The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-10-19
W SCORES norm SAMPSON AND
MILES


SIMPSONS Seeming Attitude Toward
the Army During the Operations Bc-
fore Santiago said To- Dee IuexplIcablc.
NEW YORK. October 5.-Gcncral Al
gers book ON the spanish American
War. which his publishers state has
been delayed and changed because of
the death of President McKinley' Will
DE issued next Thursday.
General Alger opens his book with
survey of the Cuban situation In 1898,
and comments upon our unprepared-
ness for war at that time, and the splen-
did spectacle of the country's response
to the Governments ultimatum upon
Spain He then leads the reader through
the hurried preparations for war the
prosecutions of the oflice-seeker, the
disappointment of hundreds Of volun-
teers. the demands of seacoast cities
and towns for immediate protection,
and the savage criticism of the military
administrations plans of organization
and the battle with apparently endless
shortcomings and grievances. Then
follows the embarkation at Tampa,
which was severely criticised at the
time but which General Alger is con-
WINGED all things considered was not a
mistake.
The account of the march on Santa
go is graphically pictured.
The book takes up the round robin
signed by the general officers of SHAFT
ter's army, while the negotiations for
surrender were pending in which it was
stated that this army must move at
once or it will perish" from the fevers
threatening the camp. General Alger
has no criticism to offer of the round
robin itself, but says that its publica-
ton was one of the most unfortunate
and regretable incidents of the war
General Alger reviews at length the
differences between General Shafter
and Admiral Sampson, and concludes
! this chapter i'm these words
1T is difficult to account for Admiral
SIMPSONS seeming attitude toward the
Army during the operations before San
| tiago, as well as to excuse him for his
| contradictory statements subsequently
made i'm his official report. After the
Sd of July the Admirals conduct may be
due to the keen disappointment result
ing from his participation in the
engagement with Cervera's squadron
! Possibly he felt that Skaters request
| for a conference on the morning of July
| 3D. innocent though it was, was respon-
| sible for his being deprived of the honor
of actively participating as Commander
in Chief in one of the most remarkable
victories in the annals of naval war
fare"
General Alger reviews the Miles
! Eagan controversy over the alleged fur
| nishing of "embalmed beef" to the
Army, and tells of the appointment by
| the President at his request of the COM
mission to investigate the conduct of
the War Department in the war with
| Spain. The commission met September
"a, 1898, he says, and up to December
21st of that year had taken TESTIMONY
in seventeen towns and cities, and IN
many different camps, granting to citi-
zens, soldiers and eX-soldiers an oppor-
tunity to appear for complaint or testi-
mony of any kind regarding the conduct
of the war"
Many thousands of soldiers We're in
vited to give their evidence without re-
gard to rank or service.
| ION the 21st of December" continues
! General AlgJer the Major Genral
commanding the Army of the United
States appeared before the committee,
! then sitting in Washington, and made
his statements with reference to the
canned, fresh and refrigerated beef fur
nished to the Army during the war.
| Although the commission had been
sitting nearly three months, the charges
| beef were now made for the first time
and, stranger and more inexcusable and
more unsoldierly still, during all these
months, with this splendid knowledge
of facts which, if they existed should
! have been made known to the Secretary
of War for the protection of the Army
| General Miles had never mentioned the
subject.
General Miles seemed to be plea seq
fEtN~ h 1,
/ statement before the Commission and
his subsequent new spaper interviews
| gave him; for again, on the 31St OF
| March, 1899 in New TOIK city, he pub
| lished through representa- Of he
| Associated Press and Of "A metropolitan
| paper, additional charges. This unmili-
| tary and questionable method us maxi
| ing in public grave and scaulalnus
charges regarding a brother officer and
! the work of his department-cha
which subsequent and careful investi-
| cation proved both unwarranted and
untrue-seemed to appeal to certain
characteristics of the Major General
commanding to which reference would
be out of place
IF we are to believe written evidence
to the contrary, it does not appear that
General Miles was even honest in MAX
| ing his dilatory charges that the timed
| Def was issued as the 'pretense of an
experiment and it was now a part of
the ration. On the 18th of June, 1898, his
most confidential staff officer signed a
letter by direction of the MajOr-Gen-
eral commanding the Army, instruct
| ing the depot cOmmissary a Tampa to
furnish to General Nunez 1854 pounds
of canned roast beef, to be issued from
the subsistence stores of the Army if
we are to accept the reading of this let
ter as correct, it proves that General
Miles knew that canned roast beef was
a part of the ration; that he knew there
was a large quantity of it at Tampa for
issue to the troops and that he so far
approved of its use as to direct that the
ration be furnished in large quantities
to our allies"
PORTO RICAN'S SUICIDE.
SAN JOSE, October S.-Ysabro Es-
pira, a native of Porto Rico, % years OF
al