The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-17
"Not Less Kind-Hearted Il Their
Critics." He Says, and Alt 3 ther
Credit to Americ =
TRIBUTES TO GREAT
SPLENDID DEEDS BY WHICH FAME
WAS ADDED TO FAME.
Need of More Officers and of Better
Quarters-New Gazetteer and Die
tionary of the Islands.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16.-The annual re-
port of Gen. ]. C. Breckenridge, inspector
general of the army. is a voluminous docu-
ment and covers every phase Of the military
establishment and each department, bureau
and command in the army. There are more
than fifty recommendations and sugges-
tions relating to improvements in the army,
most Of which pertain to technical matters
and minor conditions. Much of the report
necessarily has been covered in the reports
of bureau chiefs and commanding officers.
General Breckenridge finds much to COM
mend In all branches of the service and
reports progress and improvements every
where.
The most severe criticism Is In regard to
absenteeism where officers are on detached
duty, leaving the regiments short of off,
GERS. Thus, in the Philippines especially, it
is found that many companies are without
captains and the companies are in COM
mand of new and untried officers. He at
tributes this to lack of officers in the army
to fill the details and detached assignments.
General Breckenridge shows that instruc-
ton in the army is progressing satisfactor-
lily. He recommends the fortification of
Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian islands as a
strategic point He says water transporta-
tion in the army is rapidly assuming stable
and economical methods. He has the fol-
lowing to say regarding his inspection in
the Philippines:
s:During my tour in the Philippines II was
evident on all sides that the army, as
whole, was laboring patiently and faith
fully to solve the many vexing problems
continually presented to 1t. The difficulties
encountered and the hardships endured
never can be fully appreciated by any one
who has not been on the ground and OBJ
served the daily life of officers and men,
miles away from home influences and as
sociation, living in communities either open
ly or secretly hostile. depending almost en-
tirely for their subsistence on the COM
missary-where one is always afraid to take
even an ordinary drink of water without
ascertaining first whether it has been
cooked.
SOLDIERS OF HUMANITY.
Critics at home maybe search for epithets
to apply to our general officers, but these
officers are not less kind-hearted than their
critics, and were anxiously mindful of the
sufferings which necessarily fall upon the
innocent In warfare as well as the guilty,
and were devising means by which the
poor might be cared for and fed. There is
reason for qualification that our fellow
countrymen have confidence in their army,
and many know what war is, and the reac-
tiOn has not been sluggish.
THAT the army performed its duties well
and bore its hardships uncomplainingly is
well known to all who have kept in touch
with it since the opening of the Philippine
insurrection. In fact, it has done only
those things which we expect of II and
which we will continue to expect of Amer
lean soldiers.
1.-The crying need of the soldiers now in
the Philippines is quarters, and nothing
will add more to the discipline and eff
cheney of officers and men serving In that
division than the constructor, as rapidly
as possible, of commodious quarters and
barracks for our troops on sites which will
| afford ample room for proper instruction
of large bodies of men in drill and in target
| practice.
Discussing the American troops and the
| Filipinos, General Breckenridge says:
There has been good deal of discussion
in the public press and elsewhere concern
| ing the treatment of the native Fiipinos
| by the American troops, and some rather
serious charges have been brought against
| the army, which charges have not been
| substantiated. The conditions of the war
| in the Philippine islands have been perhaps
unusual. and from reasons arising from
| the conduct of the Filipinos themselves,
| who, as the authorities agree, are some
| times extremely cruel and treacherous. In
the conduct of the American army toward
| them the exercise of unexamped patience
| is claimed, and the humanity of the troops
| engaged has no parallel in the history of
dealing with Asiatics.
ROSTER OF GREAT DEEDS.
with what novel duties in both civil and
military administration and in the charac-
| ter and environment Of the war on the
opposite side of the globe have our soldiers
| been brought in contact. The world has
| felt the current of those distant affairs
and our Nation may not be fully conscious
| of the awakening.
who among us on the day of the battle
| of Manila Bay were familiar with the
names of men who had faithfully devoted
long lives to our service. not without some
| dangers by land and sea-and now how the
| character of the Nation has been weighed
/ in the balance according TO their words
and deeds. Merritt. with youthful fame in
| the Shenandoah and great plains, appears
| I'm his maturity on this last scene: Otis of
honest judgment, farreaching in sight, and
i a cormorant for work, bearing his honor
able wounds with ali modesty; Bates. the
| gentleman and soldier. the right hand of
| his chief in diplomacy emergency;
Wheaton. the thunderbolt and embodiment
of military ardor; Macarthur. judicious,
| courageous. masterful and broadminded:
| Hughes, acute and resolute amidst an at
| tempted Moscow and in the rugged places
of Samar and the middle islands; Funston.
| who won his fame amidst the hardships of
| the farthest front, Young, forever I'm the
| lead and seeking the vitals of the enemy;
| Smith. tireless and aggressive: Bell. cour-
teous and recklessly audacious, the prince
| of the advance guard; Lawton, 'droit ct
/ loyale' who baptized that land with his
blood and wrought famously and kindly
| in both hemispheres. doing easily and
without undue sacrifice whatever was most
| needed or most difficult: Chaffee. whose
sterling worth has been displayed in the
| old and new worlds wherever American
arms have brought her principles and won
! success either In the whiri of repeling
| deadly tyranny from the Antilles
| or In bringing safety to the be-
ieaguered legations from the bloody