The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-16
BOTH MILES AND EAGAN
Likely to be Called Before a Court of
Inquiry.

Washington, Jan. 16-President Nc
Kinley and Secretary Alger have had a
long conference and discussed various
phases of the Miles-Eagan scandal
Both realize that the conduct of Cen
era1 Eagan can not be ignored, as there
is no question about his vituperative
language toward his superior officer
putting him beyond the pale of prOtec-
ton or liberation. Whether General
Miles demands a court martial for
Eagan or not, there must be something
done to enforce discipline in the army.
A court martial for Eagan would not
be called upon to take any other testi-
mony than that supplied by the gen
erals own statement But it is said
that the president and the secretary of
war both realize that such a court mar
tial would not remove the source of the
trouble or restore discipline. There
must be some action taken that will get
at the merits of the case and show
whether Eagan, in his brutal manner,
spoke the unvarniShed truth or added
to the gravity of using language I'M
becoming an officer and a gentleman
the crime of SANDER. That is the ques-
ton at issue, and the administration
can not ignore it. The president and
Secretary Alger are studying the prece-
dents and the law to see what is the
proper way to meet the issue now be-
fore them. They probably will de-
eide on court of inquiry to determine
whether General Eagan slandered Gen
eral Miles, and also whether General
Miles slandered the commissary depart
ment and the government in his charges
that the army was supplied with en-
balmed beef, which caused sickness and
death.
BAD EXAMPLE OF MILES.
General Miles ever since the war be-
gan has used an unbridled tongue, and
he has ignored army discipline. He has
raised several of the most serious is
has contributed more than any other
man connected with the military Oper-
atoms to the ISLANDERS of the yellow
papers on the army.
The sensational newspapers of New
York are returning to their old line of
warfare and are seeking to place the
responsibility for Eagan directly upon
the president and his secretary of war.
1t is probably an attempt to again ex-
cite the people and attack the presi-
dent. To this same end General Miles
and General Breckenridge are contrib
uting their efforts to raise a new issue
between the army and the civil control
Of the army Their appeals to the
army, covert though they may be, are
not dissimilar to those of the military
leaders in Paris in their efforts to raise
a contest between the army and the
civil government.
1t is suspected in some quarters that
General Miles is preparing a. plan to
pose as 1.-THE man on horseback in poll
tics, and have the army support; that
he is assuming to be the sole safe and
sympathetic guardian of the brave men
who fight in the ranks, and that he is
seeking to convey the idea that it is
even necessary for him to protect them
from the government for which they
fight and the war department which
directs military operations and runs the
whole machinery of war. This view
may do injustice to General Miles, but
there is no question about the gravity
of his charges against the war depart
ment and that the president will be
compelled to take official recognition of
them.
MUST MEET THE WHOLE ISSU T.
Mr. Mckinley realizes that to simply
dismiss Gen. Eagan for using brutal
and vulgar language toward his super