The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-07-08
nL-rREATmENr OF VOLUNTEERS.

from military restraint will the citizens
OF this republic learn the ill-usage and
brutality to which they have been sub
jccted by General Otis and his under
strappers. The plutocratic papers Of
this country have ceased publishing the
letters of the soldiers when they contain
any information that may prove dam
aging to the occupant of the White
House, who is solely responsible for the
war against liberty and humanity in the
Far East. The recipients of the letters
are also careful to conceal what the writ
ers say in order to save them from the
wrath Of the commanding officers. One
young soldier, Hugh McCoshan, Of Mar
inette, Wis, who is serving in one Of
the Dakota regiments, informs friend
that he would face court-martial will
ingly for his censure of the military
authorities who have compelled sick
men to fight when they should have
been in the hospitals. We shall give
the following extract from his published
letter in the Oconto Enterprise:
"You Americans shudder at the tyr
amy OF Spain and the cruelty visited
upon the natives OF Luzon and Cuba,
but l want to tell you that bright, brave,
young Americans, who volunteered to
defend their country in the hour of
peril, are giving up their lives as a
sacrifice to the vanity of ar-bespangled
generals and fog-headed dollar-heart-
ed bureau OF officials at home. The
fierce tropical heat, the fever-cursed at
mosphere, and the bullets of the insur-
gents, are working such havoc among
the men that the surgeons and nurses
are absolutely unable to give to the sick
and wounded the care that they should
receive"
The National Watchman, OF Washing
ton, D. c., devotes leader to the cruel
and criminal treatment of the volun-
teers, and says in part:
What excuse can be offered in pallia-
ton of the monstrous crime of rushing
this little band of brave men into the
jaws OF death contrary to the judgment
OF the military experts of several ma
tons who expressed the opinion that
in numbers they were entirely made
quate to the undertaking. There was
no occasion that demanded this disas-
trous campaign to be undertaken or
that this terrible sacrifice should be
made. Our soldiers were safe in the
city OF Manila, which was rendered I'M
pregnable by the guns of our fleet. If
a conquest of the island of Luzon must
be made, why not defer the campaign
until force sufficient for the undertake
ing was provided and the men were in
proper form? Why such insane haste
i'll rushing a few thousand volunteers,
whose terms of service had already ex-
PRED, ard who were entitled to be re-
turned to their homes, against foe that
all military experts pronounced invinci-
Bile against an army of less than from
$4,000 to 100000 men? Why fight for
the positions and as soon as taken
abandon them again to the enemy for
the lack OF soldiers to occupy and hold
them? How can such imbecility be ac-
counted for? 1t can be accounted for
in but one way, namely, the government
is in the hands OF men who are playing
a desperate game of politics, who real
ize that they are not in accord with
public opinion and to further their own
political ends feel it necessary to take
desperate and unwarranted chances, and
hazard any sacrifice OF life and treasure,
with the hope OF accomplishing results
that would inure to their advantage.
If President Mckinley was the repre-
sentative of the American people and
further political preferment at
their hands instead of relying upon the
funds furnished by the trusts and mo-
nopolies to secure for him reelection,
he would not have rushed Our small and
army into the jaws of death,
taking unwarranted chances upon the
lives and health OF his men as has been
done, but would have waited for the
action of congress in the premises, and
if movement against the insurgents
was finally determined upon, would pro-
vide sufficient force to overpower the
enemy without disabling and running the
health OF our own army.
But the situation confronting the adj
is serious one politically.
The president realizes that he stands no
chance whatever to be reelected to a
second term unless the public mind can
be befogged and glamor thrown
around his administration that will so
unsettle the public mind and quicken
the public pulse that rational criticism
OF his acts may be construed to be trea-
son against the government. Therefore
he offset the nine hundred and ninety
nine chances OF failure against one of
success in his Philippine campaign on
the ground that success would surround
his name with halo of glory and that
the country would look upon him as
Napoleon and become imbued with the
idea that he was the great chosen in
strument in the hands Of Providence to
achieve for the United States a COM
handing position among the nations of