Arizona republican., 1899-02-26
ewH1TEwAsH' AND BEEF.


 The report of the war investigating commission ends one campaign of vili- fcation against an administration which conducted a glorious and sue cessful war in the face of enormous ob- stacles--a war in which not a ship was lest and not a regiment defeated. The scene now shifts to the comm2ssary de- partment, against which a similar cam- paign has been begun. Having failed in all substantial indictments in the first, every mendaciOus journal in the country itching for club to snlite the administration has eagerly consti tuted itself q champion of General Miles in his stand against the war de- partment and is desperately flaming every flame of discontent and disloy atty wherever it can be found. A court of inquiry has been appointed to sift these charges to the bottom, but the vindictfvely eager journals have al ready passed judgment, as they did in the case of the war llorrors,' and it will make little difference to them
 
 The term "whitewash" comes easy to the fingers of the miserable scribbler who knows everything that isn't so, and he has already applied it to the distinguished and splendid Americans of both political parties who investi- gated the conduct of the war and found no basis for his yellow efforts to stir Thrl same term will be applied to the find ing of the inquiry court unless it meets his demands for a scandal in the army and the conviction of the head of the department. The evidence will amount to nothing. Let Ameri- cans who hope to be fair minded be- ware of spacious inuendos and sneers. It is evident that there is a vast | amount of ignorance abroad concern ing this beef controversy. It has been charged that bOracic acid was used to preserve the meat sent to tropical for our soldiers, and that it W as therefore poisonedN Ignoramuses may be startled at this information, but the person who possesses even rud- imentary knowledge of chemistry knows that borax is not poison, and it is a fact that it has for years been a food preservative really beneficial to the human race, enabling the shipping of food products to far distant points and cheapening greatly in price many of the necessaries of life. There has never been any secret as to this. BoraX is used to preserve butter and eggs, and meat and fish It is eXten- sively used to preserve hams and bacon 'or export, and the British market re- luires that all American hams or bacon shipped to that country shall be sprinkled with boTaX. The great Eng isn experts say this treatment is help ful and improves these products. Whether it was used for the canned army beef is another question. The great majority of men, we believe, will -ake the word of the secretary of agri- culture when he says, in coTroboration )f the Investigating commissions re- port:
 We have examined the canned meats ,f commerce, and find that none of the statements are true. We find that .anned meat when properly taken care ,f is an indispensable article of com nerce. We have not been able in any .ase to find chemicals, although our in ,estigations have covered all the brands sold in the open market. We rave also utterly failed to find, as far IS we have gone, any evidence what yer of the use of chemicals in refrige- altor meats.
 It is evident that Miles has a large ontract cn his hands, first to prove his harges of 'embalmed' beef, and next 0 sustain his charges that it was poi onous As fer his champions, they leither prove anything non accept any ,roof not to their liking. All proof gainsu them is ''whitewash.''