The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1899-02-10
WAR COMMISSIONS
Has Ended It's h.bOrs and Its
Report is in ihe Hands of
the President.

Washington. Feb 9-The report OF tho
war investigating commission Is in the
hands OF the President and the commits
sion is dissolved
General Dodge. the chairman. present
ed the report and In receiving it the Presi-
dent congratulated the commissioners up
on the completion Of the investigation
Seated around the cabinet table. the mem
bers went over the work In detail
The conference lasted about an hour
and half, and as the commissioners
were about to leave, the President stated
he was satisfied that each member had
done his whole duty. He himself. had
rendered them every assistance possible
and said that they would bear witness
that he had nos sought to influence them
in any manner or in the slightest degree
In speaking Of the report today to u
Star reporter a prominent member OF the
commission said:
'The report does not whitewash. II cri-
ticises, but not persons or things not
warranted by the evidence before us. we
started out with the assumption that the
conduct Of the war was all right. and then
we went ahead TO hear and call witnesses
who said II was not. The report rep
resents the honest opinion OF every mem
Der Of the commission. We were unan-
imous In adopting II. ] say this and am
OF the opposite political faith and do not
expect and don't want anything from the
administration. I know that every line
OF the report represents my individual
view. and II any member tried harder than
/ did to get at and out al the facts have
yet to see him. There was no suppress
sion or concealment and no point brought
out In the evidence was evaded or CLOSED
over. We never met before hearing
witness and agreed not to examine him
or TO touch upon certain matters that
might turn out unfavo-ably. Everything
that man knew or thought ne knew
was the subject of Inquiry. and I am sa-
tished when the country gets our report
in fun that there Will be no complaint
either az to onr methods or results
"The President never saw line Of our
report before he received It officially: not
single word. Nor. indeed, has he ever
talked with any Of the commission about
st.
He has never IN any way, by word or
action or messenger evinced wish to
have us develop anything but the truth
or even touched upon the matter Of our
work
But had we desired to 'whitwash' the
administration we could have had 5000
witnesses who cou,d truthfully testified
that the conduct OF the war was all right
"Of course there were some evils. but
they were TO be expected. The soldiers in
the civil war never had hospitals or me-
dical attendance as good os was given
them I'm the war with Spain. And their
army ration then was not as eatable as
Il IL now. The men who complained the
most Of the food we wound were very
generally the militamen from the interior
OF states and who had been allowed 81 per
head for subsistence stores while they
were I nstate camps When they went
into the active fighting they expected the
same sort OF things
"Inquestionlng these men nearly all con-
fessed to us that they had always receiv-
ed the army ration They had no right
to expect any more. l could tell some
very funny stories to illustrate this,
There were many complaints brought
TO us that on their face were foolish and
false. but we went 20 every trouble and
expense to inquire into every genuine
charge"