The times., 1898-09-12

have changed his commissary general
| instantly, giving him four months in
private life to write out his defense.
Then his new transportation man
would have had proper transports to
bring home the wounded and sick.
though he had to seize the finest steam
ships in the Atlantic ports. The new
commissary general would have had
ample and proper food aboard, and the
new surgeon general would have seen
to it that there were doctors enough
and a corps of gentle Red Cross nurses
on every transport. There would have
been every provision at Montauk Point
for all as fast as they could come.
When the second weeks report from
Camp Alger and Camp Thomas
Der of typhoid fever patients.
he should have sent a commits
sion of regular army officers to see
whether the camps were properly
formed. He should have sent, at the
same time, another commission of rep
utable sanitarians--with Col. Waring
at its head-to see whether the princi-
pies of sanitary science had been ap-
piled. Then we should never have wit
| messed the epidemics that have cost the
nation many more lives than the camp
records reveal. He should have said
he was expected to say, to the heads
of the various branches in his depart
ment: Gentlemen, the nation has
called into the field it's sturdiest sons
There was never an army composed of
more intelligent units These young
| men. most of them the pride and hope
of patriotic fathers and mothers, de-
serve and must have our most jealous
care. This is the richest nation on
earth and the most eager to spend it's
money for the safety and comfort of
its war heroes. Economy or careless
ness that costs the single life of the
humblest private soldier is murder in
the first degree, and will be punished
as such. All the resources OF the ma
ton, all the authority of the Govern
ment, are at your command. Any man
among you who is not glad TO wear out
his life in promoting the welfare of our
soldiers, and any man who is not sure
he is equal TO every possible demand
of his office, must throw up his COM
mission. There are thousands of capa-
BILE and willing men for your work
They have been developed and trained
by the immense industrial and com
mercial enterprises of this vast and
progressive country. If you are not of
them, get out and make room for those
who are. No excuse viii be accepted
for the smallest failure
There have been appalling failures
a long series of failures that shame
and infuriate our industrial and COM
mercial people. Nobody has been re-
moved. nobody has been censured-ex-
cept by the people. Secretary Alger is
too defective in perception and too gem
tie and kind to remove or censure as
long as he can help it. He really
thought there would be no second
transport horror. Then, with an
intelligence that is not cOmprehen-
sive. he Inundated his friends by
grasping at the shameful explanation
invented by the brutal bully, Hanna.
That some Of our soldiers had bought
pop and bananas-and perhaps got
few hours stomachache for themselves
lis probable; but to represent this
magnificent army of hearty. brave
young fellows as a lot of schoolboys,
away from home and indulging a mad
appetite for forbidden sweets. is little
short of silly. To charge that they
wrecked their lives and died of typhoid
fever-the disease of a specific germ
as result of such self-indulgence is
10 reveal an immature intellect
Secretary Alger has proved himself
wholly unequal to the great demands
of his Office He is at heart innocent
weakness has done for our splendid ar
my what the hatred of an enemy could
not do. Some of his subordinates have
been worse than incompetent-the
have been Indifferent when il was
crime-too careless to inquire whether
their failures would kill more of our
gallant young sons than Spanish bull
let's, and reduce thousands to mere
wrecks of the athletes they were when
the Government received them. Died
of homesickness," Secretary Alger has
said. What man, finding himself sick
in such incredible circumstances as
lHOSt dt lamp Dy
the testimony of officers and nurses
would not be homesick? One does not
have to be the candy buying cry-baby
of Hanna's stupid fancy in order TO
yearn for home and the tender care of
his own people when starved and neg
lected and often denied the letters writ
ten by loving hands at home (See Dr.
Senn's statementl Fearing, too that
when dead for lack of medicine his
poor. wasted body might lie uncovered,
save by vermin. in his tent. until the
stencil of decay should cry for atten-
ton. (See the statement of Chaplain
Dooley, of the Ninth New York Regi-
ment)
1t was wrong for Secretary Alger not
to know his own limitations. 1t was
wrong to allow him TO assume his tre-
mendous responsibilities to him
and fatal to the helpless victims of his
amiable weakness. Those who, at the
beginning of the war. suggested that
the hands in which the war admins
tration was placed were not strong
enough were charged with purpose
to embarrass the Government. and they
were siienced.
All the Dearer.
(From the Philadelphia Recod.)