Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-09-02
The Truth Coming Out.

The wave of indignation" which is
sweeping across the country over the
alleged incompetency and misman-
agement of the commissary and med
ical departments of the army, from
the results of which the soldiers are
said to be suffering, seems to be in
large measure founded upon the SEN
sationalism of the yellow journals OF
the United States, which have exploit
ed the statements of many unreliable
persons, who for personal or political
effect or because of the love OF motor
iety, have either exaggerated the sit
uation or manufactured stories out Of
whole cloth. Of the latter we have
had several instances right here in
Columbus. Parents whose boys are
sick at the front have had their feel
tugs wrought up to high pitch by
stories Of neglect and suffering which
upon investigation prove to be un-
founded. There is scarcely camp in
the United States, in Cuba or Porto
Rico, where our soldiers have been
stationed, which has not been written
up as a place of horrors, and home
readers of these stories, unfamiliar as
they are with the realities of war,
have too readily accepted these stories
as the result Of the rerlissness of the
! government or its representatives in
caring for the soldiers. 1t is true
there have been sickness and suffer-
ing untold in many of the camps, but
there is no evidence that the condi-
tions were essentially different or the
suffering greater than has been incl
dent to army camps in former wars.
The truth is, however, beginning to
come out at last, and officers and SOL
diers alike are giving the lie to the
stories of wholesale inefficiency and
neglect which have been scattered
broadcast over the country. There
have been many instances where the
necessary precautions directed by the
medical department for the preserva-
tion of the health of the camps have
not been carried out by the line Of
ficers of the companies themselves
and is no doubt responsible for the
large percentage of fever in the camps
The Eighth Ohio was one of the reg
iments which was said to have suf-
fered terribly from neglect and expos
ure, but Colonel Hard says all stories
of starvation in the regiment are pure
falsehoods. General Grosvenor re-
ports after a personal inspection that
the Seventh Ohio was we'll fed, we'll
clothed and we'll sheltered. Governor
Black, of New York, who made per-
sonal visit to Camp Thomas at Chic
amauga for the purpose of seing for
himself the conditions of things at
that camp, about so much has been
written, says the stories about the
condition of the troops are greatly ex-
aggerated. Major Webb c. Hayes, son
of the late President Hayes, who SER
we'd in both the Cuban and Porto
Rican campaigns sums up the whole
matter with the declaration that
cooks and homesickness crippled the
army and filled the hospitals"
The uproar that is being raised all
over the country, even to the threat
ened investigation of the war depart
ment, over the discovery that there
has been sickness and suffering in the
volunteer army, is not creditable to us
as nation, and is likely to detract
from the good opinion of us which has
been formed abroad as a result of the
war. Europeans are already asking
US if we expected to go through a
great war without having sickness and
suffering.
The late General Sherman said,
War is he'll and the present gener-
alton Of the American people is just
beginning TO realize that he spoke the
truth. That is the situation and that
is all there is of it.-Columbus Dis
patch.