Mohave County miner., 1918-03-02

writer and novelist, to reassure the mothers of American soldiers that their sons are being well cared for in the army cantonments.
 Herself the mother of soldier, the wife of a physician, and a trained nurse in her girlhood, Mrs. Rinehart is competent to judge whether the stories of wholesale mistreatment are true or not. She says they are not true. She does not speak from hear say but from personal knowledge, hav- ing just completed an inspection tour of the military hospitals, where every facility was given her to find out the truth.
 Mrs. Rinehart suggests that more women nurses are needed, but on the whole, declares that the army base hospitals are the equal in equipment and in every other respect of civilian institutions.
 Here is Mrs. Rinehart's letter:
 Hon. Newton D. Baker,
 Secretary of War.
 My Dear Mir. Secretary:
 have just been reading that tragic letter from an unknown father, read by Senator Chamberlain during the present senatorial investigation. Its sincerity cannot be questioned. As a mother, and as the mother of soldier, I feel, as every one must, the deepest grief and sympathy with the parents of that dead boy.
 Like every other mother in the country, ! want these cases known. want to be assured that they will be known. I want drastic punishment applied to any man, of no matter what rank, who is found guilty of negli- gence in the care, physical or moral, of our boys. want immediate rem edy of conditions that require remedy.
 But do feel that some step should be taken to reassure our women just now. It is only fair to them. It IS cruel to allow every mother in the country to judge the medical care that will be given to her boy while i in the service because here and there, in the chaos of our readjustment, men have been given responsibilities they are unable or unwilling to fulfill. That we have such men is more than a na- tional misfortune. That they have been placed in positions of trust is a national calamity. But the mothers of the country should know in fairness to themselves that the number of such Iinefficients is small. We will not rest we women, until they have all been removed. But that, know, will be at once. It must be at once.
 I have a son in an army cantonment He enlisted as a private. He would receive, if he became i'll, exactly the same treatment as any other enlisted man in our new army. And lshould have not only no hesitation in placing :! him in the cantonment hospital, but I should do t with absolute confidence As a matter of fact, he has already spent a few days there with an in- fected knee and received the best of care.
 I know something of hospitals. took a nurses training as a girl. l married a member of my hospital staff, and have been for many years constantly in touch with hospitals. During the first year of the war l visited the hospitals of France and England. Since we went into war have, with the avowed intention of seeing for the women of America, that our boys are to be well cared for in every possible way, visited many train ing camps and camp hospitals.
 There are conditions to be remedied. As I reported to you very recently, the failure of supplies has been a se- rious matter. There are not enough women nurses. The quarters of both nurses and doctors must be enlarged in many cases. The percentage of a serious illness has been low in the can comments q am not speaking of the camps), but the percentage of mild contagious, which always occur when men are brought together in the mass and of heavy colds, and bronchitis, has been high. The result of sending men with heavy colds for a few days into the hospitals has resulted in rather higher figures than the seriousness of the situation would otherwise justi- fy.
 Of cruelty and indifference I have found nothing. On the contrary, l have found the medical staffs of the hospitals both efficient and humane. When it is remembered that the med ical men of these national army hos pitals are volunteers, who have cheer fully relinquished the results of years os labor to give their services to the country, that they are of the best we have, as all volunteers are, that they are willingly undergoing deprivation and hardship to take care of our boys, it is wrong that the country at large should misjudge them. The best spe- cialists of the country have placed themselves at the disposal of the army medical department, and ninety-nine