Omaha daily bee., 1906-02-05
LIBEL ON AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
Preachers Atrocious SANDER on an
Honorable Profession.

Honorable Profession.
Brooklyn Eagle. Jan 81.
Six hundred Protestant clergy men lis
tened to an extraordinary speech in the
Manhattan Church of the Holy Com
munion on Monday of this week The
speaker was the Rev. Or. Perley y. Baker.
national superintendent OF the Anti Saloon
league. Dr. Baker individually and for his
| organization opposes the re-cstablshmcnt
Of the oanteen in the army. To make his
position on the canteen question more en-
phatic he assailed by inference the charac-
ter Of the American commissioned officer.
For his own sake we hope he has been
misquoted. This, however, is what he is
| reported to have said:
THE Taggart trial has led me to believe
| that the time has come for the united
| churches of our country to demand that
| the men who as commissioned officers lead
| our friends, our brothers, our sons shall
/ he sober men, In a recent book is quoted
/ an editorial from prominent religious pa
1 per in which 1t is stated that Major Reno.
division commander at the time Custer
was massacred and who was near enough
to the scene of the massacre to rescue
Custer had he so desired did not do so
because he was under the influence of
| liquor. This was declared to be from a
confession made by Reno to Chaplain Ed
wards of the United States army. Custer
lost because the man who should have
rescued him was drunk Our officers must
be sober men,"
Nothing in these remarks Is specific ex-
cept the reference TO Major Reno That
officer was subordinate to General George
Armstrong Custer. Custer was subordinate
to General rprrV nd NIT
Gibbon and Crook was subordinate to Sher-
idan, who in the spring of 1876 assigned
all three TO operate in the Yellowstone
country against the insurgent Indians I'M
der command of Sitting Bull. Sheridan's
plan was to concentrate the divisions under
Crook, Terry and Gibbon in an overwhelm-
ing attack upon the hostile tribes. The
plan miscarried. At the outset Crook alone
came into touch with the Indians lie en-
cour tered band under Chief Crazy Horse |
drove them back upon the main body and |
forced general retreat which had as its |
objective a fine defensive position on the |
Little Big Horn. In this position, or in |
the immediate neighborhood OF it, General |
Terrys scouts again discovered the In |
dams against whom Custer was at once |
detached.
SuSlti idu just one cavalry regiment OF |
eleven companies under his command AL |
together his forces comprised but 600 men |
In him, as leader, courage, dash, audacity |
and splendid personal magnetism were |
unallied with that discretion without which |
the other qualities are too frequently as |
they were in this case, worse than useless |
HIS first mistake was in Understanding |
the strength of the enemy. His second, and |
the more grievous, was the division of his !
regiment into three sections, one led by |
himself, another by Major Reno and the |
third by Captain Benteen. Custer with 2GO |
troopers ignorantly rode into "A trap from |
which all the efforts of Reno and Benteen |
together could never have extricated him. |
Reno himself was fairly beaten into a de-
fensive from which he would not have |
emerged alive but for the arrival of Terry |
the DAY after CLUSTERS massacre. The charge
that Reno was drunk is "a Islander so afro
cious that DR.. Baker should be ashamed TO |
have given currency to It on the unsus-
tanned allegation of a journal adopting a
hearsay story of an unrecorded comics
sion"
decent regard for history In this in
stance would have alike modified the tone
of the speaker and tempered the spirit of
the audience that applauded him. His de-
mand that the commissioned officers of the |
army shall be sober men, a demand sup
posed to be reinforced by his aspersion of
Reno, carries with it an inference that the
of commissioned officers are habit
ually the reverse of sober That is an in
dictment which public opinion III not be
slow to repudiate. What was revealed at
the Taggart trial is not more typical of con-
ditions in commissioned circles than the oc-
casional designations Of some enlisted men
are of conditions in the ranks. 1t behooves
clergymen rather more than laymen to
speak with authority when they speak at all |
on questions involving the reputation of in
diViduals and the standing OF an honorable
profession to which those individuals be-
long.
The right Of commissioned officer to
drink is as inalienable as his right to eat or !
to breathe. The right to drink il intem-
perately employed may lead to intoxication.
That will very likely bring the victim of it
within the reach of a discipline that has
been proved by more than one court-mar-
tial to be inexorably radical I'm its results.
With that discipline in vogue the morals of
the army may be safely left to look out for
themselves. They average pretty well as 1t
Is SO far as proficiency I'm theoretical
studies, devotion to practical work and
loyalty to the flag are concerned the com
missioned officers of the United States
army have few equals and no superiors
even in the most perfect military establish
ments OF Europe Their professional excel
lence is a reasonable guarantee of their
moral behavior and the gauge by which
their value to the country they serve may
be most accurately measured
TONIC EFFECT OF MUsIC