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

Washington, Jan. 12.-Commissary
General Eagan, in the course of his tes-
timony before the war investigation
committee this afternoon called Major
General Miles, commanding the army,
"a liar who lied in his throat, lied in
his heart, lied in every pore Of his
body" who perpetrated a gross scandal
and who should be drummed out of the
service and imprisoned, and should be
avoided by every honest man and
barred from every club he character
lied his interviews as filth" General
Eagan's testimony on this point was:
General Miles was asked by your COM
mission how tinnned fresh beef became
a part of the army ratiOnS. His an
SWer is: You had better ask the SEE
rotary Of war or the cOmmlSSary gen
eral. ! think they can tell you. L know
it was sent to the army as food, and
the pretense is that il was sent as an
experiment.
General Miles, in saying that this
food was sent to the army as a pre-
. tense for an experiment says that
which implies corruption, which 80 out
Of every 100 people VIII understand 10
mean corruption, because ii was a pre-
tense of experiment, he says, not eVeG1
giving credit to me for furnishing il as
an experiment, but that L furnished IL
under the 'pretenSe of an experiment.
This is q. serious charge, and should not
be made by any man lightly nor with
out ample evidence to support il. TAX
ing the statement in the sense it was
probably intended. the sense that viii !
be accepted by the country at large, |
the sense that already the press almost !
wholly Of the United States has accepted /
jr-indeed. some OF the press because Of /
f4-c Il from no
army and my couTtmartial-I answer /
that it was not furnished under the /
pretense of experiment, and when Gen |
eral Miles charges that it was furnished I
as a 'pretense Of an experiment, he |
lies in his throat, he lies in his heart,
he lies II every hair OF his head and
every pore Of his body. he lies wilfully,
deliberately, Intentionally and mali
ciously.
If his statement is true, that this
was furnished under 'pretense Of an
experiment then I should be drummed
out of the army and incaTcerated in
prison. His statement is a scandaloUs
libel rejecting upon the honor OF every
officer in the department who has con-
tracted for or purchased this meat, and
especially and particularly on the COM
Inissarv general-myself. In denOunc-
ing General Miles as a liar, when he
makes this statement, l wish TO make
It as emphatic and as coarse as the
statement itself. wish to force the lie
back into his throat, covered with the
contents Of a camp laJrine. I wish TO
brand it as Il falsehoOd of whole cloth, |
without a particle of truth to sustain
it. and unles ~>Ie can prove his state .
rnent he shoU-A be driven out Of the
clubs barred from the society OF decent
people and SO ostracised that the street
bootblack would not conde6cend to :
speak to him, for he has fouled his own +,
nest. he has aspersed the honor of a
brother officer without a particle of !
evidence or fact to sustain in any de-
gree his scandalous. libelOus, malicious
viz.: That this beef or
anything whatever was furnished the .
army undsr pretense Of experiment. y :
TYPEWRITER ABUSE ?
General Eagan had prepared type (
written statement covering his side Of
he case, and was allowed to read it. 6.
General Eagan referred TO the fact that
General Miles had refused to be sworn.
md commented on the fact that lie was ),
he only one of 500 witnesses who had =
% refused. General Eagan said ne =
himself preferred to be sworn. =
General Eagan began by calling at =
entiOn to General Miles appointment :,
# Major John D. Black, a civilian, as
hief of staff, and said that this was E
argely responsible for the trouble that -
ollowed. He said that Major Black y
lad bern furnished $1,000 before start =
ng for Puerto Rico, and that ne had =
.pparently not known enough to pro- "
ide himself with a check book, and
ad had not left his signature with the 1,
ecretary of the treasury, nor made IL
ny other. preparation for availing him W
elf OF the funds. at his command | "
here were experienced disbursing Off OF
ers in the island who had, in the ag-
regate, over 100000 in their posses 81
ion, and yet General Miles had COM 81
lained that there were no paymasters Ii,
the islands. so that the soldiers had IN
0 money with which to buy food for
lemselves. 4,
General Miles had then called on ar
le department to put $50 900 more into ii,
Re hands of Major Black. and this on
eneral Eagan declined to do, putting tr
0,000 to Major Blacks credit in New ba
ork &c
cAnnraI E,aean r-efArrAd TO the mys-