The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-25
Miles and the Rotten Beef.

m1loS anu Ju6 INObbSh iSSSA'
On most subjects the New York
Sun is both entertainment and nour-
ishment but with respect to its re-
Gently assumed campaign of belittle-
ment against General Miles we prefer
TO believe that its course is the reaec-
tion of a temporary prejudice rather
than a sincere and well-studed judS-
ment. A little while ago it was Shrek
ing for court martial for Miles be-
cause Miles, as the professional mill
tary head Of the army. had declined to
seal his lips on the subject of the rot
ten beef which incompetency or knaV-
cry somewhere along the line of the
political bureaus had foisted upon the
men in uniform 1t wanted Miles to
be dismissed from the army in dis
grace or imprisoned like Dreyfus be-
cause he dared to make public the re"
suits of an investigation of the dis
gustng food provided for the soldiers.
Miles was not courtmartialed neither
was he silenced. He went right on in
the pursuit of official Incompetence or
kuavery, or both, until today the truth
of everything he said is proved over
whelningly.
And still the Sun is not satisfied. 1t
has abandoned the idea of a court
martial evidently realizing that when
the next legal proceeding is taken
Miles opponents will be fortunate to
escape the prisoners dock; but it has
adopted the new tack of trying to
show from official records that, what
ever may be true about army beef,
Miles himself is no general; that he
has no skill as a strategst or effect
ivencss as planner of campaigns.
The Sun quotes the plans of campaign
for the Cuban invasion which Miles
proposed and which were not accepted
by those above him in authority; but
in view of the fact that these were
never tried and that the campaigns
which were tried failed mseraoly un-
til Miles himself took hold and set
things in order, the Sums attempt is
not convincing. We confess that we
don't know how great a general Miles
is; but we guess from the evidence
before us that he can hold his own
with the likes of Shafter.
Yet be all this as it may, what mas it
to do with the main question? The
beef was rotten, the staff system was
rotten. the running of the army on
political lines was rotten and belit-
Ting Miles from now until dComsday
will not mitigate the rottcnncss nor
lead to a particle Of improvement. If
Miles isn't capable of running the
army on a military basis in war time
free from meddlesome political inter-
ference. get some one who is and then
center authority in him unreservedly.
This is how armies are made effective
elsewhere; how good generalship is
freed To do good work; how high mil
itary standards of honesty and CfTicien-
Cy are established and maintained
and it is the only way under heaven
Army management by discredited poll
ticians will simply generate scandal
on top of scandal and dissipate it's
energy in fruitless intrigue. leaving
the soldiers in the field TO sicken or
starNe.
We do not look al this subject in any
sense as a party matter. II is true that
the rotten beef was forced on the army
while Republican administration was
in power, but it was not the party affili-
ations Of the president which embalmed
the beef; it was the rottenness of a
hoary staff system years before erected
by rotten laws. The Republican presi-
dent has bapn ViptiOiZad nv rnttn, cub
ordinates and as soon as the court of
inquiry reports we shall expect to see
him clean them out, body, soul and
breeChes, beginning at the top and going
all the way down. As the Philadelphia
Press, which on these subjects speaks
with unique authority, truthfully and
forcefully says:
For isolated instances of poor food
the country was prepared. For a col
lapse of the entire machinery for pur-
chasing, inspecting and delivering ra-
tiOns in so large a number of instances
and for so many troops it was not pre-
pared. For the commissary staff the
secretary of war is not responsible. He
finds it in existence, established by law,
ofiicered by promotion and manned by
officers selected years before they reach
the high posts in which each secretary
of war deals with them. But this dis
elimination is one the country does not
make and will not make. The long,
convincing testimony before the army
court Of inquiry has, so far as the pub
lie is concerned compromised the entire
work of supplying the army with ra-
tions, and the country anXiously awaits
for findings, orders and trials which
will establish an individual and per-
sonal responsibility. Justice requires
this, and nothing short of justice will
satisfy a country whose troops have
been poisoned in the field by an in
competent commissary staff at Wash
ington."
OF course Mr. Rryan's dollar dinner
is a silver dollar dinner.
That New Tax on Bank Checks.