The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-08-13
SERIOUS IF TRUE.

Numerous charges of fraud and ras
cality in connection with furnishin.
supplies for the army since the wa
with Spain began have been made
and enough has been published, i
true, to everlastingly damn those whit
have had control of awarding con
tracts, etc. Now, however, more ser
ious charges are made, that the wa
department has endangered the live
of the troops by selecting, for merce
nary reasons, unwholesome localities
for mobilizing the soldiers. On this
point the Oregonian makes the fol
lowing severe criticism:
The administration 8 reluctant de
termination to hurry the troops home
from Santiago will remove the sus
picion of improper influences in the
selection of Montauk point, Long
Island, as the camp of convalescence
Objections are appearing to the site
on many grounds. We shall be in
volved with litigation from Indians
who lay claim to the land. There is
no water there fit to drink, ,2and doubt
appears whether enough can be
brought in. The troops sick and well
must be transferred to light-draft sid
wheel steamers in order to be landed
from the ocean steamships that bring
them from Santiago. These would
not be serious defects if we had not
plenty of better sites. The govern
ment has places along the Allan tic,
like old Point Comfort, which have
been designed for hospital purpose s,
and should be so employed. Why
then do we go to place, possession of
which is of doubtful legality, and
which has such shallow approaches
that sick and wounded men must be put
to the danger and discomfort of being
moved from transport ships to passen-
ger steamers, and thence again to the
shore? All along the Atlantic coast
the government has forts and adjoin-
ing reservations which might be en-
ployed. Why Montauk point?
The only reason offered is that a
certain railroad wants the business
which will be brought to it by the
presence of troops there. and has the
necessary "pull" with the war depart
ment to Secure their location there.
This is a scandalous charge, and if
true involves a grievous wrong. But
it is so thoroughly consistent with the
war departments course in this and
other matters, and with Secretary AL
gers career as whole. The presump-
tive evidence in its favor is strong.
The burden of proof is on the defense,
the moment the accusation is formu-
lated.
We know on this coast what Camp
Merritt has been. 1t has been death
trap. Its location was concession to
influences at San Francisco,
strong enough to prevent and then de-
lay its abandonment long after its un-
fitness became apparent, and until
after many lives, heroically rendered
The government, had been sacrificed to
,he war departments pernicious and
cruel policy.
Camp Miami, Fla, presents the
iame combination of mischief and
Misery. Southern papers have been
low to reproach the administration
or the dreadful state of affairs there. |
rhe South has supported the war
lobly, in its newspapers and otherwise. |
But it has gradually developed that
he only reason adduced for the selec.
ion OF the site is concession to Mr.. |
Tlagler, republican millionaire, who
,wns the town and the railroad to it.
Tlagler gave 20,000 to the republican
fund, and this benefit is
brown to him in payment of the debt.
t is asserted by the Southern papers
hat many deaths among the soldiers
AVE resulted from the unsanitary con-
Iition at Miami and from the bad
lrinking water. The popular name
or the camp is said to be "Flagler's
Owing probably to these
criticisms the government has Or
lered the camp to be abandoned and
he soldiers sent elsewhere.
The personal and political char acter
# the transaction being established,
Indignation runs high. In a long
ditorial, under the caption "Murder
lost Foul" the New Orleans State
avs: "Row many heroic men have
'een murder ed by the incompetency.
he favoritism and corruption of this
administration cannot be easily reck-
ned. The Louisiana soldiers were
ent to sand bank belonging to
iutocratic republican and friend of
be administration, there to camp and
larch and drill in sand and to drink
often water. The consequences are
bat typhoid fever has broken out
mong these troops, hundreds of them
re sick, some of them seriously i'll and
lany have died." The Montgomery
.dvertiser is equally severe in its COM
lent. 1t has been slow, it says, to
edit the stories of suffering at Camp
[iami and of Flagler's connection
ith it and with the administration.
ut it has sent man there to investi-
ite, and his work confirms previous
,ports. If the statements are true, it
ys. and there seems no longer possi-
lity to doubt their truth, "lhe ad.
inistration has been guilty of an act
cruelty and injustice little short of
unable. To deliberately subject
veral thousand patriotic young citi-
ms of Alabama and other Southern |
ates to almost inevitable disease, and
any of them to death, merely for /
litical reasons, is horrible supposi- t
IN, and one which no man likes to /
tertain of the administration or of q
e officials responsible for such con- |
ton of affairs.'' c
La Grande has the most wide. awake b
d progressive commercial club in o
3 state of Oregon and this club d
cured for that city s500,00O sugar b
tory that in turn is making La d