The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-28
There Is Ground for Growing.

The secretary of war has written a
letter to some one, whom he addresses
as MY dear Dodge" in which he says
that some lieutenant colonel was levi
IDENTIFY simply writing home to show
the hardships our men endured in the
campaign which resulted in the fall of
Santiago" He does not believe that
the officer wrote comparatively, for che
knew that there were ample rations
aboard ship. He knew the impossibility
of getting them to the men more rapid
ly than they were gotten. He knew
the necessity Of remaining in line of
battle and Of forcing the attack to as
early termination as possible" And
then the secretary INDUCES in a sheer
at the sympathetic old gentleman"
who, evidently, had read the lieutenant
cClonel's letter and written to his paper
about it, and who sis writing in a way
to spread dissatisfaction among the
people at home" a glowing tribute to
the commissary general follows, ard the
letter concludes with the statement that
whatever caused complaint was inevi-
table, had always happened and always
would, and, any way, "the GROWERS are
always those who stay at home"
We made comment Sunday upon the
manner in which the sick and wounded
were packed into the transport Seneca,
and sent North without ice, with rotten
water, without nurses, except Miss Jen-
nings, a Red Cross volunteer, and with
two doctors insuficiently supplied with
medicines If people at home venture
10 hot IT.
1t was ineXcusable, that it revealed
gross incompetency in the war depart
ment and that lot of incompetents at
the front should be dismissed from the
service for it, they are answered by our
Diamond Match trust secretary that
such are the inevitable conditions of
war and that only the stay-at homes
growl. Perhaps that is so. Soldiers
know that it does them no good and
may do harm to themselves But
some one should growl, and growls
should accumulate until the secretary
hears them and learns that something
more than letting contracts is expected
Of a war secretary.
We do not know who the lieutenant
colonel referred to was. Evidently he
height of San Juan while Shafter was
chaffering with Toral for a surrender,
gaining time for the arrival of those re-
Inducements the war secretary was
leaving, chatting in idleness, at Tampa,
Chickamauga, Fernandina and else
where. Ayers letter indicates that;
the ample rations aboard Ship and
the men remaining in line Of battle"
1t is possible that the lieutenant colonel
was Of those of whom a correspondent
of the New York Evening Post-whcse
letters, by the way, are not those of a
''growler' under date of July 10,
as follows:
These men had been on half rations for
the last two days. Away to the northeast,
from their commanding position, they could
easily discern the winding road through the
they could see train-load after train-load Of
provisions and supplies vending its way to
the relief Of the Santiago refugees; they also
knew that many of these people were Span
ards, who accepted the food given them
with bad grace. Down the slope. few yards
back from the fighting line, Gen. Wheeler
eating hard-tack., They were out of coffee
and everything else. They thought it a lit
tie hard but neither from the general, his
staff, nor his men, was a word CT Complaint
heard.
Perhaps it was more important to
feed the refugees than cur men who
had won and were holding San Juan
ridge; perhaps keeping the men on half
rations couple of days was needed to
make soldiers of them; perhaps those
who say that there was gross incom-
potency in leaving Gen. Wheeler and
his men on water and bareback, while
trainload after trainload of provisions
went by to feed refugees, are growing
stay-at-homes, and, possibly, all COM
plants can be brushed aside with that
observation, but the stay-at-homes are
becoming numerous who are coming to
believe that the sick on the Seneca
would have had suitable treatment and
Wheeler and his men on the line more
than water and bareback had the ad-
ministration had a capable man in the
office Of war secretary.