The age-herald., 1899-01-17
THE ISSUE J0INEn ArIAsr

From the Washington Times
 When Commissary General Eagan yes-
 terday denounced General Nelson A. Miles
 as a liar and an individual worse than the
 man who blew up the Maine he performed
 public service of which he was no doubt
 unconscious, but a notoriously valuable
 one, because it needed exactly that kind
 of action to bring the war department
 scandals to a direct issue.
 There are suspected reasons why Presi-
 dent Mckinley has been forced to carry a
 terrible load of infamy on his shoulders
 in connection with that foul blot on our
 national record known as Algerism. They will now be brushed aside in the face of
 the sensational fact that the commissary
 general of the United States army has publicly and with every attention to the effect of the outrage, branded the general
 commanding and all the gallant officers who have corroborated his statements of
 ficially as liars.
 General Mics has stated that the com missary branch of the war departmuL, sent putrid beef to be issued to the army in Cuba and Porto Rico. He had oppor- tunitles to see the food which he con demned, and his opinion of it's demerits Is borne out by the official testimony of d large number of commanding officers
 whose troops were insured and menaced
 with disease and death by it's issue in the form of rations As the extreme of con- cession in argument, it might be assumed
 that the general-in-chief and other of the
 remonstrants are wrong and Eagan is right, but that is not the view the country so far has taken of the matter, and we feel sure it is not the opinion of President Me-
 kinley, or at least, would not be if he felt at liberty to assert his honest man. hood and considered himself free to w.1h-
 draw from the mystery of his protection or Alger ana Algers copareeners and agents.
 There can be no question concerning the extreme gravity of Eagans offense against military law in publicly branding his su- perior officer as liar who ought to be ex- pelied from the army. He has accentuated it by apparently taking all the pains poss.- ble to show that his denuncation was the l result of sober generalization. If Eagan l had testified extemporaneously and said the l things he did, the community in which he l has been a markedly hilarious figure for l some time might have looked for an ex- l pianation and apology on the day following. | No doubt recognizing this, he seems to have been careful to commit his thoughts to writing, and then, with studied delibera- | ton, to have read them to the Alger relief commission. To such a thing there can be l put one outcome, ana that cOurt-martial. We are entirely satisfied with the pros- | pect. It is said that 1t takes all kinds of 1 people to make world. As a specialized microcosm perhaps 1t takes all Kinds of | people to make an army. According to Ea- | gan's assertion, the American military es- 1 tablishment includes fine corps of liars, l and there are people unkind enough to hold | that common drunkards, card sharpers and | persons with sundry obnoxious habits and 1 vices are not unknown to its roster; though | we are prepared to say they are rare ex- l ceptions-so rare, indeed, that they would | be almost unnoticed if, through political | influence, they had not been placed in con- | spicuous positions.
 | The Eagan court-martal, which Presi- | dent Mckinley and Secretary Alger will be | unable to prevent, will certainly expose con- | ditions the existence of which the whole force of the government has seemed to be | used to conceal From that point of view. | both Eagan and the people are to be con- graduated. The Algerian issue at last is joined. and cannot be lodged.