Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-11-04
L aahiu0toN $ tandaril
ALGER'S FAVORITISM.
Chief Cause Of the Death q Our
Soldier Boys.
TGr0NPETINTS II HIGH PLACES.

Nr0NPETINT5 II HIGH PLACES.
''nr,..u Ter i.i~ ",," :.=rand;-"-
rt-ut-. General ncniu: To he the
pr!vn>r ui tn" bureau thi"f>.
4rcctt editorial the New orleans
Ttl. n,mccr"t show, the linz IF Dc
a~e which Sci, tsry Alg'r and his
suh-r3iuA;, haze d,-i,lod urrn iii tho
ln,, -ti....ti,n g.: tno v:.r DEPARTMENT
Il says:
i..rr.a,l,:s who lave followed See
j, tary -Alc,r and lis party on their trip
among SOME Il the most important
..ruI, I,h,ro the soIdi -, regular and
% ''a.:, 7, are lncat.; Will have noticed
;...t ta,ra i, now al Obvious intention
among the officials chiefly arraiSnci for
iuclnpct,ncy and ncrloct-yiz, the
quartz rmastcr general, the commissary
general and the surgeon gcneral--to di-
v,rt the blamo from their own shoul
doris and saddle it upon commanding
and rcgimental officers.
In recent dispatch from Chattanooga
an account was given Ct a banquet ten
durcd to tho secretary Of war and his
brother tourists, and the speeches which
were made later On had, all Of thcm,
for their burden IL general denial Of the
charges that have been made against
the three incriminatcl departments and
wo: Is of lauGatiOn from each of the
three departments for the splendid en-
ergy ana efficiency Of the other two.
That the line Of defense these incompe-
tat officials arc going to adopt is to be
general denial is plain from the tele-
graphed synopsis of their remarks.
From which it is Obvious that 4 gen.
oral denial Of the charges Of incompe
tency and neglect and diversion of the
blame from their own to other shoul-
ders arc to be the line of defense which
the incumbents of the incriminated bu-
reaus intend to adopt. And indeed, with
their general denial of all the laches at
tributed to them, it is rather surprising
that they did not carry the denial some
what further. Surgeon General Stern
Lerg, for example, admitted that there
was sickness at Camp Thomas. Several
hundreds CT the soldier boys died there
of typhoid fever amid inattention and
neglect. 1t is wonder that Sternberg
when he was denying so much did not
deny outright the existence of sickness
in that death hole Of IL camping ground
And probably no would have done so
had it not been for his desire to have a
fling at the commanding and rcgimental
officers for their determination of his
department and his officers
But these heads Of departments will
find it hard to disprove the want Of
food on many occasions, the want of
tents the want of medicines and med
ical stores, the neglect Of the sick and
the dying and the shameful selection of
unhealthy holes for camps and the de-
tention Of men in these holes after they
were proved to be unhealthy. These are
things that they will find it hard to get
away from, whether by denial or diver
sion, and public opinion will hold them
to a strict accountability therefor. The
boot is going to he put on the proper
leg, no fear, wriggle as the owner of
the leg may to be freed from it.
Secretary Alger means to go on diff
ferent tack. He apparently is going to
plead tho baby act for himself in addi-
ton to diverting tho blame to the shoul.
ders Of the commanding and regimental
officers. This is the burden of his song
The great trouble has been that the peo-
pie have not appreciated the immense
problem Of forming an army of 100000 vol
unteers without notice and with the neces
sary equipment. The Spanish war came
upon US almost like bolt from a cleaI
sky. and 1t found every branch of the wal
department unprepared for the task OF
equipment and handling such a vast num-
Der of unframed men.
For a time there was difficulty in fur.
nishing supplies and equipment for the
troops. but that was to be expected. The
department has only limited supply OF
tents. and 1t had practically no wagons
and ambulances to start with. There
were thousand and one details to look
after. and a fairly disposed public will un.
derstand the disadvantages under which
the war department worked for many
weeks.
OF course fairly disposed public
will understand these drawbacks and
make proper allowance for them, but
there is another thing that the same
public will also want to understand and
insist upon understanding, and that il
low it came about that Alger appointed
hundreds Of his own friends, and friends
of the president and cabinet ministers
and friends Of senators and representa-
tives from civil life, without as much a!
days military experience, to important
and high salaried positions in the quar-
termaster's and commissary's depart
ments when there were many old Wes
Pointers who understood tho bushes.
and would have been glad of the job. II
Is this shameful favoritism Of Alger's
IN putting inexperienced men with &
pull" into positions requiring skill
and training that tho secretary of wal
will have to answer for, for it was tt
this promotion Of unfit appointees with
pull" that the partial collapse of the
quartermaster' and commissary's de-
partments and the consequent great NOR.
tality and suffering of the soldier boys
was in large measure due.
1t is not because Commanding and
regimental officers in many cases die
not strictly do their duty that Alger i.
being and will he arraigned. 1t is be-
cause he has in the perilous time of wal
run the war department without q
thought for the lives and the health and
the comfort of the soldiers as mere pc
litical bureau to get the maximum OF
political ACKNOWLEDGEMENT out of it fol
himself That is what he is charged
with, and that is the arraignmen,
against which he will have to defend
himself at the bar of public opinion
He WAS A HORSE DOCTOR.