The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-03
Hunt the Culprits Down.

Hunt the Culprits Down.
The information which is at last
reaching the main body of the public
as to the inadequacy or inefficiency of
the provision made for the care Of the
sick and wounded at Santiago is most
surprising. AS brought by Red Cross
nurses, men and women, who, coming
from the front after conspicuously
heroic and unselfish service themselves
in the field hospitals and aboard the
hospital ships, have no motive to dis
tort, conceal or palliate the truth, 1t
amounts to a criminal indictment of
some person or persons influentially
connected at some point with the ex-
ecutive prosecution of that campaign.
Who or where these persons are re-
mains to be determined.
For instance: When the sinking old
transport ship Concho, having neither
ice. pure drinking water, cots, surgi-
cal appliances, medicines, foods nor
delicacies for the sick, was grossly
overcrowded at Siboney with wounded
soldiers put aboard it to relieve the
congested condition of the field hos
pitals, and ordered North under cons
ditions which would have made the
journey hazardous for a strong man
in perfect health, somebody there or at
Washington should have known that
the specially equipped ambulance ship
Relief, with every facility for careful
M ha irly 1,r;,, 20,
in the Siboney harbor with not one
fifth of its spacious accommodations
in use. The Concho was sent away
with its interior reeking with fostering
filth, with drinking water so putrd
that well stomachs could not hold it,
with its bacon supplies rotten, it's hard
tack mouldy and with not an ounce of
milk, fresh or condensed; freighted
with wounded passengers who had to
lie on unmattressed boards on the
upper decks in an awful temperature
and without a particle of attention,
while the fine ambulance ship, fitted
for this kind of work especially, rode
at anchor idly, most of her cots un-
tenanted and her surgeons and nurses
waiting for patients to be put under
their care. And this happened, not
once merely, but, as we are credibly
told, on four or five different occasions,
in the face of spirited protests pre-
ferred, the information is. before army
authorities as high even as General
Shafter himself.
Recognizing that hardships in war
are inevitable, and realizing that from
civilian standpoint these are subject
to unconscious eXaggeration, we should
withhold comment in an emergency of
this kind were it not that the accusa- :
tions of msmana cement with respect
to the medical part of the Santiago
campaign stand abundantly corrobor.
ated by the testimony of men and wo-
men thoroughly familiar with war in
it's most hideous phases and seasoned
sufficiently to give their judgment
value. Not regular army soldier, a
veteran war correspondent, an expert
enced nurse nor a foreign military at
tache has returned from East Cuba
without confirming with particulars
the belief that the courage and spirit
of our soldiery, which move one and
all to enthusiastic praise, have been
i'll repaid by miserable and wretcheG
bungling in the hospital department
With shame must it be said that this
part Of the service has broken dowr
lamentably. and under circumstances
which call for instant and radical cor
rection.
There is excuse in a government like
our own, with which war is a matter
of occurrence so rare that immediate
preparedness is next to impossible, fol
inability to foresee all the dfficultie.
| of a campaign like that just conducted
| at Santiago. But there is no excuse
| for failure to try to remedy gross de
| linquencies when these have once come
under official observation. The evi
| dence before the public convicts some
| body in authority in connection Will
| the Santiago operations of inefficiencS
| nothing short Of criminal. Public opin
| ion will demand that this responsible
| ity shall be located and so treated tina
this rich nation will not again have t
| see it's wounded heroes neglected in
manner which would bring bushes t
the bronzed cheeks of Malay canni
balls.