The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-04
The war Department Defended.


Gen. Wheeler's answer to the attacks
on the war department win undoubtedly
have the effect Of lessening some what the
intensity Of the feeling which has shown
itself in the public prints during the last
few weeks against that department. There
is a profound regard for him in all parts
Of the country. Still, it is doubtful if the
demand for an investigation of the man
agement Of those branches of the war de-
partment which have apparently failed
OF meet public expectation will be with
drawn.
What Gen. Wheeler says is calculated to
create the impression that the Secretary
of War has at all times been ready to do
all that could be done for the health and
comfort OF the soldiers-those who were
in good health as wen as those who were
sick He does not undertake to say that
there was not a great deal of mismanage-
ment in some of the branches of the war
department Indeed, he says that mis-
takes were made, but he thinks that they
were such as. could hardly have been
avoided under the circumstances.
That is just what the people want to
know, namely, whether the mistakes
which were the indirect cause of more
deaths in the camps than were caused by
Spanish bullets, could not, in a great de-
gree have been avoided. They are dis
posed to be just, and if 1t should be shown
that the statements on which they have
based the opinions they now hold were
largely fabrications and exaggerations,
they would not hesitate to accept views in
accordance with the truth.
Secretary Alger is attacked because he
Nobody thinks that he personally commit
ted the mistakes, which are believed to
have caused so much sickness and death
among the soldiers The charge is that
there were incompetency, and perhaps in
difference and neglect. in certain branches
of the war department, especially in the
quartermaster. commissary and medical
branches.
Gen. Wheeler says that the Santiago
army was sent away from Tampa hastily,
but the regulars of that army We're at
Tampa a month or two before the order
to move to Santiago was given. It was
known, of course, that they were to go to
Cuba. Why, then, were they not provided
with clothing suitable to the Cuban
climate? Why were they sent to a hot
climate wearing the heavy wooden gar
ments which had served them through a
severe winter of the Northwest? 1t was
known, of course, that the regulars
would be the first troops sent to Cuba.
in accordance with the needs of the
climate. 1t may not have been the duty
of the Secretary of War to personally
look after the clothing of the troops, but
it was somebody's duty. Whose duty was
it? That is what the people want to
know
And when the transports arrived at the
landing place in Cuba, whose duty was ii
TO see that the medical stores were land
ed? The Secretary of War was not, of
course, there to order those stores landed
stores as important as anything, except
the men, guns and ammunition, that the
transports carried-but his representatives
were there, and from all accounts they
utterly failed to do their duty When med
icines were needed and needed badly.
there were none to be had. They had
been shipped from Tampa, but they had
never been taken from the transports
An investigation would probably show
that the Secretary of War is not in any
respect responsible for the mistakes that
were made-mistakes which had disastrous
results-but it would place the response
bility for them where 1t belongs.