The evening times., 1898-12-03
The Alger Report.

The curious reader who takes up the
report Of the Secretary of War for an
accurate outline of the history of the
conflict with Spain. will meet with dis
appointment. From the accompanying
documents, including kilograms and
( notes, he may be able to construct a
theory of the relations between the War
Office and the army, but there viii be
many gaps at the most vital points
1 The preliminary remarks OF the Secre-
taTy of War tthe report proper which
! are expected TO be explanatory, explain
only enough to becloud the documeu-
, tary appendix and mislead the reader
( Fortunately. there were with the army
! from the first mobilization until the
breaking up of the camp at Montauk
( Point, a corps of intelligent, enterpris-
! ing and coura geouS CORE spondents
some Of whom were experienced in mill
! taTy affairs and several of whom were
wounded-but whose important work
receives no mention at the hands of Sec
TetaTy Alger. From them the public
has received a far more accurate. COM
prekensiye and impartial account of the
campaign in Cuba than that of the Sec
retary Of War. A certain measure of
reserve is expected in an official report
The bureau idea that the people must
be kept ignorant Of many things that
take place in the official business,
which was borrowed from the customs
Of European departments. is vigorously
upheld in the American service.
But when the custom is perverted to
mislead TIE public it is an abuse 1t is
rendered harmless in this instance by
the very full history Of the war written
by American and European correspon-
dents and military attaches, and by
General Miles and the officers who took
part in the various actions.
OF course, il was not expected that
the Secretary of War would refer to the
confusion at Tampa that first revealed
the incompetency Of the commander of
the Cuban expedition, the absence of
proper or efficient officials to take
charge Of transportation and equip
ments as well as rations; of the failure
OF his transportation man to provide the
means Of landing soldiers, supplies and
artillery, wagons, mules, etc, at Bal
quiri 1t was not expected that he
would comment on the unparalleled
neglect of the wounded. the preyentable
starvation and exposure that led to the
sickness of the troops and all the other
matters that aroused the fierce indie-
n gfinFa Of no A1aal
cause Congressional investigation. He
does, however, attempt to misIead the
public by a passing suggestion. meant
TO be an answer to the gravest of the
charges made against his administra-
tion of the war. He says: Some
criticism having been made that there
was lack of surgeons present
some criticism" is an original way OF
putting it-''it should be stated that
there were seventy-four surgeons in at
tendance at the time of battle" This
is positively untrue. There was a sin
gle division hospital organized Chat of
the First Division) for the entire corps.
and at no time during the battles were
there more than a dozen surgeons ac-
lively employed. There were no enlist
ed men detailed to bring in the wound
cd and no litters, and there was one
ambulance. of the three that were land
ed, in actual service. Colonel Roosevelt
declares that some of his wounded
went twenty-four hours without atten
ton. There is positive and unimpeach-
able testimony that some of the wound
>d-seyerely wounded, at that
we're never touched by sur
seon until they reached Long Island