The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-02
THE SURPRISES OF THE WAR.
Was the Murder of Our Soldiers Due
to Politicians and Corruptions

ent.
No doubt even Percy himself when the
fight was over glanced around him as he
sheathed his sword to see what his COM
rades thought of his attack and guard. and
went over the bloody play to himself bit
by bit. making up his mind as 10 the cred
it he deserved. We hardly have had time
to draw our breath after our duel with
the Spaniard, yet we already are surpris-
ed at some things which We have done in
the fight and-left undone.
The most startling fact perhaps is, that
we fought so we'll and calamity. We never
have made war our business like our
aeighbors. We are not a knightly people;
We are a nation of tradesmen, of farmers,
or money-grubbers. and in less degree,
of students of that kind of knowledge.
We drew the sword once or twice in des-
perate straits TO preserve our nation
al life but there was as little use for 1t
in the daily traffic of the country as for
monarch s, scepters or wizards wands.
No American boy looked forward TO the
glories of a military conqueror as a posi-
Bile career It might be his business to feed
his fellow-men or to clothe them, or teach
them. or to build them BICYCLES or coats
or railways, but to make It the business
of his life to hack ana hew them-bah!
We had, it is true, an army of 10000 men;
and for thirty years they have peace
ably policed the western border against
the possible uprisiugs of a few Indians
conquered and half-civized long ago.
When, therefore, Uncle Sam made up
his mind TO try a fall with Spain, has
III faaNn NJ
like a boor and a bully. Cartoons were
plenty on the continent in which he was
depicted as a butcher riding tut on a
mig against the gentle don! or cannibal
tearing him into mouthfuls; or huge
boar trampling him into the mudi put
whatever the conceiC, the Spaniard was al
WAYS the chevalier, brave, fine and pa
trican, and the American the pragSart'
coarse and vulgar.
Even Punch, with English opinion warn
ing him to keep a civil tongue i'll his head
gave us a picture OF the combat between
a Castilian knight and monstrous shape
made up of the lowest types OF COWBOY
and a negro. The knight was forceo 10
the wall and-"Oh, the pity of tF' sigh
ed Punch l..
Serious statements were made, TOO, IN
leading foreign journals concerning the
''iaN birds" and refuse of every nation
of whom the crews on our warshlps ana
the rank and file of the army were com
posed. These hirelings,' We were tola,
could have no patriotism. Ihey "oulo
desert at the first shot"
The war now is virtually over Let US
have the plain facts about it.
Its motive was the purest ana most
unselfish that ever caused a war, ana IL
was fought by the nation of money-graD-
bers in the same spirit. The men VINO
hurried into the ranks were not the DEBRIS
of American life, the luckless, the ldle
scape-graces and Vagabonds who could
have well been spared; but the very flower
of the race, young, well-born, trained Tor
useful influential lives. The men who
led them. Dewey, Schley, Miles, wheeler,
Roosevelt, conducted the campaign not
only according to the highest code OF III
ternational etiquet, but with a courtesy
and tenderness absolutely unknown pc
fore In the world in any struggle, ,Wha'
other conqueror, when the victory was
won, ever made haste not only TO Dind
no the wounds of his foe, but to feed and
clothe him, and to provide transportation
to send him and his family comfortably
home?
The brief struggle was full of individ-
ual examples of dauntless courage and
high, fine instincts. The troops, no doubt
lacked cohesion and discipline, but each
man burned to do some deed of derring-do
The sons of millionaires during weeks,
on a cracker a day, dug trenches, waist
deep In the mud; the negro regiments as
| fighters were of the very best" A CORE
spondent in the spasms of mortal agony
finished his dispatch and calmly sent it
! off We can match the stories of the
! Crusaders with that of the Rough Riders
and the Gloucester or Hobson and his
crew and nameless stowaway.
And Philips Don't cheer; She poor dew
| SIS are dying" Is as well worth remember
| ing, In the worlds history, as Sidney S
spilled water on the grass
Not a fighting people as individuals OF
In the mass, We have done our devoir in
| this fight with courage and humanity
| But a commercial people people trained
| to business, to the management of large
| enterprises we made of the business, the
| management of the war a stupendous
| failure. "War," said Gen. Fremont once
is not so much a matter of battles as oil
! supplies and transportation" The greai
| surprise to the nation in this war, the fac
1 which they regard, to-day with an amaze
/ ment and Indignation too strong for words
| is the rnismanagem whose results have
| been so fatal.
The problem of handling the army was
! difficult, it Is true; but there are many
! managers of railway and steamship lines
! aud of hotel systems In this country who
! every year control the supplies and trans
| portation for larger bodies of men thar
! Skaters and Merritt's divisions. The mis-
takes made were incredible in men of or.
| binary Intelligence Whole regiments il
! this country were kept within sight o.
| large towns, without food for thirty-si1
| hours; camps of instruction were planted
in fever-haunted swamps and. kept there
! Northern men were sent to fight in elm
ate where the thermometer ranged from
! so to l05 degrees, clad in winter clothes
and fed only on rancid pork and miidewe>
| bareback; troops were packed into trans
ports as closely as the victims of the Blacl
| Hole of Calcutta, and kept lying uselessG
! at the broiling wharves of Port Tampa FOL
/ days When, after a voyage of eleven days
the men, exhausted by the intoierabl'
! heat, landed, it was to find themselves re
duced to starvation ratlons. They were
led to storm San Juan without the artil
! lery, which had been forgotten; the los
| in consequence was heavy. When they FAY
on the mud wounded and dying of feve
there were no bandages, no medicines, NJ
tents to shelter them from the incessan
storms, these things were still in th'
transports, and Gen. Shafter refused L
permit them to be brought on shore.
1a reDortqd over I GOO men al of yellow