The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1898-09-03
General Wheeler on the Sit
uatiOn of the Army.
BLAMES THE NEWSPAPERS
He Says the Soldiers at Camp WikOff
Are Perfectly COntented and Well
Treated.

CAMP WIKOFF, Montauk Point, N. Y,
Sept. .-Major-General Joseph Wheeler
gave the following to the Associa ted
Press today.
Headquarters United States Forces,
Camp Wikof, Long Island, Sept. 1.-The
following is a sample of the letters which
are constantly received regarding the
soldiers in camp:
' 'In regard to my stepson, we feel
very uneasy about him on account OF the
newspaper reports of the privation and
suffering inflicted upon the privates.
Although he has never entered a COM
plant since he has been in the army, we
hear from other sources of the cruel and
horrible treatment inflicted upon our
soldiers under the pretense of humanity
for Dur neighbors, and the whole coun-
try is in a state of terrible excitement.
1 should not be surprises if the feeling
should lead to a revolution OF some kind,
for assure you hear on all sides the
most violent and bitter denunciations
of the war department and the admins
tration. 1t is, indeed, great pity that
the glory of our triumphs should be
dimmed by such shameful thing as
the i'll treatment and starvation of our
brave soldiers. while the Spanish pris-
oners have the best treatment that the
country Affords
cit will be seen that this letter SAYS
that not word of complaint has been
received from the soldiers, and SO far as
my investigation goes, no complaint has
been made by any of the brave soldiers
who have added glory to our arms in the
Cuban campaign.
ga great many anxious fathers, moth
ers, brothers or sisters, arrive here from
all parts of the United States to look
after their relatives, whom they say the
papers tell them are suffering ,and many
of them have heard that their relatives
are in a condition of starvation. Most
of these people are little able to spend
the money for such journey, and they
are surprised when they come here to
find their relatives surrounded with ev-
erything to eat which can be produced
by money, and, if sick III the hospital,
they are gratified and surprised to find
that they are given every care that is
possible.
"In reply to a direct request that
give the exact facts, as I see them, L
will state:
every officer and soldier who went
to Cuba regarded it that he was given
great and special privilege in being per-
mitted to engage in that campaign.
They knew they were to encounter yell
low fever and other diseases, as well as
the torrid heat of the country, and they
were proud and glad to do so. They
knew that it was impossible for them to
have the advantage of wagon transporta-
tion, which usually accompanies an
army, and yet officers and men were
glad to go, to carry their blankets and
their rations on their backs and be sinh.
jected, without any shelter, to the sun
and rains by day and the heavy hazes
by night. They certainly knew that the
Spanish had spent years in erecting de-
lenses, and it was their pleasure to as
sault and their duty to capture the
Spanish works.
"They were more than glad to incur
these hardships and these dangers. They
went there and did their duty, each man
seeming to feel that American honor
and prestige was to be measured by his
conduct. The brave men who won the
victories did not complain of the neglect