The age-herald., 1899-02-21
Gen. Miles Testimony Feature
 of the Day, HE REITERATED STATEMENTS That the Meat Furnished the
 Troops Was Spoiled. ;. AUTHENTICITY OF THE INTERVIEWS In New York Papers Were Neither
 Affirmed or Denied.
OTHER OFFICERS ON THE STAND
Corroborated the Evidence of the Con- manding General That Beef Was
 Not Good = First Days Work of the Court.

Washington, February O.-Ihe Miles court of inquiry today made good start in its work. Calls of ceremony on President Mckinley and the general commanding the army occupied a large part of the forenoon, and immediately thereafter General Miles appeared as the first witness. He and three other army officers summoned as wit nesses were examined and disposed of be- fore the court closd its session at o'clock. General Miles testimony, of course, was the feature of the days proceedings. He appeared in fatigued uniform, rather strik- ing in its contrast with the display of scarfs, bullion and buttons on the full dress uniforms of the court. He submitted to the questioning of Colonel Davis, recorder of the court, with equinamity, except for a flash of mingled indignation and irony when he informed the recorder that he was not compelled to report" to the commis- sary general of the army This was in re- ply to question as to whether or not he had reported to the commissary department the fact that complaints had been made to him sss to the quality of meat being issued to the troops.
 Resumed His Cool Demeanor
 An instant later General Miles resumed his cool and carefully considered replies to the inquiries of the court. As indicated by @ letter of the adjutant-general, read by the recorder for the information of the court, the scope of the inquiry was limited to the information of General Miles before the war commission as to the quality of the army beef ''and the matter purporting to have been furnished to the public prints by some official" Only two interviews were called up by the court, the first interview with a New York Journal representative, early in the beef controversy, in which General Miles was quoted as saying that certain chemicals were used in the prsser- vation of the army meat, and another of the New York Herald under date of Feb ruary 1, covering about the same ground. General Miles was very slow and careful in his replies to the recorders questions on this point. He called attention to the fact that In both instances he was credited in the interviews with refusing to answer certain questions and insisted that these refusals should be given due weight in considering the questions to which he did reply. He said, in the case of the interview of Febru- ary 1, that he had a letter from the man who wrote the story offering to swear that General Miles had refused to be interview ed, and that the whole story was made up in the office from the writer's general knowledge of the facts
 Did Not Deny Interview
 Notwithstanding this, when his final an- swer was asked as to the authenticity of the interviews, General Miles did not spe- officially deny it, but merely said that 1t did not quite fairly represent his own opinion . in the case. The same qualified denial as to the Journal interview of December g was made, leaving the witness on record as not assuming any responsibility for the newspaper statements, but tacitly admit ting that there was great deal in them with which he agreed. The trend of ques- tions put to the other witnesses of the day indicated that so long as they agreed with General Miles as to the quality of the meat furnished to the troops in the field, the only criticism of their position the court had to make was why they had not taken some official steps to have the matter reme- died at the time. In every instance the reply was that the circumstances in which the army was placed in a sickly foreign country without writing material and lack of transportation precluded the possibility of any such action.
 General Miles read long summary of 100 letters received by him at army headquar- ters, giving the various terms in which the army meat was characterized. These in- cluded "embalmed, "decomposed," "in- iected," "poisoned" Spoiled" and the
 
 21 (the date of Dr. Daly's report), as about the earliest at which the question of clemi- cally treated meat had been brought to his notice so as to command his full atten- tion.
 Colonel Gillespie took a hand at ques- tioning, when General Miles finished testi- flying as to the nauseating character of the beef. Did you, general, ever eat any of this beef?" Colonel Gillespie asked.
 Miles Memory Failed Him
 'I presume did, about the time when we were at Ponce." said General Miles, with some hesitation. "Yes, presume did"
 "Then," said Colonel Gillespie" it has not such characteristic qualities as would permit you to detect 1t off-handT'
 ''Noa sir."
 Winch General Miles left the witness chair LieuteHant Colonel Van Horne, of the ThirteeRth infantry was sworn. He said