The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-11-02
WHAT OF HENRY ALLEN.

"a new turn has been given TO the
Spanish war investigations and if such
a thing were possible the next in order
would be an investigation to determine
whether the newspaper men who report
ed the land battle at Santiago were
cowardly.
r. A. Alger, ex-secretary of war, has
made the trouble by a book which has
just been published by the Harpers- In
this book he makes the statement that
the newspaper men ran to the transport
when the first shot was fired and wrote
their reports from this position of abso-
lutte safety.
Richard Harding Davis who was one
of the correspondents in question now
threatens to sue General Alger for libel
and there are others who may do the
same. Mr.. Davis has written a letter
to Harpers in which he says:
'On page us of the book entitled The
Spanish-American War; by General R.
A. Alger. and published by you, occurs
the following paragraph:
Some timid newspaper men accom-
panying General Young and Colonel
Wood became alarmed at the first shot
fired at Las Guasimas and rushed fran
tically back to Siboney before the en-
gagement was over, wrote from the deck
of the transports. where they took
refuge, imaginary accounts of the fight
las I was with Colonel Wood 1 can
not speak from personal observation of
the newspaper men who accompanied
General Young, but 1 know from 9TH
ers that Casper Whitney, who was with
General Young throughout the engage
ment, remained on the hottest part of
the fighting line. 1 possess a photo
graph taken Immediately after the en-
gagement which shows General Lawton.
General Wheeler, Colonel Wood, Colonel
Roosevelt and Casper Whitney seated in
the camp of the Spaniards which had
just been captured
Mr.. Whitney has shown his courage
too often and in too many places for
any man to question it, and certainly at
Guasimas he did not run frantically out
to the rear and take refuge on trans
port. OF the newspaper men who ac-
companied Colonel Wood 1 can speak
from personal knowledge.
After the fight began, several CORE
spondents, among them the late Stephen
Crane of the World, John Klein of the
Herald and ]. P. Dunning of the AS
ISOLATED Press, caught up with Colonel
Woods forces. AS these gentlemen,
hearing the firing, had run forward to
join the column, they naturally did not
run away from it after they had over
taken it. But they did not accompany
Colonel Wood. and so they are not the
men General Alger accuses of running
away and writing an Imaginary account
of the fight.
Only TWO newspaper men accom-
panied Colonel Wood, and they, there
fore, must be the men referred to by
General Alger. They were Edward Mar
1,,I ~
self.
Mr.. Marshall, while advancing on the
firing line with Colonel Wood, was shot
through the thigh and while so severely
wounded that afterwards his leg was
amputated, he dictated his account while
lying where he fell During the first
part of the fight 1 was with Troop G,
later with Troop l.. 1 borrowed a rifle
from a wounded man and advanced
with the troop, firing when the order
was given, until the fight closed. then
at once wrote my account 1t was not
an imaginary one"
There is one correspondent who is en-
tirely ignored by Mr.. Davis and that is
the only representative of Kansas
among the war newspaper men, Mr..
Henry Allen, now of the Ottawa Herald.
Not long ago Miss Reasoner said things
construed to reflect upon his personal
prowess and it is to be regretted that
Mr.. Davis has not come to his defense.
1t surely is not possible that Allen is
one of the men referred to by General
Alger, but he owes it to his friends to
demand a retraction and to prove how
he charged the Spaniards side by side
with the enlisted men. OF course it is
positively known that Mr.. Allen was not
wounded but not all the newspaper men
who took part in the fight could be hit.