The evening times., 1898-11-19
Ai.cr's Attorneys.


about the recent sessions of the A,ger
Relief Commission is that General
Dodge appears to have been deposed as
the chief examiner cf Witnesses. There
is probably an interesting history back
Of the apparent fact if we could get at
il. Long ago there were hints of the
dissatisfaction of one or more MEM
beTs Of the board. but it had no effect
until after the elections. There is still
an obvious purpose on the part of some
Of the Commissioners TO direct the testi-
mony so that ii will favor the War De-
partment and exclude ugly facts or at
least To color them in Alger's favor, but
Captain Howell has now and again
asked questions that have opened the
way to evidence not at all pleasant for
TIE Secretary of War. in its report Of
the proceedings the Herald says:
In some instances those present regarded the
form OF questions per,steu,ly adopted rs cyi-
deuce Of desire TO make il appear that
hardslip- were encountered by the troops either
in the hcld ia hospital, except such as could
not have been prevented. All witnesses would
! NOT agree that such the fact. 1t j. not true
that all o; the oommit,e eenitn adopted such
! line of inquiry. Captain Howell was a notable ex-
! ceptiun. and he succeeded in eicitins facts
touching evils of which the public has heard
much
The most important witness examined
on Friday was DR.. Greenleaf, of General
Miles staff. 1t is a suggestive fact
! that the questions did not lead him to
racite the difficulty he had in securing a
] -
/ FOR sanitary police duty at a time when
| he told General Shafter it was neces-
sary 10 take steps TO prevent an epi-
! demic of disease. DR. Sem and others
have related the incident. with the rude
refusal of Shafter. but it was not
| brought out by the Alger Relief Com
! mission. No impartial person can read
the proceedings without understanding
that most Of the Commissioners desired
to inject remarks or lead the witnesses
TO admissions that would palliate the
fault and make the conditions appear
to be unavoidable Commissioner Wood
bury, for example. persisted in assum-
ing. against the obvious dissent of Dr.
| Greenleaf. that the transport horrors
were a necessity. General Beaver came
TO tbs relief of the witness. but Wood
bury defended the horrors to the last
and even denied the plain facts-an for
the purpose of discrediting the testi-
mony Of DT. Greenleaf If there had
been any doubt as to the whitewashing
purposes of some Of the members of
the Alger Relief Commission in the New
York mind, il must have vanished then.
In the examination of a private of
the Seventy first New York. Mr.
Woodbury. again appeared as the attor-
ney for AlgeT, rejecting on the charac-
ter of the regiment because of the re-
cent trouble about the chaplain. which
had 10 more to do with the conduct Of
the war than a cat fight in a Washing
ton alley. IL was the same when Pri-
Vate Henry, DR.. Donaldson and others
were on the stand-if Mr.. Woodbury.
had been the paid lawyer Of Secretary
Alger he could not have been more zeal
Gus in attempting To disCredit their
statements There was no lawyer for
the prosecution TO uphold the witnesses.
Yet in spite of this distinct attempt
of the Commission To exclude or color
I facts. enough has been brought out TO
insure a rich harvest of damning evil
dence for a Congressional investigating
committee. The testimony of General
Breckenridge, DR.. La Garde. DIR. Green
leaf and others has shown that the di-
rect responsibility lies with the War
Office and indicated an easy placing of
the blame for the defects and neglect
that bore Immediately on the army. If.
with the strongest desire TO protect AL
ger, the Commissioners have not been
able to shut out all proofs of the truth
Of every charge made against the War
Department, what may we expect from
a committee that is determined to reveal
/ the truth?