Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-12-01
"TEDDY'S" STORY.
Col. Roosevelt Testifes Before the
War Commission.
Col. Kimball. the Assistant Quarter
master General, Says that All Army
Contracts Were Let 10 the
Highest Bidder Evil
dence Of n Priest.

would send a committee to prepare
report. Col. A. 5. Kimball, assistant
quartermaster general of the army,
stationed in this city, said that all the
contracts for supplies were let to the
lowest bidder after proper advertise
ment.
Il never knew of any money or in
fuence being used in the matter of
awarding contracts. My records show
that from May Is to June II my Office
expended S4,67O, 900 for clothing and
camp and garrison equipment"
Col. Kimball told of the purchase
and hire of transports in this city. He
Explained that he had obtained list
from the owners of all the ships that
ould be purchased or chartered and
aad submitted the list to Washington.
"When a middleman or broker came
to my Office | ignored him entirely. /
dealt only with principals
''Was the price paid for the charter
of those ships fair and reasonable"
asked DR., Conner.
"Yes, l think so generally, but when
ships were wanted badly they were
hard to get. In the case of the Clyde
and Mallory lines, when the govern
ment offered the usual price the com
panies said they could not spare the
ships unless double that price was
paid. The ships were needed and the
government paid the price asked"
Miss Mary Lowell said she had
talked to every man of eight regi-
ments of regulars. Half of them were
on the sick report and many others
were sick. too sick to go to the DOCTOR S
tent. There was a great scarcity of
doctors and Miss Lowell considered
many of the contract doctors careless
and Indifferent to the men. Miss Lo-
well mentioned doctors who she said
had neglected their duty and said
great suffering resulted from the i'll
management of the ambulance service.
She said the condition of affairs in the
general hospital was shocking. She
corroborated the testimony of previ-
GUS witnesses as to the lack of sani-
tary precautions and the plague of
flies.
Rev. Henry b. Bryan, of the Garden
City cathedral, spoke of the manner in
which the soldiers dying in hospitals
were buried. He said the publication
of statement of Maj. Brown that all
the bodies were decently buried had
induced him to testify. In his pub
lished statement" said Mr.. Bryan,
Mai. Brown said there was no truth
in the report that the bodies were not
decently buried that every body was
embalmed and decently clothed in a
10 20,
his name and all the information OBJ
tainable about him was buried in his
coffin and that a cross marked every
grave. | believe Mai. Brown gave
those orders and issued the clothes,
but that his orders were not carried
out. | know personally of 30 bodies
that were not buried as Brown says
they were.
II do not question Maj. Brown in any
way. He had not time to see that his
orders were carried out. My duties
led me by the morgue every day and
stopped in to see who had died during
the night. / saw the naked bodies of
soldiers placed in bare pine coffins and
the name of the man and his regiment
written on the lid of the coffin. Of
course the damp earth quickly obliter-
ated these marks and no further rec
ords were kept. Sometimes the body
was buried in a night shirt, but they
never took the trouble to button the
shirt. 1t was grossly indecent. At
the morgue the attendants sat on the
coffins with the bodies in them and
chewed and smoked and told indecent
stories. | rebulled them once, but they
were Bowery toughs, and it is useless
to talk to them"
Theodore Roosevelt told of the equip
ment and mastering in of the Rough
Riders. when we reached Tampa" !"
he said, ''there was condition of ut
ter confusion. We were dumped out
side, a mile away from our camp. No
one knew where the camp was. There
was no one to tell US where to 90 or
what to do. After waiting "a hours /
bought food for men and horses. Later
when we found our camp we were all
right"
WAS your command fully supplied
with food and ammunition was asked.
"The ammunition supply was excel
lent. The food was insufficient. There
L
suppose it was lack of transportation
facilities that kept us without good
food until July "a. | organized trans
portation corps with the officers horses
and went to Siboney and got food for
the men,
Il believe all the difficulties we met
with would be obviated in the future
if the national guard were trained as
are the armies of foreign countries.
Give them long marches. Let them
mass at san Antonio and move to Gal
weston or some other place. March
them to port and embark them. No
matter if it does cost money, let them
be trained. Each year let the army in
peace be put through the experience it
must meet in time of war"
Seized Contraband Cargo.
New Orleans, Nov. 23.-The Ameri-