The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-05
SECRETARY ALGER
AND Mr., SHERMAN
Head Of War Depart
ment Explains.
THE OFFICIALS WORKED WELL
BUT HE CANNOT REVEAL STATE
SECRETS IN DEFENSE.
THE OFFICIALS WORKED WELL
Statement of the Ex-secretary of
State That War Could Have
Been Avoided Is Now Wig
orously Combated.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW Y TX, Sept. 4-The Herald,s
Washington respondent sends the
following: Secretary Alger, after care
fully reading the interview with John
Sherman, former Secretary of State
which was printed in the Herald this
morning, said to me:
There is nothing for me to reply to.
The alleged charges against me are
contained not in anything that Mr..
Sherman has said, but in the head
lines. Mr.. Sherman has said that as
Secretary of War l was responsible for
the army administration That is true
and the officials in the War Department
did all that was possible coming. as
the work did, in such a vast volume"
Secretary Alger has already express
ed himself as much gratified with the
report OF General Boynton, which re-
port, he said, had shown that the con-
ditions at Chickamauga had been much
exaggerated. The Secretary was agree
ably aware, moreover, that Governor
Black had come back from his tour of
investigation satisfied that the condi-
ton Of the New York regiments had
been misrepresented. Secretary Alger
said he would not be drawn into any
contention with RI. Sherman
Our relations are friendly" said he
81 do not desire to be drawn into any
controversies now being agitated"
When asked about the proposition of
Miles to parade in New York, Secretary
Alger said: Il do not believe General
Miles ever had such an intention. The
men with him who are free from fever
have been ordered mustered out and
will be taken on their arrival to their
several States to be mustered out"
The Secretary said it would be mani
testify improper for him to reveal what
happened in the Cabinet, as that would
be revealing a state secret, and for this
reason he declined to discuss for pub
LEGATION that part of Sherman's inter
view in which the former Secretary of
State stated lie could have negotiated
treaty by which Spain would have
peacefully evacuated Cuba 1t is this
portion of Sherman's interview that
received the most attention here, as it
charged Congress with having plunged
the country into a needless war. There
has been much discussion of Mr.. Sher-
mans statement.
A person with whom I talked and
who is in position to know, said that
at no time was Mr.. Sherman in a posi-
ton, as he states, to procure evacuation
with peace: that the best proposition
made to this Government was a ''di-
luted' form of autonomy which was in
no wise adequate to the contention of
the people; that Mr. Sherman was no
more heartily in favor of peace than
the rest of the administration, the only
difference being that he was for peace
at any price, as it was expressed to
me- The administration realizes now,
I was informed, that war could not
have been averted, even if the Maine
catastrophe had not occurred; that 1t
was among future events that had to
be; that leaders in Congress were fully
in accord with the administration and
knew that the claim of Mr.. Sherman
was impossible. There is no conceal
ment of the fact that the future of
Cuba is now a grave problem before the
administration; that the question of
suffrage basis of the future Gov
eminent has been studiously avoided in
the instructions to the commissioners.
This will be the basis of Congressional
action, and the form of government and
time of turning it over to the Cubans
are among the perplexing uncertainties