Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-10-31
UNFAIR METHODS
Reprehensible Part Played by Yellow
Journalism in the Late War
with Spain,
ANYTHING TO SELL PAPERS
Persistent Perversion of Facts to Make
Desired Points, and the Public Led
Astray in Many Ways.

In recent conversation with Major
| Hersey on some peculiar features in re-
porting the late unpleasantness be-
| tween Uncle Sam and the Belle of Cas-
tile, the major deprecated the methods
some papers resorted to in order to sell
papers. For instance, at ,Montauk Point
stories were persistently printed about
fsuffering and deprivation among the
troops that never existed outside of the
editorial brain or the reportorial fancy,
so that the matter became common re-
mark among the soldiers, who had
many laugh over these reports. After
the Guantanamo fight, when number
of bodies Of American dead were found
mutilated, certain papers published
sesational stories to the effect that this
mutilaton was done by the Spaniards,
which embittered the nation more than
ever against Spain on that account. In
vestigation, however, from unprejudic-
ed sources made plain that the mutila-
ton was by buzzards, and the Span
| iards We're entirely innocent.
When Hobson was captured, the
sensational newspaper mongers put out
a great cock-and- bull story that the
| Spaniards starved and maltreated Hob
son and his men; also, that they were
placed in Moro fort with the idea of
compelling the American fleet to avoid
shelling the fortress lest the prisoners
be injured. There was not a word of
truth in any of this. True, the men
We're at one time confined in Moro, but
it was afterwards proved they were
placed there because ii was at the time
inadvisabe to remove them to town, but
We're taken away when it appeared that
the fleet were preparing to lombard the
forts. Hobson and his men were treat
ed by the Spaniards even better than
their own officers, and Spanish officers
gave the prisoners their own clothing
when the latter We're found to be with
out"
The major also made reference to the
staff appointments and the reported
terrible condition of the camps over
which there has been so much COM
plant, and declared that the animus Of
the whole attack was to besmirch the
administration, and that it had fallen
fat. "The staff department Of the ar
N.Y." said he, lis the strictly business,
commercial part of the service, and the
appointment of men to that branch is
based on commercial fitness and expe-
rience. Business qualifications, rather
than knowledge of tactics, are the |
standard of judgment. And while there |
We're undoubtedly some questionable |
appointments made in the hurry and |
rush of organizing this new army, the
aim and the purpose was to put in men
who knew how to handle supplies with
the utmost expedition and who under
stood the character and proper DISPOSE
tion of provisions; also, how to make
purchases of the many kind of supplies
called for, and who knew just what was |
and what was not needed. This called |
for the exercise of much executive tall |
ent, and the staff officers, for instance |
at Tampa, We're men of marked ability |
and who conducted the responsibilities |
intrusted to their care with signal sue
cess. You must remember that there |
We're only two little lines of railroad |
running down into that section, and all |
at once an enormous traffic was forced |
upon them. 1t was Il physical impossi
bility to get in supplies to camp over |
these little lines of track with the rapid
ity the situation demanded. But every |
thing was done that could be done. The |
railway companies Immediately threw |
in all the laborers they could get hold |
of on to the terminals, and built siding
after siding for the rapidly accumulat- |
ing cars of freights, while the quarter
master and commissary departments |
worked night and day to straighten out
the tangle. There was Major Bellinger,
the chief quartermaster Of the camp,