The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-01
BEWARE OF FALSE WITNESS.

| G . widespread, so fierce and so vindctive has
\ become the attack the War Department
- because of the excessive sickness among the
troops at Santiago and in the various camps in the
Eastern States that it is evident something more
than just indignation and rightfu desire to punish
wrongdong animates the assalans. 1t is clear that
IN some cases at any rate the stories of the suffering
among the volunteers have carried exaggeration and
Misrepresentation to the point of falsehood and the
public should be warned against being mised by
false witness or by sensational conclusions not sup
ported by facts
That there has been among the troops an excessive
amount of sickness may be accepted as proven, but
there sufficient evidence yet to fasten blame
upon any particular persons or set of persons 1t
must be remembered that the United States was I'M
prepared Tor waging a hasty large scale
The regular army small and the military staff
was not sufficiently large to handle the number of
troops the emergency called for 1t was neverthe
less, imperative that the advance upon Cuba should
be made at else postponed until next winter
for the scky season in the island fast approach
ing when the broke out. Under such circum-
stances it inevitable that mistakes would be
made and plumbers committed that supplies would
at times be inadequate, and that suffering would
| ensue
Some of the facts recently made public help to an
|
the sickness is confined almost wholly to the volun-
teers very few of the regulars having been affected
AS the two classes of troops serving under the
same conditions it is reasonable to draw the CON
cluson that the regulars knew how to take care of
themselves and did SO, by obedience to sanitary dis
cpline while the volunteers treated campaigning
as if it were picnic, and by careless eating drink
ing and the neglect of proper precautions rendered
themselves subject to diseases they might have
avoided
Another fact Of Importance to the problem is that
the transport Ovette brought home number of in
valid troops, and it was found that all of them had
been we'll cared for, while the Mobile another
transport that arrived about the same time made an
exceedingly bad showing In these cases the differ
ence between the two was found to be due not to
the administration, the officers or the men, but TO
the fact that the Oivete had been constructed for
passenger service while the Mobile was built and had
been used as a tramp steamer devoted largely to
carrying cattle. From this it appears that much of
the suffering among the troops was caused by the
lack OF adequate transport ships and this in turn was
the result OF the neglect of Congress to build up an
American merchant marine in time of peace
The evils that have beallen the nation through
the sickness OF the volunteers are serious enough
without making them worse by assailing the War
Department and endeavoring to make people be-
lieve our officials have been either dishonest or in
different to the welfare of the troops There are
many important lessons for us to learn from the war
with Spain, and it is to be hoped they will not be lost
sight OF for the sake of sensational attacks upon Off
Gals. We must provide larger army and a much
larger staff we must subject volunteers to strictly
sanitary discipline, and finally we must build up
merchant marine that will save us hereafter from
having to send troops to war in cattle-ships