The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-21

found in ole way and another with vari-
Gus features of army life since the begin
ming Of the war, but it is worth while TO
note that the complaints have not come
from the soldiers who bore the brunt of
the service. Affairs were bad they
we'll could be down at Santiago for two or
three weeks after the landing of the troops;
terrible hardships were suffered, but the
men endured them Stoically, as a part Of
the fortune of war, and left the grumbling
for onlookers and outsiders to indulge in.
They saw the difficulties of the situation
and understood that the absence of docks,
which prevented the landing of supplies,
the bad roads and the few mules and horses
that survived the attempt to land accounted
for the failure to establish well-equipped
camps and hospitals without delay. They
realized too, that much of their discomfort
and suffering was due to natural causes
that no amount of forethought could have
guarded against-the intense heat, the
heavy rains and the long distances which
they were required to march. They might
have wished that macadamized roads had
been ready for them to travel over and
special trains provided to carry them back
to camp when the fighting was over. but
they ate their bareback and trudged back
as best they could, sleeping on wet grass
and helping wounded comrades by the way.
but not complaining at what they knew
could not be helped. They were soldiers and
bore themselves as such.
The most of the complaints originating
with the men themselves have come from
the Southern camps and from men who
have known nothing more severe than camp
life. This was to be expected, at first, from
the enlisted men, while they were in pro-
cess of adjusting themselves to the inevi-
table deprivations of army life, but, curl
ously enough, there was less of this grumb-
ling during the early days of the war than
now 1t was not until a certain class of
newspapers fell into the habit of criticising
the management of the war and magnify
ing the shortcomings of commissary and
quartermasters' departments that the vol
unteers took up the cry. Even now, it is the
exception for them to grumble, but enough
of them do so in their letters to arouse
the sympathies of emotional home people
and to lead to protests and interference
which may cause trouble and can, in no
way, mend the situation. Veterans of the
| civil war have no patience with these COM
plants. They did not ask for transporta-
ton in palace cars in their day, but were
glad of the use of box and fiat cars; they
were often short of rations, they made long
marches through cold and wet and slept Oh
frozen or muddy or snowy ground but it
was part of war, and they did not plead
the baby act. They learned that war was
not a pleasure tour nor a picnic: they
learned to endure its hardships, and they
learned, too, that one grumbler could do
much to demoralize company and that he
was to be frowned upon. Whatever you
do, don't kick" was the advice of a vet
eran to a young volunteer of this year. To
the mind of this old soldier the trials of the
men on the transport ships, on their way
to Cuba, were not serious They were sea-
sick, and the best of food would not have
tempted them; the heat made them uncom-
Portable and they took gloomy views of life
and, naturally. exaggerated their suffer
ings. 1t is easy to find fault The criticisms
| ny NEW IOIh PAPERS VI TIE dLIduSStiSlltS
at Montauk Point have been so numerous
and severe that the public had reason to
fear that Skaters men might well have
remained in Cuba A private letter from an
Indianapolis boy now in camp there tells a
different story. II astonished," he says,
''at the sensational reports about this camp.
Everything is all right and moving smooth
| ly, with good water and plenty of it, good
! drainage and sanitary arrangements. Do
not send me anything, because 1 can't use
| it," If the truth were told about all the
| camps it would doubtless be found that the
defects had been magnified to similar ex-
| tent and the advantages not given due men,
| ton. The fault-fnders should be RELOCATED
to the background. 1t is the purpose of the
| government to do the best by the ARMY,
and it is the part of wisdom and loyalty to
| show appreciation of the efforts made.
| When it is remembered that in three months
an army was raised, equipped, put in the
field and a war fought TO an end the patriot
| should rejoice great achievement
and give little heed to the friction Incl
| dental to so vast an undertaking.