The San Francisco call., 1899-02-10
COMMISSION
ATTACKS THE
M|LITIAMEN
Apparently Only the Volun-
teer Is to Suffer by the
Late War Investigation.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9.-The report
of the War Investigation Commission
is in the hands of the President. and
the commission is dissolved. All of the
members Of the commission, including
the secretary, Mr.. Weightman, and the
recorder, Colonel Davis, met by ap-
pointment at the White House at Ais
O'Clock this afternoon and were at once
shown into the Cabinet room, where
they were received by the President.
General Dodge, the chairman of the
commission, presented the report, and
in receiving it the President congratu-
lated the Commissioners on the com
pletion of their task
Seated around the Cabinet table. the
members went over their work in a
general way, and at the request of the
President read portions of their report
which covered certain points in which
he had expressed an interest. The con-
ference lasted about an hour and a
half, and as the Commissioners were
about to leave the President stated
that he was satisfied that each member
had done his whole duty. He himself
had rendered them every assistance
possible, and said they could bear wit
ness that he had not sought to influence
them in any manner or in the slightest
degree.
In speaking of the report to-day a
prominent member of the commission
said:
The report does not whitewash. 1t
crltlclZeS, but not persons or things not
warranted by the evidence before us We
started out with the assumption that the
conduct of the. war was all right and
then we went ahead to hear and call wit
nesses who said it was not. The report
represents the honest opinion of every
member of the commission. We were
unanimous in adopting 1t. l say this and
| am of the opposite political faith and
don't expect and don't want anything
from the Administration.
l know that every line of the report rep
resents my individual view and if any
member tried harder than l did to get at
and out all the facts l have yet to see
him. There was no suppression or con-
cealment and no point brought out in the
evidence was evaded or CLOSED over. We
never met before hearing a witness and
agreed not to examine him or to touch
upon certain matters that might turn out
unfavorably. Everything that a man
knew or thought he knew was the subject
of inquiry, and l am satisfied when the
country gets our report in full, that there
will be no complaint either as to our
methods or results.
The President never saw a line of our
a single word. Nor, indeed, has he ever
talked with any of the commission
about it.
He has never in any way, by word or
action or messenger, evidenced wish to
have us develop anything but the truth
or even touched upon the matter of our
work.
we have questioned more than 500 wit
nesses and the majority OF them had some
complaint that they wanted to relate. In
no instance can it be proved that we have
omitted to call any witness who has been
brought to our attention as having i'm
portant facts to disclose. But had we de-
sired to ''whitewash" the administration
we could have had 5000 witnesses who
could truthfully testify that the conduct
of the war was all right.
OF course. there were some evils but
they were to be expected. The soldiers
i'm the Civil War never had hospitals or
medical attendance as good as was given
them In the war with Spain. And their
army ration then was not as eatable as
Ii is now The men who complained the
most of the food we found very generally
the militiamen from the interiors of
States and who had been allowed 81 per
head for subsistence stores while they
were in State camps. When they went
into the active fighting they expected the
same sort of thing.
In questioning these men nearly all con-
fessed to US that they had always re-
ceived the army ration. They had no
right to expect any more. There were
many complaints brought to us that on
their face were foolish and false. but we
went TO every trouble and expense TO In
quire into every genuine charge.