Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-08-29
TO INVESTIGATE CAMPS
Orders to That Effect Issued From
Washington.
TO ABANDON CAMP WIK0FF.
Camp Alger Inspected and Grave Mis-
management FOund-Major Par
ker's Report Regarding Camp
at ChicISanauga.
o ABANDON CAMP WIK0FF.

| Washington, Aug. 29.-Surgeon Gen.
eral Sternberg's request for an investi-
| cation Of the various army camps has
! been promptly answered by the war de-
| partment. General Boynton has begun
| an investigation at Chickamauga, and
Mr.. Meiklejohn, acting secretary OF war,
| Is authority for the statement that the
report will be made public when 1t is
received.
The First division hospital, at Camp
| Alger, has been inspected by the board
of visiting surgeons They found that
for weeks there existed there a condi-
| ton that can only be attributed to gross
mismanagement, negligence, indiffer-
ence and absolute disregard of all ideas
of humanity.
Linen from the beds of typhoid pa
tients was placed in the general wash.
Typhoid patients and those suffering
from other ailments were jumbled in
wards together. Blankets spread on the
ground were used as beds, with plenty
of cots at hand, but not distributed.
Water barrels were never cleansed, and
there was a lack of experienced nurses.
IyDnO10 NJ CnlcKAm8uEas
Major Parker, in a report on the san
itary conditions of Camp Thomas at
Chickamauga Park Ga, recommends it's
abandonment. He quotes figures show
ing that the number of sick has more
than doubled in a month. He states
that typhoid fever is increasing and
that the soil at the best, not adapted to
a camp, has become impregnated with
refuse and rendered noisome. The
spread of disease Is blamed to some ex-
tent to an infected water supply.
Acting Secretary of War Meiklejohn
said: I'm view of the statements that
have been published about Camp
Thomas the surgeon general has re-
quested that an investigation be made,
and it has been ordered. General Boyn-
ton has been conducting the investiga-
ton all day and as soon as it Is COM
pleted it will be forwarded to the sec
rotary of war and be made public"
To Abandon Camp Wiknff:
AS result of Secretary Algers visit
to Camp Wikoff it has been decided to
scatter the troops now assembled at
Montauk Point as quickly as possible.
Secretary Alger is now convinced
that the plan of making Camp Wikoff
permanent encampment is impractical
BILE, and that as rapidly as possible the
regiments now there, not alone volun-
teers, but regulars also, will be ordered
away to different sections of the
country, where, in small detachments
they can the better be taken care of,
and the sick and broken down soldiers
recover more quickly from the effects
of the Cuban campaign.
When the plan of assembling the
troops engaged in the Santiago CAM
paign at Montauk Point was first
adopted the difficulty of properly pro-
viding for such a body of men, thou
sands of whom were broken in health,
was not fully realized. But since Sec
rotary Alger's visit there this problem
is now fully understood. To provide
regular army rations for camp of
$4,000 men having only an ordinary
number of sick in the hospitals would
be an easy matter, even with the linn
tied means of transportation at Mon
tauk, but. to properly care for camp
shelterins $4,000 soldiers almost every
one of whom requires specially pre-
pared food and deicacies is something
that was not reckoned upon.