The Washington times., 1901-10-14

themselves Tor the last three years. II
sampson. at any time during the West
| ndian campaign, yearned 10 meet ths
! Spanish admiral. that feeling was nowhere
| SHOWN in his conduct. From first to last
the paint on his ship seemed TO be dearer
\ to him than anything except the laureis
| OF victory won by Commodore Schley
while the admiral OF the fleet was hull
down behind the horizon The Alger case
one; SO strong. indeed. that one would
4 naturally expect the latter to ask for a
I court Of Enquiry. But he will not do so.
lie may not have the glory of Santiago.
put ne has the prize money. and that. we
take II. he regards as a ''coasoiation
stances
But two other features of Mr. Ayers
Tnagnum opus are of interest to the Amer
ican public. They are the rotten beef
scandal and the Eagan infamy. As we
must devote some attention to these IL
Is necessary to pass over the seIf-praise
which the author bestows In relation to
his connection with the Porto Rican and
the first Philippine campaign against the
ragal rebels. 1t is only necessary to say
that he fairly revels in encomlums OF Sec
retary Alger- Inasmuch as nobody. out
side Of Kiroy Hopkins. and a few others
of his immediate personal following. ever
have Joined in the chorus. it would be
rnkind to object to his having his song
out.
He makes bad mistake. however when
he affronts the people of this country
with revival OF the wretched scandals
OF his regime In the War Department
The beef and Eagan atrocities are too
thoroughly combined to bear separate
treatment. We will consider them In COM
bination. And to begin with, 1t Is well to
call attention TO not unpremeditated
mistake which Mr.. Alger makes in at
tempting to make II appear that the bad
beef infamy had been unheard OF until
General Miles made his sensational
charges before the Alger Relief Commits
wash the author whose book we are re-
viewing. The fact that Western packing
houses were 'embalming," that Is. were
using borax, salicylic acid. 'preserva-
tive" and such like chemicals in the prep
aration of refrigerated beef for market
was known to the public months before
the outbreak of the Spanish war Except
at the most high-priced butcher shops In
Washington, in the summers Of 1886 and
1897, it was impossible to get beef cut from
a refrigerated side. that on cooking did
not betray its chemical treatment
The virtuous indignation With which
Mr.. Alger resented the suggestion that
embalmed meat had been furnished to
the troops was a wonder. and II the mat
ter had not been so serious would nave
been amusing. We do not suppose that
mark that only recently the great packers
of the West have been engaged in judicial
proceedings against the Government in
an effort to secure rebate on the chem
icals and preserving fluids they have i'm
ported for use in embalming beef during
the past four years. Persons Ike Mr..
Alger are superior to little considerations
like facts 1t is hardly worth our while
to quote or review his text relating to
these grave and scandalous charges,
thus made public for the first time" as
alleged, by General Miles. II is interest
ing. however. to note that upon Com
missary General Charles P. Eagan the
charges fell with the suddenness and
sharpness of blow from an assassin's
knife out of the dark
IL would have been better both for Alger
and Eagan IL the former mad omitted to
resurrect this rotten beef infamy. But
Mr.. Alger perhaps never has heard of the
admonition TO let sleeping dogs lie" If
Eagan was surprised by the charges OF
General Miles nobody else was. The meat
deal was notorious in Washington long
before the General of the Army had any
thing to say about it. The truth that the
filthy pulp residuum of packing house
watts was canned and found it's way into
the army ration never was successfully
eombated. There were witnesses in
plenty to prove II. but they were not ex-
amined by the Alger Relief Commission
That body was organized and paid to use
the whitewash brush. II never did any
thing else. Unless Mr.. A,ger is troubled
can recall how the Capital of the country
was entertained during the spring and
summer of 1895 by the monthly gathering
of people interested in that great COM
modify. beef, at the Ebbitt House. He
cannot have forgotten how on one occa-
sion the Commissary Department bought
and paid for one million pound cans OF
alleged roast beef" which in fact was
pulp with only 2 per cent of nutriment
in it, absolutely without inspection The
Alger Relief ComWissiop visited packeries
and found everything right, as they were
paid to. They sampled timed goods pre-
pared for the regular market and the
goods were first-clasS. They saw no in
dications of the diabolical traffic which
had spread disease and semi-starvation
among our troops Naturally they did
not. And they We're not given tank refuse
to taste. What they saw and ate was
all excellent.
Mr. Alger thinks that Eagan was badly
used and that his foul and disgusting
language used before the Alger Relief
Commission was palliated by the prOvoca-
tiOn for it. Mr. Alger regrets that so
splendid and. to himself. useful a staff
officer should have been cut off in the
flower OF his prime and sent tc coventry
on full pay. with the privilege Of wear
ing uniform. Alger admires Eagan-