Evening star., 1898-12-23
Gen. 0. 0. Howard Relates His Ex-
periences to the Commission.
BUREAUCRACY THE CAUSE OF EVILS
Its Effect Upon the Conditions at
Camp Thomas.
w H AT HE WOULD DO

Stales army retired, appeared before the
war investigation commission today. Only
two members Colonel Denby and General
Wilson were present when the session be-
gan. He was sworn by General Wilson,
after stating that he preferred TO be heard
today If only by one member Of the COM
mission rather than postpone it. General
Howard, One-armed, gray-headed and
bearded. in plain black, with black necktie.
looked more like minister than retired
army officer.
After giving up hopes of being giving
active service" said he, half ALPHABETICALLY,
'and being somewhat disappointed l re-
ceived telegram from the army and navy
Christian commission asking If l would
visit the army camps as the delegate OF
the commission. l te!egraphed back Yes,
and started the next day.
General Howard then described in brief
his trips to Chickamauga, New Orieahs'
jacksonville, Mobile, Port Tampa, Iampa'
and other southern camps. The nrst camp
was broken up wnen he II ached there. ne
was ten days at Tampa The camps he
saw appeared clean and in good condiuon.
Al Tampa he saw camp OF colored troops
in which a great many casks OF peer were
lying around. He could not say WI, her OF
not they belonged to the canteen. lie on
served that there was trouble in getting lhe
supplies from the railroads.
Il observed a cloud Of flies that hung
around and was pest at Moole on my
second visit there
He stated that at Camp Thomas. Chicka-
nauga in July, he noticed an offensive
odor around the hospital and SOM "i the
CAMPS He went in search of Gen. Brooke,
at headquarters, to make complaint, hut
did not find him At length he met the
chief surgeon, who stated that precaCtonS
were being taken and that over thirty bar
rels of lime had been scattered that morn
ing. He feared that the odor might LEAD
f,,.as of sir
TO exist.
Gen Howard stated that he observed a
gl eat many soldiers drinking beer AT the
canteen He thought this was injurious,
particularly as the men ate largely OF I'M
proper food bought from vendors about the
camp. He doubted if physicians were ante
definitely to point to the cause OF typhold
fever. He said that the army ana navy
Christian commission had furnished large
quantities of hymn books and ice water at
Camp Thomas. The soldiers received tn5sc
gifts with expressions of thankfulness. Inc
commission had, he said. done excellent re-
lief work among the soldiers. In fact, the
men have asked that ii be continued, and
have sent $3.50 from Cuba for the purpose.
Perfect Camp at Key West.
Speaking of the fine condition Of some Of
the regiments, Gen. Howard said:
when the officers had experience and
knew what they were about the men got
along very we'll"
AT Key West l visited four hospitals.
That was a perfect camp. Everything
was as neat as it could be. Everything
about the camp was in good shape. don't
think any other camp was superior 10 IT.
From there ] went down to Gen. Lee s
camp at Jacksonville. 1t was in fine condl-
ton. The drainage had been carefully at
tended to. 1 went into the hospital and
found one case of typhoid fever there. The
surgeon a fine scientific. determined fellow,
took the trouble to inform me- that the
fever had been brought there by this man.
1 don't think as / said before. the doctors
krew the cause of the fever. sun, that
hospital was in prime condition"
Advertng to Camp Thomas again Gen.
Howard stated that in his talks with Gen
Brooks the latter had little to say IN the
way of criticism. The general did, how
ever, commend the idea of employing fe-
male nurses.
Col Denby-"What do you think of the
suggestion that these nurses be organized
into corpsT
Evils of Bureaucracy.
Gen. Howard-"I must say / am not in
favor of bureaucracy. l don't like the idea
of putting everything on one man at Wash
ington. Take Chickamauga for instance.
If the commanding officer had had entire
control things would have been different"
Gen. Wilson pressed the witness further
and he stated that in the civil war Gen.
Brooke had served under him. AT Camp
Thomas he had talked freely with Gen.
Brooke.
Gen. Brooke" said the witness. had
great difficulty in obtaining answers TO his
communications sent to Washington"
Gen. Wiison-"Did you have the impress
sion that Gen. Brooke was not in absolute
command at Camp Thomas?"
Gen. Howard-"I did not have his camp
particularly in mind when l spoke OF bu-
reaucracy." "
Gen. Wilson-"That was an important rev
Do you think any one suffered from it %
Gen Howard-"I think they did"
Gen. Howard stated that Gen. Brooke's
adjutant had informed him of difficulty
they had at one time in obtaining supplies.
Referring to the medical department of the
army, he said:
II would not put the surgeon general un.
der the heavy responsibility OF conducting
the medical service at all the camps on an
independent basis. l would hold the COM
manding officer of each camp responsible.
Give him surgeon and let him take care
of his own men. In this way, through his
own medical staff, each commanding offi-
Ger would have direct knowledge and In
terest'
Gen. Wilson asked If he thought condl-
tions at Camp Thomas had been brought
about by bureaucracy" Gen. Howard
hesitated about a reply for long time,
stating that "his trouble was with his
memory" At length he Illustrated the idea
he meant to convey by referring to his own
experience In active service He described
the routine of issuing a requisition. and
stated, 1T, as you see. takes long time
to get the supplies. 1 observed difficulty in
getting ordnance. and it seemed to me that
the ordnance department was being run
from Washington more than II should be-"
Gen. Wilson agreed that there should be
an ordnance depot at every camp. with an
ordnance officer who could get supplies
without waiting for requsition.
Gen. Howard finally admitted that Camp
Thomas may have suffered from this
species OF Bureaucracy. As he spoke the wit
ness emphasized his conclusions by vigor-
ously hitting the table with his left hand
He was emphatic, but temperate in his
tcne ana hesitated to make sweeping con-
formations.
Lessons of the War.
THE work of the War Department was
however" added Gen. Howard. marvellous.
1t was a very great achievement. If there
had been time to get smokeless powder and
such things, of course, the result would
have been better, The regular army was
small and therefore what was done for
the great number of volunteers was the
more creditabie. We learned something