Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-08-13
OFFICIALS WILL Be
ON THE CARPET
That Is Where Certain Generals
Will Be After the War
Is Over.
RELATING TO SANTIAGO SCANDAL
Some One Must Be Punished for
the Suffering of the Army
There.
SKATER WILL HAVE TO ANSWER
His Willingness TO Take the Blame
as Well as the Glory May
Make Him Some
Trouble.

Washington, Aug. s.-There are
likely to be a number OF sensational
court martial trials growing out of
the conduct of affairs In Santiago, and
some one will undoubtedly be brought
to book with Il Iound turn. 1t has
been known at the outset that the
troops under General Shafter were
suffering terribly from the ravages of
climatic ~fevers, but when it was as
serted upon Nsgrmation which came
from the province ten days ago that
25 per cent of the army were in hospi-
tails, the authorities of the war de-
partmcnt promptly denied the state
mcnt as vicious and misleading.
The president vas naturally as
founded when he read Roosevelt's
statement i'm the evening papers, in
which the leader of the rough riders
declares that not more than 10 per
cent of The entire force are fit for
duty. That such a state Of affairs
should be allowed to exist caused the
president the keenest alarm, and he
promptly called upon the secretary of
war, the quartermaster general and
the medical department of the army
to take immediate steps to relieve the
terrible sufferings of the men who
did such gallant work in southern
Cuba.
But it will go beyond this. The
president feels that "some IN has
blunderel." lie proposes to find out
who this some one is and to mete out
punishment in accordance with the
crime, for it is nothing less than a
crime that 90 per cent of the army
should be suffering as the men in Cuba
pre suffering today. The great major
ity of these troops are seasoned sol
Ilicrs, accustomed to all sorts of hard
ships and TO the least possible medical
attention, and yet il appears they
have fallen in their tracks as though
struck by q pestilence. 1t is feared
that the whole story Of incompetence
md negligence has not been told, and
that the general officers who signed
The round robin addressed to General
Shaftcr withheld many facts which
might have reflected upon officers
,hargeable with their well being.
IT is said, for instance, that the med
ical stores which were sent to Santi-
ago are such as might have been suit
able for an army forty years ago, but
which are practically useless in the
practice Of modern medicine. While
great stress has been laid by the med
raI Grpartn4lt upon the wnnder''.
| SUCCESS or tnefUHtfseptic treatment of
| gunhot wounds, this department APP
pears to have paid more attention to
the science Of surgery than to the art
OF medicine.
Bat one good thing will come out of
the revelations made in the dispatches
from Santiago. The troops which are
liable to have their number cut in two
through the rdyages Of fever, accord
ing to Colonel Roosevelt, will be
moved Immediately to the north, and
Assistant Secretary Meiklejohn will
bc kept more busy than ever in secur-
ing transports 10 hasten them to the
salubrious climate Of Long island,
where it is intended now to bring
them with the least possible delay.
But the revelations will certainly lead
to u congressional investigation, and
it is reported that Chairman Hull of
the military affairs committee is, at the
present moment gathering data upon
which to base inquiries which will be
instituted just as 500 as congress
meets.