Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-02-21

SONS FOR NOT MAKING A RE
PORT TO THE DEPARTMENT
WHILE THE MEN WEIRD STILL
IN THE FTELD-GREW SEVERE
AND LOOKED FIERCE WHEN
ASKED WHY HE DID NOT RE
PORT TO GENERAL EAGAN.
OTHER OFFICERS EXAMINED.
Washington, February 20.-The Miles
court of inquiry to-day made a good
start in it's work. The court was COM
fortably quartered in the old meeting
room Of the war investigating COM
mission in the Lemon building, with
accommodations for representatives of
the press associations and the local pa
pers.
Calls Of ceremony on the President
and the general commanding the army
occupied a large part of the forenoon,
and Immediately thereafter Gen. Mel
son A. Miles appeared as the first wit
ness. He and three other army officers
summoned as witnesses were examined
and disposed of before the court closed
its session at 3 o'clock. Gen. Miles's
testimony, of course, was the feature
of the days proceedings. Col. Frank
Michler, his chief of staff, and a gentle
man in citizens clothes who took a
seat by the fireplace and gravely
watched the course of proceedings, re-
firing with the General as silently as
he had come, accompanied the General
to the court
Gen. Miles appeared in fatigue uni
form, rather striking in its contrast
with the display Of s~carfs, bullion and
buttons on the full dress uniforms of
the court.
He submitted to the questioning of
Col. Davis, recorder of the court, with
equanimity except for a flash of ming
led indignation and irony when he in
formed the recorder that he was not
compelled to report to
THE COMMISSARY GENERAL
of the army. This was in reply to a
question as to weather or not he had
reported to the commissary department
the fact that complaints had been made
to him as to the quality Of the meat be
ing issued to the troops. An instant
later Gen. Miles resumed his cool and
carefully considered replies to the in
quiries of the court.
AS indicated by a letter of the adju-
tant general, read by the recorder for
the information of the court, the scope.
of the inquiry was limited to the allie
cations of Gen. Miles before the wal
commission as to the quality of the
army beef, "and the matter purporting
to have been furnished to the public
press by the same official"
Only two interviews were called up
by the court. the first interview with a
New York Journal representative early
in the beef controversy, in which Gen.
Miles was quoted as charging that GER
tain chemicals were used in the preser-
walton of the army meat and another
of the New York Herald under date of
February /, covering about the same
ground.
Gen. Miles was very slow and care
full in his replies to the recorders ques-
tions on this point. He called atten-
ton to the fact that in both instances
he was credited in the interviews with
refusing to answer certain questions,
and insisted that these refusals should
be given due weight in considering the
questions to which he did reply. He
said in the case of the interview of
February /, that he had a letter from
the man who wrote the story, Offering
to swear that Gen. Miles had refused
to be interviewed and that the whole
story was made up in the office from
the writer's general knowledge Of the
facts. Notwithstanding this, when his
final answer was asked as to the authen-
ITCHY Of the interview, Gen. Miles did
not
SPECIFICALLY DENY 1T,
but merely said hat it did not quite
fairly represent his own opinion in
the case. The same qualified denial as
to the Journal interview Of December
% was made, leaving the witness On
record as not assuming any responsible
ity for the newspaper statements, but
tacitly admitting that there was a good
deal in them with which he agreed.
The trend of questions put 10 the
other witnesses OF the day indicated
that so long as they agreed with Gen.
Miles as to the quality Of the meat fur
nished the troops in the field, the only
criticism OF their position the court had
TO make was why they had not taken
some official steps to have the matter
remedied at the time. In every in
stance, the reply was that the circum-
stances in which the army was placed
in a sickly foreign country with a large