The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-13

Also that these statements of General
Miles were held back by him. not fur
nished TO the government for its appro-
! pirate action and use, but sprung upon
you and the country at time when the
country, from the falsehoods that had
been told in regard to starvation and
J supplies for the army, was in state
| of excitement and ready to believe al
most anything The subject 1 have just
treated here is a filthy subject, and you
cannot touch pitch without being de-
/ FLED; you cannot touch base, malicious,
| libelous falsehoods, Misrepresentation
without calling a spade a spade, and
telling the whole truth and characteriz-
! ing things as they are. The damage
| that has been done by these statements
! is believed TO. be very great, but l in
dulge the hope and the belief that my
statement, when published to the coun-
| try, when read by the representatives
Of foreign governments here, Will offset
the statements made by General Miles
and will, in some measure at least, do
! justice to others that have been
wronged, maligned and Ibeled. For
myself, 1 content myself with express
| ing my profound belief that either Cen
eral Miles orr should be put out of the
| service; either he is right or / am right;
either he dishonors his unifrom with
| false statements and libelS, or l dis
| honor mine in feeding soldiers with poi
| SonouS beef, causing their sickness and
doing so under pretense of experiment.
| General Eagan's statement furnished
the sensation OF the war commissions
| history, and was regarded by old army
| officers as one of the most remarkable
attacks ever made in the history of the
service General Eagan's statement to
! the commission was a bitter personal
| attack upon General Miles, so entirely
unqualified as to scope and language
that the war commission on hearing its
conclusion ordered a brief executive
session, after which the doors opened,
! the witness was recalled and business
resumed in the usual way.
General Eagan, after the hearing was
over, refused to say whether ne had
any further move in prospect in fore
ing an issue between himself and Gen.
eral Miles.
81 have said all I intend to say for
the present" he replied, land if any
one wants to bring the matter to a
courtmartial I am ready for that, too,
as L have already stated before the
commission"
GENERAL MILES ATTITUDE.
AS soon as the nature of General Ea-
CAMS statements became known, atten-
ton was directed to army headquarters
to ascertain what move would be made
by General Miles. The latter, through
Colonel Micheler, his chief aide, beyond
saying that he had stood for the SOL
dierS, declined to make any statement,
saying that now was not the time for
talk, and before taking any action it
would be only proper and necessary to
wait until he had an opportunity TO re-
ceive through the regular channels and
to consider the testimony furnished by
General Eagan. He would not talk
about a courtmartial-
Altogether, the intimation construed
was that General Miles would act with
elaboration, if he decided to take any
action at all, and there was a faint
suggestion that he might decide to ig
more the statement altogether.
OF course, decision 10 that effect on
the part of General Miles would termi-
nate the incident but should he decide
to take notice officially o. the attack.
the next step would be for him to pre-
fer charges with the president against
the commissary general. These might
be based on several technical grounds.
such. for instance. as conduct tending
to the destruction of good order and
discipline 1t would be for the presi-
dent to pass upon the demand. and he
might adopt one of three courses: Re
fuse it, grant it, or instead, order q
court Of inquiry. In this latter case the
body would have the power to go into
the question of veracity which has been
raised, and in fact, the conduct of both
generals would be practically under eX-
animation.