The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-08
VICTIMS OF FALsEHOOD.
The Vicious and DemOraIizinE Lies
Told About Treatment of Soldiers.

washington Post.
We note IN one of those New York papers
which have for weeks past been dealing in
"peSt-hole camps" and horror ship trans
ports, and death and suffering, and emacia-
ton generally. lurio head line the effect
that in case of a resumption of war with
Spain It would be impossible to induce men
to volunteer for military service. We do not
believe word OF this, but In case II were
true where would the responsibility for such
a disgracetui condition of affairs be found?
Where indeed, except with these yellow
journals which rave made a daily business
of alarming the country with their men
Gacious and vile interpretations? They
have exhausted every resource OF human
ingenuity to make the American people be-
iieVe that their kinsmen who went to war
are martyrs to the neglect, the imbecility
and the callous Welcomes of the federal
government They have told and are still
telling thousand lies each day about the
maltreatment OF tho volunteers. They have
taught or are trying to teach the country
that the soldiers are treated worse than
cattle. that they are deliberately sent to
camps where the most pestiterous conditions
prevail that the government OincldlS actual
~ delight in sacrificing them on the altar
Of their brutal seltShnesS and imbecility.
Some OF these newspapers have gone so far
indeed, as to insinuate that the division
chiefs OF staff under Secretary Alger abso-
luteiy revel in numbering and starving the
unhappy creatures over whose deStinieS
they temporarily preside.
We say it Will be no wonder if, in the
event of a revival of the war with Spain,
our young men should refuse to enter the
army. There are very few native Ameri-
cans who would hesitate to take up arms
when the Union and its hallOwed flag were
in danger; but >in the face of this vile
chorus of neutrality-suspicious. with the
proposition that they are to be starved,
neglected, left TO perish of disease and hard
Ship--the braveSt patriot might well pause
and hesitate. The newspapers referred to
have magnihed the terrOrs OF war a thou
sand times over. They have left men to
suppose that death on the battlefield is the
least alarming of the contingencies they
may expect. They have made it appear
that those who escape the foeman'S bullet
have nothing to look forward TO but the
any case there is no hope for them. They
are doomed to martyrdom, either by vio-
lence or by neglect.
We often wonder whether the people of
this country usually so intelligent and COOL
Will continue indefinitely TO swallow false
hoods so palpable Ii IS already d matter
of record that the rnortuary list of this war
Of ours is Insignificant compared with the
magnitude of the issues at stake and the
| results accomplished. In any one Of a dozen
battles Of the civil war of 1861 that could
name single divisions lost more men after
a two hours engagement than have been
killed wounded and died of disease in the
whole Cuban campaign. This happened to
the Union army in the first days battle OF
Gettysburg at Cold Harbor at Fred
ericksburg and to the Confederate army at
Fort Donelson or In the deadly camp of
Corinth Miss. after the battle of Shiloh
in the spring OF 1862. Compared with any
OF o hundred battles in the war between
the States the affair of Santiago was a
petty skirmish and the treatment of the
troops at Chickamauga, Camp Alger or
Montauk Point would have been regarded
as sumptuous thrty-five years ago.
| We are amazed that sensible men, es-
| pecially the soldiers themselves should ac-
| cept with patience the vicious accounts that
| have been printed touching their condition
Yet we have faith in their manhood and in
| telligence, and we believe that they will
soon awake from the stupor into which they
have been plunged by falsehood and by
| treachery.