The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-14
EAGAN
WILLING TO-
APOLOGIZE
To the Investigating Commits
sion, but Not to the Man
He Abused.
General Miles Is Waiting for the President
and AIger to See Justice
Done Him.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, Jan. 13.-The Herald S
| Washington correspondent telegraphs:
| Brigadier General Charles P Eagan,
commissary general of subsistence of
| the army, will make, tomorrow, a
formal apology to the War Investiga-
ton Commission for the vituperatlve
| language employed by him in his dis
| cussion of the conduct of Major
General Miles. He will withdraw the
offensive portion of his testimony and
submit a revised statement, which will
deal solely with the merits of the beef
controversy, though he may deem it
desirable to repeat in more elegant
terms than those he used yesterday, If
possible for him to do so, that General
Miles and other officers who declared
that the beef was embalmed, were gull
ty of an untruth.
There is absolutely no reason to be-
lieve, however, that he will apologize
to General Miles, and it would not be
surprising if he were explicitly to state
that the epithets applied by him to
the commanding general of the army
still stand.
BY this action General Eagan will
for the present, avoid a court martial,
the only result of his indecent vilifica-
ton of General Miles which the admin
istration foresaW last night. This
course was determined for him by the
President and Secretary Alger, and the
latter communicated to him this after
noon the decision which had been
reached.
General Eagan does not dream of dis
obeying the orders of his superiors.
General Eagan, l understand, was in
conference with Colonel William L.
Alexander and Colonel George b. Da-
Wis, of the Subsistence Corps, for sew
eral hours this afternoon, examining
and revising his statement and prepar-
ing the apology he will make to the
commission, and this will be submitted
to the committee, probably tomorrow
General Eagan was more subdued to-
day than l have ever seen him. He
evidently realizes the enormity of the
vulgarity he displayed yesterday, and
the condemnation he has brought on
himself by the violent and abusive IAN
guage which he used. There is not one
army officer with whom talked to-day
that did not roundly criticize General
| Fagan for gross INSTRUMENTATION and
disrespect which he showed in the
statement he made yesterday, and
grave apprehension is felt that the Ell
fects will be far reaching.
The withdrawal of the epithets ap-
| piled to General Miles does not stop
the War Department from directing
| the trial of the offender by court mar
! tial. but it seems now that the PreSl-
! dent and Secretary Alger propose TO
wait and see what the effect of such
apology and withdrawal will be upon
! the country. If the scandal does not
/ die out, and if the country continues
| to demand the punishment OF an Off
| Ger guilty of such a breach of disci-
| pline and gentlemanliness then Secre-
tary Alger will act.
But it is hoped that before action Is
| taken Major General Miles will prefer
| formal charges, and this is just what
| the general does not propose. for the
! present at least to do. General Miles
| will not discuss the action he proposes
to take. At present he contemplates
nothing; he is waiting for the President
and the Secretary of War to act He
! is preparing no charges, for he expects
that they will do him the Justice to
bring his traducer to account. Should
no action be taken, then it will be in
| cumbent upon General Miles to do
! something.
! Friends of General Eagan claim that
! no action can be taken against him be-
| cause the President gave his solemn
| promise that witnesses appearing be-
! fore the commission would be protect
:
/ timony they might present. But the
! friends of General Miles hold. and Gen
eral Miles made the statement to-day.
! that there is a dividing line between
! testimony and personal abuse.
Commissary General Eagan consent
ed to be interviewed late tonight.
! When the subject of his testimony be-
| fore the investigating committee was
| preached General Eagan first made
clear the fact that he and he alone was
responsible for the statements both as
to facts and language. Il had my own
! grievance" he said. "A terrible charge
was brought against me. l was ac-
cused of cheating; no, l mean I was
accused of poisoning soldiers under the
pretense of experiment. If it had not
! been for that charge l might not have
spoken before the commission as / did
For three weeks L chafed under the
charge of having poisoned soldiers un-
| der the pretense; yes, under the pre-
tense of experimenting with chemicals.
If it had not been for this charge, per-
haps, / would not have used such
| language before the commission. Let
those that criticize my language be
placed in the position in which | was
| placed. Let them be charged as l was
charged, and they will understand my