The record-union., 1899-01-13


Miles had no right in the world to de-
liver such reprimand, and witness
had at once inclosed the clipping to the
Adjutant Generals office. requesting
an inquiry as to the authenticity of the
report No such reprimand was ever
received by him, and the General COM
manding had taken no notice of his In
quiry nor even taken the trouble since
then to declare the unauthorized char
acter of the press statements. 1t was
such Indifference as this that had
given license to the yellow Journalistic
knaves who had misrepresented and
bounded Government officials through
out the war; General Eagan subse-
quently had tried to get his letter Of in
quiry and press clipping from the Ad-
jutant Generals Office, but it had dis
appeared and was nowhere tobe found.
Witness then charged General Miles
directly with disarranging and ham,
pering the administration of the War
Department by calling officers from
their duty where their presence was alb
solutely necessary. This was the case
in taking Colonel John Weston away
from Cuba to serve with the Porto
Rican expedition and in putting Major
A. L. Smith, very efficient officer, as
signed as depot commissary in Porto
Rico, to work on "some transport duty"
when his services were demanded on
shore. General Egan said the COM
handing General went clearly outside
his power in doing this and intimated
that General Miles was moved to do so
by the ignorance and inefficiency of his
own appointee, Major Black, who was
supposed to be chief commissary of
General Miles staff. General Eagan
referred to General Miles testimony
that he had telegraphed the department
from Porto Rico for complete and
proper rations, and said that if the
Commissary Generals Office had re-
ceived any such message he should
have considered it the request of a
very ignorant and ill-informed per-
son.
Continuing, General Eagan referred
to General Miles expressed preference
for native beef, of which he said there
was plenty. asserting there were no
cattle whatever in the neighborhood of
Santiago. The native beef General
Miles referred to, General Eagan char
acteriZed as, bulls, stays and over
worked cattle. The use of such ami
mails the department would never al
low. General Eagan, quoting General
Miles allegation that in his judgment
there was some serious defect in the
refrigerated and canned beef, said Gen
eral Miles would not say this was any
thing more than his judgment. who
ever" said General Eagan, "calls it
'embalmed beef is a liar
(>itipo tho ran0rfS c11br1 iff al nv Con-
eral Miles in confederation of his state
ments, General Eagan submitted
whether or not his course of submitting
these reports would not be construed as
seeking adverse reports. He cited Gen
erals Merritt and Shafter as approving
the beef.
Newspaper statements emanating
from General Miles that 100, 1000 pounds
of the beef was condemned at Porto
Rico is absolutely false. No such guam
tity was condemned there or else
where"
Witness said Surgeon Days report
that the beef apparently was injected
with chemicals to aid in preservation
was "a falsehood and he made 1T out of
whole cloth" He denounced the asser-
ton that chemically prepared beef had
not believe Surgeon Daily had that be-
lief then, since or now.
why" he asked, did he shirk his
duty? Why not then make chemical
analysis and why keep this information
to himself and spring it suddenly on the
commission and the whole country and
imply that packing houses have been
cheating the Government and violating
A ~ IT,,
form the Commissary General or the
Secretary of War of these things"
This" continued the witness, sis r
scandal calculated to ruin thousands of
people and discredit and put in infamy
one of the greatest industries of the
world.
General Miles, in his testimony, re-
fers to the beef as sent out under pre-
tense of an experiment. This implies
corruption; a serious charge, not to be
lightly made. Already the press al
most wholly has accepted this view and
some have demanded my dismissal 1t
was not an experiment nor pretense
thereof. General Miles lies in his
throat, in his heart, in every part of his
! body. He should be drummed out of
the service and imprisoned. I wish to
IOTce the lie Ddck III Ills lace. Unless he
can prove his statements he should be
| avoided by everybody, should be barred
out of every club"
The witness denounced in the most
Sensational terms his (Miles) scandals,
libels and malicious falsehoods.
| General Eagans testimony on this
| point was:
General Miles was asked by your
commission how timed fresh beef be-
came part of the army ration. His
answer is: You had better ask the Sec
| rotary of War or the Commissary Cen
eral. thing they can tell you. I know
| it was sent to the army as food, and
| the pretense is that it was sent as an
experiment. General Mics in saying
that this food was sent to the army as
a pretense for an experiment says that
which implies corruption, which ninety
nine out of every 100 people will under
stand to mean corruption, because II
was 'pretense of experiment. he says,
not even giving credit to me for fur
nishing it as an experiment, but that !
| furnished it under the 'pretense of an
experiment This is a serious charge,
and should not be made by any man
lightly, nor without ample evidence to
| support it.
Taking the statement in the sense it
was probably intended-the sense that
will be accepted by the country at
large, the sense that already the press
almost wholly of the United States has
accepted it-indeed, some of the press
because it called for my dismissal from
the army and my conference.-the an
swer that it was not furnished under
| ~