The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-04-21

This is rendered absurd when it is re-
membered that but a short time since
this same department found fault with
the Inspector General for serving in the
field when he found that he was not al
lowed to inspect anything) on the
ground that if he had not done this the
causes for complaint in the camps might
have been removed.
The matter should not be considered
by the public as being one of ancient
history. 1t is vital question of today.
1t might not be forgotten that while
peace has been declared with Spain, we
have now considerable force in Cuba
and Porto Rico and nearly 10000 men
in the Philippine Islands. From pres
ent appearances it would appear that
the trouble in the Philippines is likely
to last for considerable period. For
long time these men must therefore be
fed, clothed and provided for. Their
friends and relatives demand, and just
ly, that the blunders and awful because
unnecessary sacrifice of the health of
our volunteers in Cuba, at Chickamauga
and at Camp Alger shall not be report
ed. To prevent this it is Indispensable
that the officers controlling the various
bureaus in the War Department should
understand that they will be held to a
stern responsibility for the proper per-
formance of their duties.
It would not be just to criticise them
for the way they have been hampered
by Congressional legislation. Neither
should it be asked that they should
make no mistakes. No sensible man
mrkes any such request. 1t is, how
ever, just that if they do make mistakes
they should be required to be alert to
detect and prompt to rectify them, and
that they must not be permitted to close
their eyes to existing facts. That they
must not be allowed to continue to send
thousands of pounds of food to the sol
diers at the front, when the effect of
sending such food is to render these
soldiers unfit for service and to perma-
nently impair their health. That they
should be made to understand that it is
their business to be vigilant in seeing
that those of their subordinates who are
charged with issuing rations, with is
suing ammunition, or with furnishing
transportation or clothing, are prompt
in reporting any defect the moment it
is ascertained, and that when such de-
fects are ascertained they will be at
once remedied, even altho' the doing OF
this may involve an admission that their
department was at fault. Above all,
that any official who fails to do his duty
in these respects should be promptly
dismissed by higher authority.
1t is noticeable that so far not an Off
cial in any of the supply or medical de-
partments is known to have been court
martialed or even censured. Yet 1 do
not hesitate to say that the summary
dismissal from their service, in the be-
ginning, of two or three quartermasters
and commissaries, including the gentle
men who were the cause of sending
thousands of cars to Tampa without in
voices or anything on the outside OF
them to indicate their contents, would
have saved the lives of hundreds of our
soldiers. Unless his testimony has
been misreported, it would seem as il
Major Smith will be good man to COM
mence with at the present time.
Under these circumstances it is most
lamentable to find that the awful ex-
periences which have made SO many
homes desOlate, and SO many of our best
young men invalids, have borne nc
practical fruit. Both the army officials
and Congress are like the Bourbons,
| they ''have learned nothing and for.
gotten nothing"
| The Army Bill which has recently
been adopted wholly fails to make any
change whatever in the existing sys
TENS of independent bureaus controlling
the army. We still have general, os
tensibly in command, but who is over
ruled by the Secretary of War and the
lAdjutant General, two independent and
superior commanders. We have in ad
dition the various chiefs of bureaus, al
of whom are independent of that gen
eral. He is therefore obliged to adopt
the plans which are given to him by the
Secretary of War and Adjutant General
to place his troops in the camps they
designate, under the generals they may
select, to move his men and their sup
plies with the transportation which il
furnished to him by the Quartermastel
General, to take the arms and ammuni
ton which are furnished to him by the
Chief of Ordnance, to feed his men witt
the rations which are purchased fol
them by the Commissary-General, ant
to keep them in health with the med
icines and appliances which may be o.
may not be furnished by the Surgeon
General, and in all these details, upOl
which the efficiency of his army neces
sarily rests, he has little more to sa.
than newsboy in the streets of Wash
ington.
| For this condition of affairs the re
sponsibility rests largely upon Congress
1t rests already more largely upol
Secretary Alger, and finally it rest
upon the man who appointed and re
tains the latter in the Office, the Presi
dent of the United States.
| In view of this beef question and il
view also of the extraordinary exhibi
ton made by Commissary Genera