The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-19
He SHES
A BRICK
Alger Out With His
Promised
Book.
SAMPSON AND MILES
BADLY SCORED
Some Things Had TO Be Changed
Owing TO the Death OF
McKinley.
AYEw york, oct. 5.-General Ayers

~ book on the Spanish American
war which his publishers state,
has been delayed and changed because
of the death of President Mckinley
will be issued next Thursday
General Alger opens his book with a
survey of the Cuban situation in 1898
and comments upon our unpreparedness
for war at that time and the SPLEEN
did spectacle of our country's response
to the governments ultimatum upon
Spain. He then leads the reader through
the hurried preparations for war, the
persecution by the Office seeker, the dis
appointment of hundreds of volunteers,
the demands of sea coast cities and
towns for immediate protection, and
the savage criticism of the military ad-
ministration's 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 now
convinced that, all things considered,
was not mistake.
The account of the march on San
tiago is graphically pictured.
The book takes up the round robin"
signed by the general officers Of Shat
ter's army while the negotiations for
surrender were pending, in which 1t was
stated that "this army must move at
ia
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 regrettable incidents of the war.
CRITICISM OF SAMPSON.
General Alger reviews at length the
differences between General Shafter and
! Admiral Sampson, and concludes this
| chapter in these words:
"It is difficult to account for Admiral
SIMPSONS seeming attitude toward the
army during the operations before San
| tiago, well as to excuse hlm for ms
contradictory statements subsequently
mace in his official report After the
srd of July, the adrnirals conduct may
| be due to the keen disappointment re-
sulting from his participation in the
! engagement with Cervera's squadron
| Possibly he felt that Snafter's request
| for a conference on the morning OF July
| 3rd, innocent though it was, was re-
sponsible for his being deprived of the
honor Of actively participating as COM
mander in chief, IN one of the most re-
markaIle v.ctoI les In the annals of naval
warfare"
| General Alger reviews the M.les-I-agan
controversy over the alleged furnishing
! of "ernbalmed beef to the army, and
tells OF the appointment by the presi-
dent, at his request, OF the commission
to investigate the conduct of the war
department n the war with Spain The
commission met September "a 1893, he
says, and Up to December 81 of that year
had taken testimony in seventeen towns
and cities and in many different camps,
granting TO citizens, soldiers anu former
soldiers an opportunity to appear Tor
complaint or testimony of any kind re-
garding the conduct of the war"
TESTIMONY ON EMBALMED BEEF.
Many thousands of soldiers were in
vited TO give their evidence without re-
gard to rank service.
| 'On the 21st of December" continues
General Aiger, ''the major general com
mandfng the army of the United States
appeared before the committee then sit
ting In Washington and made the state
ment with reference to the canned, fresh
and refrigerated beef furnished ~ tie
Iarmy during the war.
Although the commission had been sit
ting nearly three months the charges
WIN respect to canned and refrigerated
beef were now made for the first time;
land, stranger and more inexcusable and
imore unsoldierly still, during all those
lmonths. 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, Cen
eral Miles had never mentioned the sub
ject.
General Miles seemed 10 be pleased
with the notoriety which his startling
statements before the commission and
his subsequent newspaper interviews
gave him, for again, on the S1st of
March, 1899, in New York city, he pub
lished, through representatives Of the
Associated Press and a metropolitan
paper additional charges. This unmill-
tary and questionable method of max
ing public grave and scandalous charges
regarding a brother officer and the work
of his Observation-Disclosures which su5se-
quent and careful investigation proved