The times., 1898-10-14
IL nDne.n,t Want Helm.

1t is hardly credible that anybody is
in doubt as to the purpose of 1.-The Com
mission appointed by the President to
investigate the condition of the War
Department in the war with Spain"
That is the title it has given to itself.
and it is sufficiently exact. The 'condi-
ton of the War Department the mem
bers define to be its organization, pur-
chases and contracts. 1t does not in
clude the defects of administration, and
this Commission has carefully excluded
from the testimony anything that tends
to reveal the neglect and incompetency
that wrecked the noblest and most in
telligent and most physically perfect
army that the world has lately seen.
But if it is true that here and there
a credulous person still nourishes a
hope that the Commission means, in
time, to investigate the scandals and
place the responsibility. he must aban-
don it, in the light not merely of the re-
cent course of the body. in the selection
and examination of witnesses, in the re-
fusal to call General Miles. Colonel
Roosevelt, Generals Wiley, Sangster
and others. but also in the light of its
reply to New York Committee of one
Hundred.
Distrusting the Commission for
cause the Reform Club of Boston sent
an appeal to the citizens of other large
communities to organize that a united
effort might be made to have thorough
investigation in the interests of justice
In New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati
Pittsburg and other large communities
committees of leading citizens were ap-
pointed That for New York is made
up of a hundred men whose names are
known to all the country. the president
of Manhattan borough presiding, and
Mr.. r. B. Roosevelt being the secre-
tary. This committee sent to President
Mckinley letter explaining its pur-
pose. This was to insure the examina-
| ton of the thousands of essential wit
nesses who are now being scattered and
who must soon he difficult to reach
| The idea was for the committee for
each city to learn what witnesses in
each community would be of value, and
TO take their testimony under oath, etc.
This part of the letter to the President
is worth place here:
We ask for proper investigation in the name
of the people and in the names of the men
who in their patriotic iervor offered to the
Government the flower OF Americas physical per-
fection. whom the Government has now thrown
back into civil life, wrecks of their former
selves.
They are not dead, and by their ability TO
get away from the hospitals, which many
dreaded, they have nominally kept down the
death rate Of the army but how many Of them
| are permanently ruined in constitution? How
many will drag through the remainder of their
lives with impaired efficiency? How many of
them will fill premature graves? The sum total
of their sacrifices, which is not expressed in
the statistics of the war, and which falls not
on the men alone, but their families and COM
munities, is frightful to contemplate.
What excuses offered for this condition
of affairs?
The management OF the medical department
has been as bad as that of the commissariat,
not merely in the cases of the homecoming
transports referred 10, but in the hospitals. The
state is indeed. terrible when soldier fears GO
| ing 10 4 hospital as he would going to his exc
| cution During the whole there was no
greater dread among the army than that of being
sent TO suffer untold horrors and crueties at the
hands of unfeeling nurses and attendants in the
| hospitals.
That there were not half enough surgeons and
nurses is the most serious charge against the
medical department. For this there was no ex-
cuse whatever.
For many years to come the army will occupy
| a more important relation to the administra-
| tion Of our national affairs than for a quarter
of century past, and steps cannot too quickly
be taken to discover and remedy the defects OF
our present system, and to elevate the military
service of the country to the place where it be-
longs. and where it may rest peur ct sans
reproche.
What answer might be expected to
| such letter offering to aid in an inves-
tigation? Here is the answer that was
really sent. not by the President, but by
the Alger Relief Commission:
Gentlemen: Your communication of the 10th
instant addressed to the President, has been re-
| ferred to this committee, and will be duly con-
| sidered That we may be able TO investigate
the charges preferred by you, We respectfully re-
quest that you specify in detail the various com.
plants made in general way in your communi-
| cation, giving the names Of the parties who can
| testify to the facts in each separate case, and
their postoffice addresses.
The offer was to discover witnesses
within the committees reach and assist