The age-herald., 1899-01-13
MILES, THE NINETEENTH
 CENTURY'S KING OF LIARS
COmnssay General Eagan Gives Some Additional Testimony
 Before the War Investigating Board

commented on the fact that he was the only one of 300 witnesses who had so refused General Eagan said he himself preferred to be sworn.
 General Eagan began by calling atten- tion to General Miles appointment of Major John D. B. Black, a civilian, as chief of staff, and said that this was largely respon- sible for the trouble that followed. He said that Major Black had been furnished s 900 before starting for Porto Rico, and that he had apparently not known enough to pro- vide himself with check book and had not left his signature with the secretary of the treasury nor made any other preparation for availing himself of the funds at his command
 There were experienced disbursing officers in the island, who had in the aggregate over $4oo,000 in their possession, and yet General Miles had complained that there were no paymasters in the island, so that the soldiers had no money with which to buy food for themselves.
 Called for s5O,OOO More
 General Miles called on the department to put $50,O0O more in the hands of Major Black, and this General Eagan declined to do, putting $10,000 to Major Blacks credit in New York
 General Eagan referred to the mysterious manner in which papers disappeared from the files of the war department. He said that while General Miles was at Tampa he wired to the commissary-gener to know what stores and supplies were-on hand at Tampa and some other point.
 General Eagan replied in the usual way. General Eagan said he was astounded the following morning to see in the reports of certain papers that General Miles had se- verely reprimanded the commissary gen. eral, the chief of ordnance and the quarter master general for the unprepared condi- ton of their respective departments. Gen. nrnl bad tfvl.f f., 1Ar, <J Jz1s.r such reprimand and witness at once had enclosed the clipping to the adjutant gen. erals office requesting inquiry as to the authenticity of the report.
 Reprimand Never Received
 No such reprimand was ever received by him, and the general commanding had taken no notice of his inquiry nor even taken the trouble since then to declare the unauthorized character of the press state- ments. It was such indifference as this that had given license to the yellow jour nalistic knaves, who had misrepresented and bounded government officials through the war"
 --General Eagan subsequently had tried to get his letter of inquiry and press clipping from the adjutant generals office, but it had disappeared and was nowhere to be found.
 Witness charged General Miles directly with dlsarranging and tampering with the administration of the war department, and calling off officers from duty where their presence was absolutely necessary This was the case in taking Colonel John Wes- ton away from Cuba to serve with the Por- to Rican expedition, and putting Major A. L. Smith, a very efficent officer assigned as depot commissary in Porto Rico, to work in 'some transport duty" when his servi- ces were demanded on shore.
 Inetiiciency of Major Black
 General Eagan said the commanding general went clearly outside of his power in doing this, and claimed that General Miles was moved to do so by the ordnance and inefficlency of his own appointee, Ma jor Black, who was supposed to be the chief commissary officer on General Miles staff.
 General Eagan, in the course of his tes- timony, called Major-General Miles 'liar who lied in his throat, lied in his heart, lied in every part of hs body" who perpetrated gross scandal and who shouid pc drummed out of the service and imprisoned land should be avoided by every honset man and barred by every club.
 He characterized his interviews as nth.
 General Eagan's testimony on this point follows:
 Timed Beef Episode
 General Miles was asked by your com mittee how timed fresh beef became part of the army ration. His answer is you had better ask the cretary-of war or the com missary- y-general. l think they can tell you It was sent to the army as food under pre- tense that 1t was sent as experiments.'
 ''General Miles in saying that this food was sent to the army as a pretext for an experiment says that which implies corrup- tion and 99 out of every 100 people will un- derstand 1t to mean corruption because it was "a pretense of experiment. he has not even given credit to me for furnishing 1t as an experiment, but that furnished 1t under the pretense of experiment..
 This Is serious charge and should not not be made by any man lightly nor with out ample evidence to support it. Taking the statement in the sense that 1t was probably intended the sense that will be accepted by the country at large, the sease that already the press almost wholly of the United States has accepted it-indeed. some of that press, because of it, called for my dismissal from the army and my court martial-I answer that it was not furnished under the pretense of experiment, nor even as an experiment and If General Miles charges that it was furnished as 'pretense 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 badly; he lies wifully, deliberately. maliciously and Intentionally. If his statement is true that this was furnished under pretense of ex- periment,' then I should be drummed ont of the army and incarcerated in state pris- on.
 Should be Drummed Out of Service
 "lf this statement is false, as l assert it to be, then he should be drummed out of tho service and incarcerated in prison with other iibellers His statement Is scandal reflecting upon the honor of every officer in the department who has contracted for or purchased this meat, especially and par ticularaly upon the commissary general myself.
 .In deuouncing General Miles as liar when he makes this statement, wish to make 1t emphatic and as coarse as the statement itself. | wish to force the lie back into his throat covered with the con- tents of a camp latrin. I wish to brand it as falsehood of whole cloth without one particle of truth to sustain it, and unless he can prove his statement he should be denounced by every honest man. barred from the clubs, barred from the society of decent people and so ostraeized that the ~<1e-.