The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-08-05
OFFICERS PROTEST
Continued From Page One.)

and not one true case of yellow fever
has occurred in this division except
among the men sent to the hospital
at Siboney, where they have, be-
lieve contracted it. But in this d.
vision there have been 1900 cases Of ma
larial fever. Not man has died from II,
but the whole command is SO weakened
and shattered as to be ripe for dying like
rotten sheep when a real yellow fever cpl
demic, instead of fake epidemic like the
present. strikes us. and 1t Is bound TO IL
we stay here at the height of the sickness
season. August and the beginning OF Sep
TENDER.
Some Plain Talk
Quarantine against malarial fever is
much like quarantining against the tooth
ache. All of us are certain, as soon as the
authorities at Washington fully appreci-
ate the condition of the army. to be sent
home If we are kept here, it will, in all
human possibility, mean an appalling dis
aster for the surgeons here estimate that
over half the army, if kept here. Will die.
IT is not only terrible from the standpoint
of the Individual lives lost. but 1t means
ruin from the standpoint of the military
efficiency of the flower of the American
army, for the great bulk of the regulars
are here with you. The sick list, large
though 1t is. exceeding 1000, affords but
faint index of the deblitation of the army
Not 10 per cent are fit for active service
work Six weeks on the north Maine
coast. Off instance or elsewhere where vel
low fever germ cannot possibly propagate,
would make us all At as fighting cocks,
able as we are eager to take leading part
in the great campaign against Havana in
the fall even if we are not allowed to try
PorH Rico. ..s uou,s - n,o,,.a
once. with absolute safety to the country
although. of course. ii would have been
Infinitely better If we had been moved
north or to Porto Rico two weeks ago. If
there were any object in keeping us here
we would face fever with as much indiffer-
ence as we faced bullets. but there is no
object in it. The four immune regiments
ordered here are sufficient to garrison the
CITY and surrounding towns, and there is
absolutely nothing for us to do here and
there has not been since the city surren-
dered.
Impossible to Move
It Is impossible to move into the In
terror. Every shifting of camp doubles
the sick roll in our present weakened con-
dition, and, anyhow, the interior is rather
worse than the coast, as / have found by
actual reconnaissance. Our present camps
are as healthy as any camps at this end Of
the island can be.
IT write only because l cannot see our
men. who have fought so bravely and who
have endured extreme hardships and dan
ger uncomplainingly, go to destruction
without striving, so far as lies in me, to
avert a doom as fearful as 1t Is unneces-
sary and undeserved.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
"Colonel Commanding First Brigade"
The Round Robin
After Colonel Roosevelt had taken the
initiative, all the American general officers
united In a round robin address to General
Shafter. 1t reads:
1--WE. the undersigned officers, command
ing the various brigades, divisions etc., of
the army of occupation in Cuba are of the
unanimous opinion that this army should be
AT once taken out Of the Island of Cuba
and sent to some point on the northern
seacoast of the United States; that yellow
| fever in the army al present is not epidemic
that there are only a few sporadic cases
but that the army is disabled by malarial
| fever to the extent that its efficiency is de.
stroyed and that It Is in condition to be
nra ctically destroyed by an epidemic of vel.
low fever. which Is sure to come in the nea
| future.
Fixing the Responsibility
| I'VE know from the reports Of competen