Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29
SPANISH WAR HAD CLAMOR
BUT HEROES FAME FADES
America of 1898 and 1881 Linked as
Roosevelt Welcomes Hoover to
Shores of Porto Rico.

Woods Ambitions Frustrated.
And the Rough Riders" A
recent movie, based upon them and
their exploits, had no great success in
the America of 1929. Their colonel,
Theodore Roosevelt, wrote soon after
the war a book about their exploits, so
elf-appreciative that "Mr. Dooley''
thought Roosevelt should have called
the book "Alone in Cuba" (Roosevelt's
son, Theodore, jr., like his father, with a
title of colonel, received in France dur
ing the Great War, stood on the shore
of Porto Rico as governor of the island
to receive President Hoover, as vivid a
link as we are likely to find between the
America Of 1881 Gen. Leon
ard Wood, colonel of Roosevelt's Rough
Riders" later military governor of
Cuba, glamorous figure, foredoomed
to have his highest ambitions fruS-
trated. And Gen. BaWton-for many a
year a monument over his grave in an
Indiana cemetery has commemorated
his generalship of the Army in the
Philippines And 'Hell-Roaring'
Jake Smith, who helped subdue the
Filipinos and later was himself SUBJ
dued somewhat by the War Depart
ment for treating captured Filipinos to
the water cure" And the slo-
gans and phrases Remember the
Maine" "Embalmed Beef" And
the ditty that was, so to speak, the
Official song of the Spanish Wharf.-The
Spanish got the idea it was our ma
tional anthem.
when you hear dem-a bells go ding,
ling, ling,
All join round and sweetly you must
sing
There1l be hot time in the old town
tonight"
And the song few years later of the
American soldier of to duty in the
Philippines:
"Goodby, Dolly, must leave you,
Tho it breaks my heart TO go,
Something tells me am needed
At the front to fight the foe.
See the soldier boys are marching,
And can no longer stay.
Hark! I hear the bugle calling,
Good-by, Dolly Gray"
And the army of Cuban school teach
ers who in 1901, after peace, came to
spend q Summer at Harvard University
And the other academic army of
American school teachers, inspired by q
kind of evangelistic zeal, who went to
uplift the Filipinos. And I'm
perialism" or Expansion" issue of the
1900 presidential compaign, meaning
Americas retention of the possessions
that fell into our lap from Spain as
waits of the war. Bryan William Jen-
nings) said we should put them away
from us. Mckinley, Beverage lin
speeches you could waltz to- as well
as most of the Republicans, said we
should keep them-and won the cleo
rfz . ~,
Supreme Court decision on whether
''the Constitution follows the flag.
About the exact meaning of the de-
cision "Mr. Dooley" was vague in his
mind, but felt sure that mo matter
whether the Constitution follows TIL
flag or not, tn Supreme Court follows
tn illiction returns"
Consequences More Important.
All that-the military part of it. and
the craftsmanship and the diplomacy
and the constitutional arguments and
the politics and the church frictions-
all that Is long ago, and, even from the
deck Of a battleship in Caribbean
waters, seems far away. Who could
have dreamed in 1898 that one day
there would be a President of the
United States named Herbert Hoover
and that he would arrive in Porto Rice
upon visit of goodwill and humanity
coming on a battleship named for q
State, Arizona, that was not then a
State at all.
From the distance Of a third of q
century we can make a fair attempt al
assaying it. What it was all about the
answer to little Peterkin's question car
be found (maybe) in many dull tones
of history.
TTyI,. 1. ~oo1f,, 5000 ;,..~a~to,,t - ,-as
what the war was fought about, but
what came out Of it, the consequence
TO America and the world. And there
were two tangible consequences of the
Spanish War which deserve any epicS
that can be written about them. One
happened here in Porto Rico.
When the American troops came tc
capture Porto Rico in 1898 their COM
mander was Gen. Nelson A. Miles
Miles was, by every military standard a
most important person-head of the
United States Army in a symbolic as
well as an official sense. Handsome
impressive, with the picturesque ex-
perience Of Indian wars behind him
just the type for military hero, he
had during his 35 years Of Army service
faced death an promotion in ivry
form" An unforgettable passage from
Miles preparing TO make an appearance
In public, in the days before serviceable
khaki had displaced gorgeous colors In
Army uniforms. and when official rank
was in ratio of gold braid: He took
his bonnet out, had goold beaten ir
to fix up tn epylets, get tn ilicthric
lights goin' in tn buttons, found tn
right pair iv blue an pink pants pulled
on tn shoes with tn silver bells, har-
messed TO his manly hips tn soord with
tn forget-me- notS on tn handle"
Miles at that time and by those
standards was most exalted person
We know today, however. that amonf
those 10000 Americans who landed ir
Porto Rico during the Spanish War, the
most important by far the one who il
really linked with destiny, was an In.
conspicuous 25-year-old assistant sur
| geon, DR.. Bailey K Ashford. CHe /,
still alive and lives in Porto Rico. !
| Ashford, in intervals from his duties
with the American Army, observed thu
unhealthy appearance of many of thu
natives OF Porto Rico and was moved X
! help them. They were wan, emaciated
! listless, utterly lacking in energy; ;
| blight seemed TO weigh upon them
What Ashford found is too long a stor!
to tell here. It was scientific dis
coVeTy OF the IlFbC rank. ny prolonged
observation and study he identified thu
cause Of the disease afflicting thu
natives as hookworm. Out of Ash.
ford's discovery of hookworm in Porte
Rico arose recognition that the SAM
parasite was the cause Of similar con
ditions in the Southern States o
America. Out of that arose the lonl
crusades in which hookworm was prac.
tically eradicated from the South.
The other beneficent and indisputabl,
| important outcome of the Spanish Wa
arose from the presence Of anothe
Army doctor, william G. Gorgas, IL
Havana. DR.. Gorgas. together with DR.
Walter Reed and other Army medica
men in the course of sanitary work IL
the Cuban city, discovered and verified
| the fact that yellow fever is causet
| by mosquitoes. Subsequently, on tn