The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-01
The Voice of Indignation.

There are all sorts Of reports as to the
attitude Of the secretary of war and the presi-
dent regarding the shocking scandals in the
treatment of the sick and wounded soldiers
Alger himself is quoted by one reporter as
saying that there will be no investigation so
far as he Is concerned because there Is
nothing to investigate. This is quite likely to
be correct version of his views, for it is
exactly what was to have been expected
But the man most concerned in the matter
is not the secretary of war. 1t Is the presi-
dent who appointed Alger and who still
retains him in office Mr. Mckinley should
indignation against the frightful abuses that
are daily disclosed Will not blow over'' if
nothing is done.-New York Evening Post,
Without going further into details the fact
is obvious that a great crime has been COM
mitted. An adequate investigation is impera-
lively needed. 1t should be made not by the
officials responsible for the wrong and not
under their direction. 1t should be made by
a committee of congress, 8 committee repre-
senting the people who have been outraged
a committee strong enough and brave enough
to lay bare all the facts and not to stop
even at the doors Of the department. itself
in justly fixing blame.-New York World
The people of America, who supply the
sinews Of war to an incompetent administra-
ton and see with shame and pity and in
dignation their gallant soldiers falling. not
adequacy have no immediate redress. Alger
is still head of the war department, with the
favor Of Mckinley, who placed him there,
and is likely to remain during the fixed Of
fetal term OF an executive no better than
himself.-Chicago Chronicle
Secretary Alger, within the present week
has proved that the two main bureaus in his
own department unworthy of confidence,
are incapable of efficiency are odious and
terrible to the people, and he has, while do
ing something to reduce the unfavorabe
estimate of the public mind toward himself
made the preservation Of his own ability to
hold Office, with the consent and respect of
the American people, dependent entirely upon
the earnestness and the celeiity Of his action
in putting Sternberg and Eagan out of the
places in which they have become morally
responsible for ten times more deaths and
more injuries to our soldiers than can be
scored against Spain herself.-Brooklyn
Eagle.
The impression is general-it is fast ap-
preaching the point of unanimity-among the
people of the United States that hundreds of
the lives of American soldiers have been I'M
necessarily sacrificed as a result of the in
competency, the mismanagtment, the favorit-
ism and the petty politics of the war depart
ment, and that the blame for it all rests
primarily upon the combined selfshness and
iRefficiency of Russell A. Alger. His reten-
ton in the cabinet by the president In the
face Of the disclosures that have been made
is an Endorsement of his blundering-St
Louis Republic.
The Tribune has been unable, In the light
of developments so far to fix the blame for
existing shortcomings upon any in par
ticular, but it finds nee difficulty in believing
that the needless privatons and suffer;ngs to
which the returning army is being subjected
at home are in a large measure due to
system of circumlOcution and red tape which
steaIthily and unobserved has grown up in
Washington within thirty years of peace
New York Tribune.
AS head Of the Republican party, Mr.. Nc
Kinley is under no less urgent obligation to
act, and to act promptly. The brevity of the
war with S2a!n and the comparative ease
with which success was won reflected credit
upon the administration, but that credit is
fast being furnished by the scandals vhicn
have followed the. end of the fighting n
nothing shall &c done about these scandals.