The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-07
ALCER'S BOOK.
Will Be Issued This Week and
Make a Stir.
Delayed and Changed Owing to
Mckinley Assassination.
He SCORES GEN. MILES
e SCORES GEN. MILES
Reviews the Embalmed Beef
Controversy.
Touches Sampson-Schley Affair
and Round Robin.

his publishers state, has been delayed
and changed because of the death OF
President Mckinley" will be issued
next Thursday.
! Opening his book with a survey of
| the Cuban situation in 1885, Gen. Alger
| says:
THE thoughtful observer of public
| events during the years 1867 need
hardly be reminded that both the Cleve-
| land and the Mckinley administrations
| sought by every honorable means to
avoid complications with Spain, though
protesting against the conditions pre-
valent in Cuba
Gen. Alger then comments upon our
unprepared1iess for war at that time,
and the splendid spectacle of the coun-
try's response to the governments ul-
timatum upon Spain. He then leads
the reader through the hurried prepara-
tons for war; its embarrassments and
difficulties; the persecution of the office
seeker; the disappointment of hundreds
of volunteers; the demands of seacoaSt
cities and towns for immediate and i'm
possible protection, and the savage crit
icism of the military administration
plans of campaign, and the battle with
the apparently endless list of short
comings and grievances. Then follow
the plans of campaign; the embarka-
ton at Tampa, which was severely
criticised at the time, but which Gen.
Alger is now convinced that, all things
considered, was not mistake. The
account of the march on Santiago is
graphically pictured, and prepares one
for the fights at Caney and San Juan.
The round robin incident comes in
for fair share of space. While the
negotiations for surrender were pend
ing before Santiago the general officers
of Skaters army met and signed
round robin, which was given out for
publication. This paper showed great
alarm over the threatened coming of
yellow and enteric fevers. and went on
to say: This army must be moved at
once or it Will perish" OF the round
robin itself, General Alger says he has
no criticism to offer. But he does criti-
else the publication of it, saying that
it was one of the most unfortunate and
regrettable incidents of the war.
General .AlgaT reviews at length the
differences between General Shafter
and Admiral Sampson, and quotes
many official letters. He concludes this
chapter in these words:
1T is difficult to account for Ad-
miral SIMPSONS seeming attitude to-
ward the army during the operations
before Santiago, as we'll as to excuse
him for his contradictory statements
subsequently made in his official report
After July the admiraPs conduct may
be due to the keen disappointment re-
sulting from his nonparticipation in the
engagement with Cervera's squadron.
Possibly he feit that Skaters request
for a conference on the morning of
July g. 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-
markable victories in the annals of
naval warfare
MILES EAGAN DISPUTE.
OF the Miles agan controversy over
g.. 1se-I,- -,-r aI1a lima
beef to the army, Gen. A1ger says;
1.-The commission appointed by the
president, at my request, to investigate
the conduct of the war department in
the war with Spain, commonly known
as the war investigation, or the Dodge
com mission, met on September "a, 1893
Up to December 81 1898, this commits
sion had taken testimony in IL towns
and cities and in many different camps,
granting wherever it went to the citi-
zens, soldiers or ex-so1dierS an oppor-
tunity to appear for complaint or tes-
timony of any kind regarding the con-
duct of the war. The commission visi
ted numerous camps in which there |
still We're many thousands of soldiers, |
both regulars and volunteers, who were |
invited to give their evidence, without |
regard to rank or service. On Deem |
Der 81 the major general commanding |
the army of the United States appeared |
before the comm issiOn, then sitting in |
w aSnlnSIOn, ana naOe HIS statements |
with respect to the canned, fresh and !
refrigerated beef furnished to the army |
during the war.
.sAlthough the commission had been sit |
ting nearly three months, the. charges |
beef were now made for the first time; |
and. stranger and more inexcusable and |
more unsoldierly. still. during all those |
months. with this pretended knowledge |
have been made known to the secretary |
of war for the protection Of the army,
Gen. Miles never mentioned the subject
ment before the commission and his SUBJ
sequent newspaper interview gave him;
New York city, he published. through |
of the Associated Press
ma o This unmiiitar lsp ana dues
-ionab1e method of making public grave
brother officer and the work of his de-
which subsequent and
careful Investigation proved both unwar-
certain chara cteristics of the major gen.
sral commanding to which reference here
IF we are to believe written evidence |
o the contrary, it does not appear that
Gen. Miles was even honest in making his
lilatory charges that the timed beef was
ssued as the spretense of an experiment. |
Ind that it was not part Of the ration.
idential staff officer signed a letter by
direction of the major general command
Nunez 1854 pounds of canned roast beef,
# the army IF we are to accept the
'eading of this letter as correct, it proves
,eef was a part of the ration that he
new there was a large quantity of it at
no fd Ipr ed Of its Fo1 I and that
quantities to tas allies
Fire at Mar;rette