The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-09-05
Seen and Heard by George Miner.

here all the time on their way home. They have
managed to get out of the job for one reason
or another. The reason is generally for some
kind of illness, but they are the healthiest-look
ing lot of sick men l ever saw
Most of them, l am sorry to say, have tale
OF woe. Some of these grievances seem to be
pretty well founded and reflect severely on the
handling OF the army and the lack of efficiency
which, according to these soldiers tales, is APP
parent on all sides. They assert that General
Mismanagement is the real commanding officer.
For instance, I told that none of the
troops have been paid yet, although they have
been in service for two months. To many OF
the men that $I8 month is an important factor.
They really need it, but the red tape has so
bound up the pay rolls that it seems impossible
to get them Strengthened out 1t seem. that they
only had National Guard pay rolls and they
won't do at all, and no others arc supplied them.
major of engineers told me that he has a
stack OF them all filled out on his table but the
regular army officers won't pass them, and so
the men go without funds. The clerical depart
ment of the mobilization, he says is in hope
less middle. Naturally this has started a great
deal of dissatisfaction
IF you need anything for your men or your
equipment" said he, you have to buy it yourself
Out Vi SOui OWL pocket or go without Here IS
case in point The mules they gave us were
wild, untsmed things. They supplied us with
leather halter straps. Put one of them on those
mules and they would bite it right in two. More
than that they would reach over and bite off
the halter of the mule next them OF course
l could get the strap replaced if went about
it exactly right l would need to take the
two pieces OF strap that the mule bit up make
out rcqulstion in triplicate and submit the
mutllated strap and the papers to the condemna-
ton board. In course of time, a week or two
or month two, I would be issued new
strap. Meanwhile the mule would have got
away and gone to Arizona or somewhere
"Of course what wanted was steel halter
chains. There way to get them except
to buy them myself so I spent $50 out of my
own pocket and bought a lot of dog chains
which used for the purpose
I'VE supposed to be a mounted organiza-
ton! One OF my companies calls for I24 mules
and horses for its equipment What we have is
twenty mules. Even the captain Of the company
has not been mounted since we have been
on the border
The captain referred to took up the tale and
said:
I'VE Of the engineers are under a most annoy
ing handicap by the red tape we have to go
through with to get necessary supplies. If one
of my breaks an axe helve the only way
can get it replaced is to gather up all the pieces
of the broken helve and put them in with a
requlsiton. You see, these supply rules were
made for small regular army, distributed in
small detachments and living in time of peace.
They have not been changed to fit the new cond-
tons OF big army in active campaigning. It's
disgusting and the regular officers won't listen
to reason or any idea of altering the regulations
they have been living under for the past twenty
years. It's disgusting.
at seems to me, too, that the regular officers
have been stationed down on the border so long
that they have got sick of the whole Job and
don't take any interest in anything they DO.
have not a particle of enthusiasm anywhere
The National Guard is much more energetic than
the regulars and there is not much pep to it
either.
THE regular officers directing the National
Guard regiments as they supposed to have
the needed experience, but they do it in the most
careless and lackadaisical way. For instance a
regular officer picked out our camp for u.s. The
next day it was three feet under water. The
food is good when we get it, but there seems to
be always mix-up the railroad and terrible
bungling in the handling of trains Meat, which
| am officially informed is at our camp and
ready for issuance, I find when I go to get it is
held up fifty miles away. Such things as that
are constantly occurring"
when we went through Buffalo, said an of
hcer of the New York Twenty sleeping
In rattletrap old day coaches because the rail-
roads said there no tourist or Pullman
cars to be had, l in the yards there 800
Pulmans sdetracked and being used for sleeping
quarters for the attendants on convention then
being held 1t made me hot
Also no provision whatever was made to
handle the soldiers mail The little fourth-class
postoffice at McAllen was not augmented in any
way There is just there in little coop
to handle all that mail. He is clogged UP so
that he is out of sight 1t takes about two
weeks for a soldier to get letter from home.
that's terrible mistake, for many of them get
very homesick and frequent letters would cheer
them up lot AS for the telegraph service, the
less said the better. 1t is practically out of the
question to think of getting a wire through of
personal nature"