The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-13
"Gen. Miles Lies
In His Throat. %
Gen. Eagans Sensational Statements Before the War Investigation
Commission in Reply Gen. Miles Charges.

eral Miles that 100000 pounds of the
beef We're condemned at Porto Rico are
absolute falSehoods. No such qaulity
was condemned there or elsewhere"
Witness said Surgeon Days report
that the beef apparently was injected
with chemicals TO aid i'll preservation was
Il 'falsehood and he made it out Of whole
cloth" He denounced +lo assertion
that chemically prepared beef had been
issued anywhere and 81 i he did not
believe Surgeon DAILY had that belize.
Why" he asked, did he shirI his
duty, why not then make chemical
analysis and why keep !his informa-
ton to himself and then sprin" L sudden
ly on the commission and the Wht le
country, and imply that packing houses
have been che iting tie Government and
violating Their contracts. Vt no tine
did he inform the CJElmlSSIYy General
or the Secretary Of War of these things"
This" continued the witness, is a
scandal. calcuiltad to rum thousands
of people and discredit and put in in
fanny one OF the greatest industries III
the world.
General Miles was asked by your
commission how timed fresh beef be-
came part of the army ratiOns. His
answer is You had better ask the Sec
retary of War or the Commlssary Cen
cral | think they can tell you. ]
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 us n pretense for experiment
says that which implies corruption
which 30 out of every 100 people VIII
understand to mean corruption. This
is serious charge which should MT be
made by any man lightly nGr without
ample evidence to support it. Taking
| the statement in the sense that 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 accept
ed it-indeed some of that press because
of it, called for my dismissal from the
| army and my court martial answer
| that it was not furnished under the pre-
| tense of experiment, nor even as an eX-
| pertinent. and when General Miles
| charges that it was furnished as a pre-
! tense Of experiment he lies in his throat
| he lies in his heart he lies in every hair
Of his head and every pore Of his"body:
| he lies wilfully, deliberately intention
| ally and maliciOusly. If his statement
| is true that this was furnished under
'prctense Of an experiment. then |
should be drummed out of the army
and incarcerated in States prison. If
his statement is false, rs l assert it
| to he. then he should be drummed ont
n tho soryica and to1 in npiSOn
with other libellers. His statement is
a scandalous libel rejecting upon the
honor of every officer in the department
who has contracted for or purchased
| this meat, and especially and particular
| ly on the Commissary General-myself.
| In denouncing 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 Il camp latrine. / wish
| to brand it as falsehood of whole
cloth without a particle of truth to suS-
| tain it, and unless he can prove his
| statement he should he denounced by
| every honest man, barred from the clubs.
| barred from the society of decent pe0-
| pie. and so ostracised that the street
| speak to him. for he has f0uled his own
nest. he has aspcrsed the honor OF n
brother officer without a particle of evil
| dence or fact to sustain in any degree
| his scandalous. ibelous, malicious false
| hood, viz: that this beef or anything
| whatever was furnished the army under
! pretense of experiment.
! General Eagan referred to the pub
L Il
! the correspondence Between them as to
| their authenticity, General Miles having
made non-c0mmittal reply. The wit
| ness then said:
When man refuses to deny libel
| or falsehood or Il statement attributed
| to him it is well known that he assumes
! the matter. When he avoids the quetS,
ton the supposition is that he cannot
deny it. My question is not answered
yet. He has denied the interview, pub
lished in the New York journal, dated
! December sd, 1898, and having refused
to distinctly deny it, he should be held
! to the strictest accountability for it. II
he made these statements as set forth
then. then he lied again, and if he made
the statement that pretense is the pre-
else term to beAused' las he said then
referring to the experiment. then he
| lied with as black n heart as the man
| who blew up the Maine possessed, and
he deserves to be characterized and
| known to America and Europe where his
| statements have gone, as being the co
| !ossal, prodigious liar of the nineteenth
| century. | submit TO this commission
and to the whole country that this ac-
count of an interview with him in the
New York Journal going uncontradicted
undenied. and when the opportunity was
given him Il refusal to deny it i'll terms,
places upon him the onus and resp)n-
sibiity for the statements in that int2r'
| view. which statements | here and now
denounce as unmitigated falsehoods, vile
and slanderous. so slanderous that they
can be only called filth. | submit to
this committee and to the country AT