The age-herald., 1898-09-30
ALGER MUST GO
 IF RESPONSIBLE

| yesterday ana Sunuay Odpldll AAo"Vii 1 told something.
 Before becoming a member of this com ] mission," said Captain Howell q had
 personal conference with the president. He
 convinced me we were to dig to the bottom,
 irrespective of who was hurt. "Later, in talkin to us all, the president
 made it clear that no matter who was
 found guilty, the punishment would be swift
 He left us in no doubt on this point. He
 said that if we found Secretary Aiger re- sponslbIe he would remove him at once "The public should understand that we
 have not | ot the power to visit punishment
 upon those responsible for mismanagement.
 We simply gather the facts and present them to the president.
 of any whitewashing is done it will have
 to be done by President Mckinley. "When fragrant cases of misconduct are found the offenders will be recommended
 to the president for removal Generally
 recommendations will be avoided in our re- port but it will leave no doubt as. to who is
 to blame.
 "The facts we will gather will be most
 complete. In real ty, they will form a de-
 tailed history of the war from the begin
 ming to the cessation of hostiliities. We will have everyone before us who
 can be of service. We will have all the generals, Shafter, Lee, Wheeler and the rest of them.
 We will be particular in our examina-
 tions. For instance, n going over the rec
 ords I saw report from a doctor in which
 he said there were only three ambulances he cd 6pht
 That is seemingly a remarkable cond ton
 of affairs, and General Shafter will have to explain how he came to take an army of 1S,000 men on a campaign that meant a se- were battle with only three ambulances.
 Perhaps General Shafter can explain it
 sat sfactorily. None of us in advance can judge of that This is merely one incident
 of hundred more that must be ex- amined thoroughly
 q must say that I am astonished at the few complaints we have received so far, in view of the wholesale mismanagement that
 has been charged. People talk freely and | sometimes recklessly until called upon to
 substant ate their charges, and then they
 back down. Take a notable incident of this kind You remember when Secretary Alger | visited Lexington, and Wiley, Sanger and | Martin told him and his chiefs to their | faces that they were responsible for the l camp evils. Now l understand that they | have withdrawn the charges attributed to | them.
 | eve will get to the bottom of that mat l ter We will sumnion all three and find ! out how they came to make the charges, i and, if they retracted them, find out why | they retracted them.
 Men who have made charges will be | examined. For instance. there was d min l ister at Philadelphia who delivered a ser mon last Sunday in which he charged a most horrible condition of affairs. We have sent him letter asking him to put the charges in writing, describing every tn ng he knows of his own knowledge. We
 do not want any hearsay complaints, but
 any men who actually know of misman- agment, negligence, incompetence or fraud
 should write his complaint and address it
 to this commission.
 We will pay particular attention to the distribution of rations to the soldiers. There may have been incompetence and perhaps worse-fraud-and if so we will find it out.
 
 in Washington before taking up the com plants from all others. There are a great
 many here whose testimony we need. To
 obtain the evidence of men living at dis tance subcommittee, each consisting of
 two commiss.o .oners, will be appointed to
 travel . the different centerS and take the testimony. /There may be three hundred
 men in New York who have charges to
 make Instead of putting the government to the expense of paying their travelling eX-
 penses and a per diem fee to Wash'ngt
 two of us will go to New York and take
 their testimony. The same plan will be used with other cities and the investigation of the different camps. This method we decided upon as the most economical to the government.
 ''We do not count upon meeting wit
 nesses who will refuse to testify. We have not the power to compel them to testify, bus ss1ould we meet any refusals we will
 take pains to have the fact published in the
 newspapers that-the pubic will know the names of those who refused to tell what they knew.'
 Prior to the interview with Captain How | ell the World reporter saw General Dodge | president of the commission for the pur- pose of obtaining an author tative state
 ment of the power of the board on certain | lines. The reporter asked: Has the commission the right to place
 witnesses under oath when they testify?" "We have not got down to that yet. 1 There has been no reason for a decision | in the natter
 | To the question whether the commission 1 could punish those gully of perjury the gen. [ eral said that that matter would be at i tended to later When asked f the remun- 1 eration of the commissioners had ben at ! S20 a day.rhe said:
 That subject has not come up In any | I hox thn IA
 will be-
 ! When the presden gave his instructions l to the commissioners he told them they l could decide upon a proper amount for re- ! muneration themselves. As yet they have | not discussed it. The only matter in the l salary line so far fixed is the pay of Sec 1 retary Weightman, which is $10 day. DEWEY ON THE SITUATION
 Admiral Dewey in Tribune Dispatch q hope it Che American flag in Mani a) | floats there forever, forever. It is s.rar ge T