already
established at Falls Church, near Washing
ton, Chickamauga, and Tampa, those at the
two former points being gradually trans
ferred to the last. During this period Of
waiting the volunteers will be constantly
improving in their newly adopted trade II
soldering. They will not only be drilled,
but disciplined and the last two things aTe
by no means synonomous Discipline in
cludes drill, but the latter does not neces-
sarily comprise the former. When this
forming process has been completed, and
1t will require at least three months to COM
plete it, the volunteers will be in condition
to battle for the life of the Republic. 1t
is no discredit to them to say that at pres
ent they are not in this condition. They
are brave and patriotic many Of them are
we'll drilled but they are not disciplined.
The idea that prevailed some weeks ago
that this government would hasten to pro-
vide the Cubans under Gomez with arms
and munitions of war appears to have died
out Certainly there is not much being said
about 1t these days 1t is recognized clearly
that the first duty of the government is to
provide it's own troops with proper arms
and munitions before furnishing them to the
Cubans. Some of the representatives of the
Cubans do not hesitate to say that in GER
tain contingencies they would turn their
arms against the United States. This sort of
talk is not increasing their chance Of get
ting arms from this government. 1t may be
mere buncombe, but if it is, it is ugly bun
combe and 1t is not relshed by those who
are responsible for the action Of this gov
ernment. 1t is doubted by military experts
that Gomez and his army would be of any
value to an American army in the field or
siege operations. They would be of use as
scouts because of their familiarity with the
country and in irregular warfare, the only
kind, in fact, to which they have been used
In short, an American army will be re-
quired to defeat the enemy capture Ha-
vana and expel the Spanish from the island
That army is now being recruited. The task
is an arduous one A citizen does not be-
come a soldier the instant he is mustered
into the military service, no matter what
the "On to Havana" strategists may think
of it. The ION to Richmond" cry in 81
heightened the civil war year, if not two
years, made 1t cost hundreds of millions of
dollars more than it should have cost and
sacrificed to its frantic folly tens of thou
sands OF lives, of the bravest and best in the
land. The President is a veteran of that
war-and there are "eighty thousand effec-
tive Spanish soldiers in Cuba"