The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-10
General Skaters Version.

General Shafter has made an en-
phatic denial that he is either directly
or indirectly responsible for the con-
dition of affairs at Santiago. The
responsibility at all events rests some
where. If there never has been a case
of suffering as General Shafter alleges,
that could be remedied by the means
at hand that was not attended to"
the question naturally arises, who was
responsible for not having sufficient
means at hand and in sufficient guam
titles to meet every emergency as it
appeared? We cannot hold the COM
mander in the field responsible
for the inadequacy of the medi-
cinal supplies and the nursing staff.
lie could not be supposed to attend to
these things at the base of supplies,
and to the enemy in front Of him at
the same time. Our army did not in
wade Cuba without the full knowledge
by the war department of the risks
they were running from the epidemic
diseases peculiar to the island. There
was in reality no great hurry to invest
Santiago by land. 1T might have been
accomplished a week or so later with
the same satisfactory results without
cndangering the lives of our troops
through the inadequacy of supplies and
the neglect Of adequate precautions.
The war department must bear its part
Of the responsibility. Whether its lack
of initiative and prescience rests on the
el
those of his subordinates must be set
tied among themselves and not thrown
on scapegoat at the front.
General Shafter says that the hos.
rital transports were overcrowded ow-
ing to the fact that the dread of yell
low fever prompted a number of in
valid soldiers to get away from the
island at once. This is a legitimate
and conclusive argument so far as it
goes. But why should facilities not
have been provided in advance for the
prompt return of all our invalided?
General Shafter in his report
declares that the surgeons have
worked as we'll as any men
that ever lived" This is high
praise, but it is no higher than de-
served. 1t is what we all expected of
our army surgeons, The humanitarian
ism of the army is eXemplified by their
silent and transformations devotion to
duty. They had to work through a
universal lack of means and facilities.
If there is one part of a surgeons
duty more heartrending than another,
it is the scientific knowledge of how
to relieve suffering and stave off death
in the face of lack of the necessary
facilities. General Shafter does not
complain of this lack of means and
facilities" brave and indomitable SOL
der that he is. 1t is not his province
to grumhe but to make the best of
such facilities as he has at hand. But
the people of this country do require
an explanation which vii! definitely
explain why Shafter was thus handi-
capped.
Affairs would have been radically
worse than they have proved to be
We're it not for the officers of the Red
Cross society. Their administration
has been of inestmable advantage.
They took upon themselves the respon-
sibility of bringing relief to the starv-
ing inhabitants of Santiago. This they
did effectively with such resources as
they possessed. But they did not nor
could not stop there. They saw our
own troops decimated by tropical dis
eases, and with magnificent patriotism
and humanity they began Immediately
to do what they could in relief and
rescue. But for their work Santiago
would have been an American Col
gotha.