The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-01-20


cisn. of the ''Embalmed Beef Expert
ment.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12.-Commis.
sary Gen. Charles P. Eagan to-day
reappeared before the War Investi-
eating Commission to answer
charges of Mai. Gen. Nelson A.
Miles, commanding the army, con-
cerniug the commissary supplies
furnished the army during the re-
cent war. Gen. Eagan's statements
furnished the sensation of the war
commissions history and was re-
garded by old army officers as one Of
the most remarkable attacks ever
made in the history of the service.
Gen. Eagan's statement to the COM
mission was a bitter personal at
attack upon Gen. Miles, so entirely
unqualified both as to scope and
| language that the war commission
on hearing its conclusion ordered a
| brief executive session, after which
the doors were reOpened, the wit
| ness was recalled and business re-
sumed in the usual way.
| The subject in controversy was
Gen. Miles already famous 'em
banned beef" testimony and the let.
ters and documents supporting 1t.
Gen. Miles had charged that the
canned and refrigerated meats sent
to the army in Cuba and Porto Rico
were unfit for use, that thew were
preserved by the use of chemicals
and that they had "been bought and
sent to the army under pretense OF
an experiment
This reflection upon both the
ability and honesty of the Commits.
sary Department had angered Com
missary Gen. Eagan and caused him
to request to be recalled to reply to
Miless charges.
Gen. Eagan, while submitting his
testimony, gave vent to the follow
ing language:
"Gen. Miles was asked by your
committee how timed fresh beef be
came a part of the army ration.
His answer is: You had better
ask the Secretary of War or the
Commissary General. l think they
can tell you. [ know it was sent to
the army as food, and the pretense
is that it was sent as an experiment
Gen. Miles, in saying that this food
was sent to the army as 'pretense
for experiment says that which i'm
plies corruption, which ninety nine
out of every one hundred people will
understand to mean corruption, be-
cause it was "a pretense of expert
ment,' he says, not even giving
credit to me for fucnis hing it as an
experiment, but that | furnished it
under the 'pretense of an expert
ment.'
Epithets Applied.
"Tbis is a serious charge, and
should not be made by any man
lightly nor without ample evidence
to support it. Taking the statement
in the sense that it was probably In
tended, the sense that will be ac-
cepted by the country at large, the
sense that already the press almost
wholly of the United States has
; accepted it-indeed, some of that
press because of it called for my dis
missel from the army and my court
martal-I answer that it was not
furnished under the pretense OF eX-
p pertinent, nor even as an expert
ment, and If and when Gen. Miles
) charges that 1t was furnished as a
, '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 body; he lies will.
fully, deliberately, Intentionally and
/ maliciOusly.
"If his statement il true that this
I was furnished under 'pretense OF al
: experiment. then L should b'
: drummed out of the army and In
carcerated in States prison. If hi'
. statement is false, and L assert it t
, be, then he should be drummed ou
4 of the army and incarcerated IL
: prison with other libelers. hi
statement is a scandalous libel, re-
q fiecting upon the honor of every
\ officer in the department who ha
contracted for or purchased thi
q meat, and especially and particu
: larly on the Commissary General
!. myself.
n Denunciation More Foul.
" "In denouncing Gen. Miles as
i liar when he makes this statement
Il / wish to make it as emphatic an
l. as coarse as the statement itself.
IL wish to force the lie back into hi
It throat, covered with the contents c
|, a camp latrine. | wish to brand
70 as falsehood Of whole cloth, with
: out particle of truth to sustain il
II and unless he can prove his state
l. ment he should be denounced b
e every honest man, barred from th
- clubs, barred from the society Of dt
cent people, and SO ostracized ths