The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-11-27
NEGLECT

The Star is sorry to say that there
seems no doubt that the death of Ser
geant James Leitner of Company A,
in the hospital at Camp Wheeler, was
due to neglect.
Nobody who knew the strong, rug
ged young man and well trained SOL
der, who left here few weeks ago,
and hears from his sister the story of
the pitiful condition she found him IN,
can doubt that careful nursing at the
right time would have saved him. His
father and sister could have saveo
his life if they had been sent for at
once. His comrades at the camp
could have saved him if they had been
allowed to do so. There are hun
dred of his personal friends in Com.
pany A who would have cared for
him with tenderness and interest
that no stranger nurse could feel.
AS his life went, so, we doubt not,
others have gone, and so we fear
others will go.
A discharged soldier, man who
had to leave the service for a slight
defect, but who will probably be need
ed before the war is over, was in the
Camp Wheeler hospital for few days
several weeks ago. He was not very
sick, so he did not suffer much, but
he saw others that did. The story he
tells of the conduct of some of the
hospital attendants is enough to make
a mans blood boil. He was in the
hospital during the October cold spell
and says the attendants in his ward
would crowd around the stove at night
and pay little or no attention to the
sick men in their charge. They
would not even bring them water, and
he has seen sick, half-naked men arise
from their cots and stagger barefoot
ed across the cold floor to the water
supply in order to obtain a drink.
We wonder if the officer in com.
mand at Camp Wheeler knew of this,
and if he did, why didn't he have the
attendants fogged out of the camp
Shooting them would not have been
any too severe punishment Talk
about German frightfulness, but
such two-legged skunks are worse
than Germans.
This sort of business must be
punished and prevented if the coun-
try is to win the war. If there are
many more such incidents, they will
take the heart out of our people. We
can send our sons TO the front, bear
the agony of suspense of their alb.
sence, bear the misery of knowing
they die or are wounded in doing their
duty. But if we begin to feel like it
is equivalent to a sentence of death
for one to be sent to a hospital, we
will lose heart, for its few of them
who will go thru the war without
spending some time in hospitals.
One of the saddest things about
conditions at the Camp Wheeler hos
pital is the fact that all the relief and
comfort the men needed was near and
could have been had for the asking.
Macon is a good-sized town and has
thousands of the kindest-hearted peo-
pie in the world If any bunch of its
leading men-if one of its newspap-
ers-had had the bravery to tell of
conditions at the hospital, and said to
the people of the city, "Here, let's
help these boys" the sick could have
had blankets and pillows in abundance
for their cots-indeed, we believe Ma
con would have given them good beds
and careful nurses to look after
them, and help them to get well, and
dellcacies to feed them while they
were getting WELL So far as that is
concerned, all Georgia would have
helped if it had been appealed to.
These training camps are a neces-
sity, but we are afraid they are ruin
ing large number of our people. To
begin with, every city in the country
wants one, and will do anything to
obtain one. There has been enough
lying done in the last few months TO