The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-01
SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION
AND SOME OF IT'S CONSEQUENCES
Big Navy and Small Army Among the Results of the
Conflict.
BY HENRY NORMAN.
If the London Chronicle.)
Especial Commissions of tn

Of the London Chron1cle.)
contents of the cases, was ,Iamentable.
General Skaters men have gone to
Cuba in their ordinary thick wooden IN
iforms-a terrible infection in such a
climate. These facts cannot be denied.
and nobody desires to deny them But
the charges Of general incapacity, neg
lect and corruption that have been
brought are, in my opinion, very IN
Just, and take no account of the diff
culties that had to be faced and the
magnificent efforts that have been
made Remember one thing always:
The war took everybody by surprise.
It was not desired, it was not expected;
it was therefore. rot prepared for If
the Maine had not been blown up. there
would be peace today. FOrty-eight
hours before the rupture a leading New
York capitalist, who had gone to Wash
ington to discover the exact situation,
returned and reported that he had alb
solutely certain knowledge, from official
sources that there would be no war.
Thus the government was called upon
to create and equip an army from
GOuuQdl4OAA " CbRAAAe5- 4 IL 10 $780,
was small in number. scattered all over
the country; it had never been collected
since the rebellion; officers Of different
companies in the same regiment were
often strangers to one another; brigade
drill. and even regimental drill, was
unheard Of The National Guard, OF
which so much was expected, had, in
many cases, neither clothing nor arms
A few were ready, aye ready" but the
response of most of them has been de-
scribed as a mixture of tragedy and
opera bouffe. When I visited Camp Al
ger found one regiment Of 500 men
with 200 rifles, and several had from
80 10 40 per cent of new recruits-nen
who had never fired rifle. Then, again,
the war department had not the aid
from the states that it had confidently
expected. A hundred thousand men,
quickly followed by nearly $4,000 more,
we're deli Jered to it, needing almost
everything. They have been transport
ed vast distances with two-only two
trifing accidents; two weeks hence.
General AIger has assured me. every
man will be equipped, down to two suits
of uniform for the tropics; the hard
ships" they have suffered are not such
as a. soldier should talk much about;
- 900 tons of rations have been pro-
vided for them; 80 transports have been
chartered and fitted out; besides all
Ibis. the war department has laid 1,5OO
submarine mines. set up 40 search
lights, and armed a large number OF
forts-often building them first After
admitting every reasonable criticism, it
is triumph of organization 1 doubt
if so much, from so little, has ever been
accomplished so expeditiously and so
uneventfully before.
And look at the display Of American
patriotism. When the volunteers We're
summoned by the president they walk
ed on the scene as if they had been
waiting in the wings. They were sub
jected to a physical examination as
searching as that of a life insurance
company A man was rejected for two
or three filed teeth They came from
all ranks of life. Young lawyers, doc
tors, bankers, welI-paid clerks, are
marching by thousands in the ranks.
The first surgeon TO be killed at Guam
tanamo left New York practice Of
$4,000 year 20 volunteer. As I was
standing on the steps of the Arlington
hotel one evening, a tall, thin man.
7 carrying a large suit case. walked out
and got on the street car for the rail-
way station. on his wayi to Tampa. 1t
was John Jacob Astor, the possessor
OF hundreds of millions of dollars The
Rough Riders of Theodore Roosevelt
contain a number of the smartest
youns men in New York society. A
Harvard classmate of mine. a rising
young lawyer, is working like iaborer
a the Brooklyn navy yard, not know
i~g when he may be ordered TO Cuba
O. Manila. He is a naval reserve man
and sent in his application for any
post from the stoke hole upwards"
ne same is true of women. When I
c~lIed to say good bye TO Mrs. John Ad-
{ son Porter. the wife of the secretary
- the president. whose charming hos
ntality 1 had enjoyed. she had gone TO
tampa to ship as a nurse on the Red
I C-oss steamer for the coast Of Cuba
md all this. be it remembered, is for
:, war in which the country is not in
/ tae remotest danger. and when the ul-
innate summons Of patriotism is I'M
spoken. Finally, consider the reference
10 the war loan. A New YORK syndi-
cate offered TO take half of it at a pre-
MUM which would have given the
| government a clear profit of million
collars. But the loan was wisely offer
ID to the people, and the small investor
sets all ne can buy before the capitalist
is even permitted to invest. And from
canada to the Gulf, from Long Island
20 Seattle, the money of the people is
pouring in. AS I write, it is said the