The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-02-14
The First Duty.

Tor General Miles. On0 authority pre-
diets q court martial, another board OF
inquiry, and still third announces that
he is to be removed from the command
of the army and sent to q department.
The offsnse for which all agree he is to
be punished ia the insubordination and
subversion Of discipline in his talking
publicly about the defects of the meat
furnished to the soldiers. Whether or
not General Miles or any other officer,
no matter how highly placed, is guilty
of such fault is always a proper sub
ject for investigation. Every soldier is
amensble to military regulations, and
must be held obiedient to them, or the
whole army will become demoraliz d.
Nevertheless, the supreme military
question before the Administration and
the American people is not the qlsllty
of the conduct of General Miles, but the
truth or falsity Of his charge that en-
balmed beef and canned refuse from the
beef extracting process were palmed eff
on the Government.
The method employed by General
Miles to bring this food question to sn
issue may be open to criticism or some-
thing more. His punishment for any
military offsnses which he may be
shown to have committed is one of the
proper duties of the Government, but it
is something aside from its chief duty in
the present crisis. Its chief duty is to
find out if the beef contractors cheated
the country and poisoned the troops.
Condemnation of General Miles for say
ing they did, or for saying 90 irregularly.
will not vindicate the contractors and
the army authorities who dealt with
them and free the beef packers OF
America from the suspicion of every
foreign and domestic consumer of their
products. Truth or elander, the charge
is before the world, backed by the word
not only of the Commanding General,
but of q host of company and regimental
officers Of the regular army. Simply to
tell him who makes the charge that it
was a breach of discipline to make it, is
not to set the charge itself at rest, but
to give 1t greater currency than ever.
Whatever measure of discipline army
regulations may require, any attempt to
divert the beef er quiry into a mere
question of eubordination could bave
only one result. For every one man
ubn ro- hoI;avoo that nbor,;oollr 81
treated beef may have been sent to the
soldiers without anybod., even the
embalmere themselves, fully realizing
the extent or the harmfulnee of the en-
balming, 10 men would be convinced
that there was horrible scandal which
| officers and contractors had a common
interest in keeping covered. The best
friends of men in authority, whose nat.
ural impulse is always to avoid stirring
up anything unpleasant, will tell them
that no scandal and no disgrace of theil
subordinates, or even their friends, car
be so harmful as the public impression
that . greater scandal and disgrace
have been suppressed. This ia emphati
cally q case when sitting on the safety
valve means the bursting of the boiler
General Miles may have done wroni
in talking, but the public is slow to ap
preciate the niceties of military pro-
priety, and will not lose sight of the fac
that his official and regular criticism o
the quality of the beef did not receive
much attention. They will not forge
that when Surgeon DAILY offered proof
of embalming official efforts were made
to dlscredit him, instead of impartial.
and vigorously following the clew HI
furnished. They will not forget Colone
Roosevelt's round robin" of Santiago
which last summer was denounced al
insubordinste and declared by oficial
in Washington to have had no il fuenc'
in bringing the soldiers home, bu
which the Secretary of War told the In
vestigating Con mission the other da,
made known the condition of the troop
there was need of extraordinary meas
ures to save them from poisoned beef a
we'll as from yellow fever, people will
say; and the only way to convince then
that there was no such need is not t,
avoid the emhsln ed beef charge, as ha
been done 90 far, but to meet it and sif
it to the bottom. The fret duty of al
officer in such case as this is to loo
after the welfare of the common soldier
Colonel Roosevelt did that. Genera
Miles g :ands for the common soldier i
protesting against bad beef. 1t is lee
important to enquire into bis motive
and take account of his technical offen
ses, if he has committed any, than t
know whether he is right or wrong i
|, his belief. Above all, it is important t
guard the common soldier from th
dangers to which the General a. tn
head of the army, en- the unanimous n
port of a multitude of other officer
says they have been exposed.-Ne
York Tribune.
"What is a dollar nyhov?' aske
one of our friends the other day.
dollar is what some men promise [