Connecticut western news., 1899-01-19

| Commission Will Say Secretary Was
 Weak-Bnd Beef Charges Unfound-
 cd-LittIe Fault With shnfter-Con-
 gress to Be Severely Criticised.
 New York, Jan. 1S.-The Herald's Washington correspondent says: President Mckinley will have in his | possession the full report of the war | commission within a week. This report. it is asserted. will not be
 a whitewash of the army administra- | ton. It will be unanimous on all essen | tal points. It will declare that the pri- | mary trouble is due to the lack of prop CT military organization.
 Tt will show that Secretary Alger
 was weak. especially in his relations with Major General Miles. but it will not find him responsible for the camp horrors. Subordinate officers will be | blamed for the conditions which existed | with respect to these matters. Neither | the secretary nor any member of his family, it will be stated. had any inter est in any of the camp sites. Major General Miles will be criticised for his conduct before, during and since | the war.
 "The report will show that it was he
 who recommended the location of the camps at Miami and Chickamauga: | that it was one of his aids who selected ] the camp sites at Camp Alger; that be- | fore the war he recommended the con- centration of the regulars at Chicka- 1 mauga and that Secretary Alger strong | ly objected to the location of camp | at Miami, but was overruled. Tt will show that General Miles was directed by the secretary to make an in- spection trip of all the camps, but in- | formed him that he was in the habit of | making out his own orders. Coming down to the beef controver- sy, the commission will find that Gen. | eral Miles charges were unfounded; | that the 13 officers whose reports Gen. eral Miles submitted as showing the | beef supplied for the Porto Rican army was unfit for use never served in Porto Rico and that there was absolutely no criminality in any of the contracts made for supplies for the service.
 shafter All Right.
 "So far as the Santiago campaign is concerned, the commission will report
 that General Shafter conducted that movement as efficiently as could have been expected under the circumstances.
 No fault will be found with General Shafter, except with respect to the
 points which he in his testimony ad- mitted.
 The commission will recommend the radical reorganization of the inspector generals department and, 1t is said, will sharply criticise General Breckinridge for his action in leaving his inspection department to take part in the Santiago battle instead of staying at home to at- tend to his inspection duties. Had there
 been more inspections the commission is satisfied the epidemics of typhoid and
 many of the irregularities which pre- vailed would not heye occurred.
 General Brooke will be criticised for the conditions which existed at Camp Thomas, and the medical department will be blamed for lack of inspections and failure to carry out proper sani- tary regulations.
 "The quartermaster general will be acquitted of the charges of high prices paid for animals for the army and the report will state that he obtained them very cheapIy, but he may be criticised for clothing furnished the men.
 "The report will also show that con gress was responsible for the equipment of the soldiers with black powder, as the ordnance department did not get in billiC hilS ht@SSSoiS opPAOpA A1eAOiS AOl smokeless powder.
 Tt has been found by the commission
 that a war has never been operated with such a small loss of life. Only 1 per cent of the army died from illness and in battle.
 With respect to Montauk Point, the
 commission will find that it was the best point that could have been selected for bringing the troops home from Cuba that 1t would have been better had the several thousand men and sev- eral thousand animals not been sent
 to that point from the south. but that
 there was no foundation for many of the complaints which were filed"