The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-11
OUR new YORK LETTER
PROBLEMS WHICH HAVE CONFRONT
ED UNCLE SAM IN THIS WAR.
The Care Of Hundreds of Prisoners Is One
OF the Latcst-How Secretary AIger's
Health Has Improved Since the Maine
Disaster-Newsboys and Society Folk.

Observation-Disclosures and Society Folk.
NEW YORK. July l1.-[Special. THE
sudden confronting of the war department.
with the problem of properly housing,
feeding and caring for hundreds of Span
ish prisoners brings to mind the fact that
new questions have constantly been aris-
ing for quick decision ever since the be-
ginning of hostilities. Most of these ques-
tions were anticipated beyond doubt, but
few of them have been adequately provid-
ed for In advance, for the simple reason
that Uncle Sans fighting organization
was well nigh rusted out at the beginning
of the war by reason of its long disuse.
The problem of the prisoners, however,
like that of furnishing the soldiers In
Cuba with suitable uniforms, the expan-
sion and reorganization of the subsistence
department or any one Of dozen others
that have already been met, will be over
come with comparative ease, after all, for
Uncle Sam has hustling way with him
when il comes to meeting emergencies that
has helped him out of many tangled snarl
In the past and will carry him through
many a difficult situation in the future.
Yet without the stimulus of emergency
Uncle Sam is likely as any one else to drop
into inefficient ways
1t is an open secret in Washington, ac-
cording to talk-which finds its way here
from the national capital that the war de-
partment was almost hopelessiy swathed
In red tape at the beginning of the present
war. The condition at that time existing
can hardly with justice be charged against
Secretary Alger or any one of his predeces-
sors, every one of whom has regretted tho
ruts into which the department has man.
aged to fall in the piping times Of peace,
and every one of whom has made more or
less strenuous efforts to bring about
change.
In the circumstances 1t Is something for
genuine surprise that the enormous bust
ness operations incident to the raising,
equipping drilling and putting into the
field of an army of 100, 600 men and over
have been carried on with the celebrity and
degree of method that have obtained, since
the transactions have really been of the
vastest magnitude. At the same time there
is reason for congratulation in the fact
that every day the situation is getting
clearer, that the efficiency Of each branch
of war department work Is constantly in
creasing and that problems that would
have been deemed almost insurmountable
six weeks ago are today vanquished with
ease.
The Secretary of War.
This could not be true were not the head
of the department man OF much admin
istrative ability, and that Secretary Alger
is such man is becoming more and moro
apparent as the war continues. Moreover,
he is man of almost tireless energy-a
man capable of enduring the intense strain
- o
the present as few men could.
And yet, according to authority which
cannot well be doubted, the secretary of
war was believed by many to be on the
verge of a physical collapse not many days
before the destruction of the Maine. So
serious was the state of his health at that
time that his closest friends felt genuine
alarm, and there was some thought that
he might find it necessary to relinquish his
post or at least to take long leave of alb
sence in order to avoid a breakdown.
But the boom of the explosion which
wrecked the Maine had hardly died away
before all symptoms of the secretary's in
disposition vanished as they might have
faded away under the skillful treatment of
a first class physician. Almost in day he
became well; the dizziness of a sick man s
eye gave place to the sparkle of perfect
health, and the shoulders that had been
stopped by illness were braced once more
like those of a man who needs neither
drugs nor the doctors advice. In word,
the fact that war was imminent drove his
ailmcnt from his mind, and the intense
excitement Of the situation proved to be a
tonic far more powerful than tho most
potent medicine. At the present time Sec
rotary Alger is one of the most vigorous
of all the men in the war department., in
| spite of the fact that his daily labors are
| arduous to the last extreme, that he Is Of
ten prevented from securing sufficient
| sleep and his hours of duty frequently
much in excess of that which Is written.
An ApproachabIe Cabinet officer.
| AS q cabinet officer Secretary Alger Is
| one of the most approachable in Washing
! ton. 1t is true that he can sec onlya small
proportion of those who wish to talk with
| him every day, and that he is obliged to
| refer many who have legitimate business
| with the department to subordinate OIL
| Gals. But any one who really needs to
| meet him can do so and with only the
| slightest formality.
To such persons he presents the appear
| ance of u man who, though crowded for
| time. is never in undue haste-a man who
| has a task of unusual magnitude to per-
| form, yet who is master of the task and
| not mastered by it; man who goes to
| the bottom of each problem as 1t comes,
| but has no time to waste on single un-
| necessary detail, and who does whatever
| there is to do at once and in the most di'
| rect manner. 1t was because of the policy
| outlined above, no doubt, that Alger was
| able after struggling along In the legal
| profession for some years subsequent to
| the close of the civil war to enter the lum-
Der trade in Michigan and by the adoption
| of sort of tactics not before employed to
win great financial rewards where some
others had failed.
Washington is now beginning to under.
stand him pretty well, though he Is best
known of course in Detroit, where he be.
gan as Woodworking young man and
climbed the ladder of success. There he is
famous for many things, not the least OF
| which is the annual reception to the news
boys and bootblacks of the town given at
his own residence and to which every boy
| who carries brush or sells paper In all
| Detroit is invited. Alger takes great de-
| ,,.kx a., tl,;a vacapfiou which Ia n matter