The evening times., 1898-08-25
DIR. SENN TALKS.
Boldly Blame Gen. Shafter and Also
the Government.

the Government.
The remarks of Lieut.. Col. Nicholas
Sem, chief surgeon of the operating
staff on the hospital ship Relief may
suggest a reason why no attempt has
been made by the War Department to
place the blame for the sad conditions
at Santiago. To a reporter for the New
York Commercial Advertiser DR.. Sem
said:
Current criticisms upon the medical
department of the army in connection
with its work at Santiago de Cuba are
untimely and unjust. Everyone knows
by this time that some one blundered.
and blundered more than once. Who 1t
was 1 cannot say. but will say for the
medical department that it did all that
could be expected of II under the circum-
stances and that II overcame obstacles
which should never have been allowed to
confront it. and which should have been
removed by the general commanding in
stead of being entirely ignored by him
1t is a matter of record that practically
all of the suggestions made by the sur
geons with Gen. Skaters army were
disregarded. until Gen. Miles arrived
from Washington. For instance. the
moment l arrived at Siboney and saw
the filthy, sickly refugees lounging about
the general hospital in communication
with our soldiers. then suffering slight
attacks of fever and other minor all
ments, l realized that unless something
were done at once untold harm would
result. 1 dispa tched a messenger to Gen
Shafter at once. asking him 10 assign a
company of infantry to the hospital 10
drive out the refugees and to keep our
sick separated from them This request
was refused. The next day Col Green
leaf demanded a battalion of infantry for
the same purpose. Gen. Shafer sent
back word that he needed all his men
and that we must look after the hospital
ourselves. When Gen. Miles arrived he
gave us whole regiment and the camp
was cleared. but too late-the damage
had been done. Another trouble was
those filthy buildings at Siboney in which
our troops were quartered. Seemingly
the dirtiest one was selected for the post
office and in a short time the postmas-
ter was stricken with the fever and died.
No one knows the extent of the damage
done by allowing the men to go in and
out of those buildings. yet our requests
to have them burned were ignored by
Gen. Shafter and they were not destroy
ed until Gen. Miles landed and saw the
conditions which we were forced to con-
front. Gen. Shafter was in altogether
too much of a hurry. He gave US abso-
lutely no opportunity to get the medical
supplies landed and hurried his men
off to the front, apparently with no
thought of the need of well-equipped
hospital service. He used every boat in
landing his men and his supplies and
then turned over one small gig to us to
get our supplies ashore. Before we got
started the transport with our supplies
on board was ordered back to Tampa.
Was that the fault of the medical de-
partment?
Then, too. I blame the Government
for not providing better mail facilities
for our men at the front. A rich Gov
ernment like ours could certainly have
afforded to detail three or four tugs to
carry mail between Key West and ST.
honey. and II would have made a wonder
full difference to our soldiers. I saw n
lot of homesickness and noted the men,
tai and bodily depression which ii
susceptible to disease. Why. they would
have been willing to go without their
rations at any time If they could have
had a letter from home or a newspaper
Men would watch and wait for the mail,
yet If any one of them received a letter
or a newspaper in two months he was
lucky. Mental starvation has almost as
harmful an effect upon man as physi-
cal starvation, and the men wanted let
tiers from home and newspapers almost
worse than they did food or medicine.
They would brighten up and seem to i'm
prove the moment they received a letter.
and would read parts of their letters to
their comrades to cheer them up as well.
The mail for the men in Santiago would