The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1899-02-25
Colonel Powell Gives Evidence
Before the Miles Board
Of Inquiry.
Refrigerated Beef None Too Good,
Even IF Issued in the
Morning.
Canned Beef He Believed Respon-
sible For Much of the
Illness.

w ASHiNGTON, rep. Sl.-ll0 MILES
court Of inquiry at its first days session
examined General Miles, Lieutenant
Colonel Van Horne, Lieutenant Colonel
Miner and Major Henry jackson. Gen
eral Miles testimony, Of course, was the
1 feature of the days proceedings, the
other witnesses merely giving corrobo-
rative evidence regarding the quality of
the beef furnished.
As indicated by 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 allega-
tions of General Miles before the war
commission as to the quality of the
army beef 'sand the matter purporting
to have been furnished to the public
press by the same official" Il
When he was asked about an alleged
interview, which appeared in the New
York Journal of Dec. 2S, whether it
represented completely or In part what
he said, General Miles read it, and said:
Always slight In.ocuracies.
81 do not recall anything in that in
terwiew that had not been given in my
testimony or transmitted in my reports.
Y0n will observe it contains q number
0f my destinations to name officers or
my authorities and refusals to answer.
I must, therefore, be incorrect in Its
representation"
HsthSn commented upon the general
/ Sight inaccuracy Of newspaper inter
Views, owing to the dependency OF
writers upon their memories. Hardly a
day la SIX months had passed that an air-
atarviewer had not applied and because
of the kindness Of the press to the army
and especially the enlisted men, he had
endeavored to give them such informa-
tion as he thought wise and safe, but
never, he said, with a view to prejudic-
ing any one against any person or de-
partment Finally General Miles said
that he did not think that The Journal
interview represented correctly what
was said, because its contents should be
taken in connection with all that was
said; his silence upon some points and
speech upon others.
This Interview Was Fictitioua.
Then being asked about the interview
from the New York Herald of Feb. /,
he said:
A.I have letter from the gentleman,
who, I understand, wrote this, in which
says he is willing to swear that I de-
clined to be interviewed, and that,
shrinking something had been given out,
he had proceeded to write what he
knew were the facts
He then pointed out that the inter
view was erroneous, in that where it
represented him to have said that he
had overwhelming evidence that the re-
frigarated beef was treated with chem
icals, the fact was that his only evil
dence was what was contained in the
reports of officers and statements of men
who claimed that the beef had the odor
of an embalmed body, that they had
seen fluid injected into beef, and other
indications Of chemical treatment. He
declared the interview an erroneous
presentation of what he could possibly
have said.
Admits He Used the Wrong Words.
referring to his charges that the beef
was cuSmbCdAly UTedCoUs 10u6EA NILES
said his use Of the phrase tspretense Of
experiment" J" in speaking Of army beef
was unfortunate. He disclaimed intend
ing any inference of fraud and said he
should have said the refrigerated beef
issue was '1on the theory Of an expert
ment," and "a very costly one.
It was general talk among the officers
at Ponce, General Miles continued, that
the refrigerator beef must have been
subjected to some chemical treatment
10 make it keep for ~ hours. DR..