The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-07-02

to strip from the President the power
conferred upon him by the Constitu-
ton as Commander in Chief of the
Army and Navy and transfer it to
committee of selfchosen roundrobin-
ers.
Wher we recall how in that War
with Spain, fought at our doors, guns
were fitted to improper carriages and
sent useless to the field; how small
quantities of medicine were shipped
from point to point by freight instead
of by express, and were not received
where needed for months; how even
after the war ended, troops who had
been in the field had never been sup
piled with sufficient clothing or camp
or garrison equipment; how flimsy
and worthless cartridge belts were
furnished to the soldiers how for
months during and after the war the
only medicines on hand at base hos
pitfalls were salts, quinine and castor
oil: how, as Gen. Miles himself testi-
/ fled before an investigating commits
sion, the beef furnished to soldiers
was unfit for animals, not to speak of
soldiers fighting for their country;
how soldiers were compelled to stay
in tentless camps amid insanity and
disease-breeding conditions; how train
loads of soldiers, sick and dying, were
sent through the United States with
out medical attendants; how the men
in at least one camp went without
meat for three weeks, and how the
commissary of the Army was after
wards court-martialed for misconduct
and neglect of duty; and how another
famous round robin" signed by men
of the high character of Gen. Joseph
Wheeler, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry
w. Lawton, Gen. Leonard Wood, and
many others complained of a lack of
knowledge in Washington of condi-
tions at the front and urged the War
Department to take some action before
it was too late or the whole American
Army would perish from sickness and
disease-when we remember that all
these things happened i'm an army Of
little more than 100000 men, only
about 10000 of whom were sent to
The seat of war in Cuba, ought not the
Nation to feel profoundly grateful that
Providence did not commit to the
tender mercies of a Republican adj
ministration the management of the
great war with Germany, in which
We raised and equipped in the, army
and Navy nearly 100000 men and
sent more than 100000 of them
more than 5000 miles from our shores
over a dangerous and treacherous
ocean to add new splendor to the his.
tory of American arms?
And then, when this Army had driv-
en- the enemy back at Balleau Wood.
at Chateau-Tierry, at Fismes: at
ST. Mihiel, in the Argonne Forest, and
all the other immortal spots where
American blood sanctified the soil of
Europe, and that enemy with broken
sword and flag Of truce sued for
peace on terms laid down the Com
mander in Chief of that victorious
Army. the President of the United
States, we see these same Republi-
can politicians, these self-styIed
sustainers and upholders, seeking to
discredit the President of the Nation
and the spokesman of their country
in foreign land, where he had gone
amid the grateful acclamations of
burdened world to help restore the
peace of nations and gather up again
the fragments of civilization. We see
them endeavoring to crafty their lit.
tie minds by undertaking to humili-
ate him even before he reached the
peace conference, which he had been
urged to participate in by the respon-
sible statesmen OF the associated ma.
lions. We see them by every con-
temptible devicl which damagogues