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| Maj. Gen. Henry Ware Lawton. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, November 5, 1898.
LAWTON AS A WITNESS.
He Says That There Was No Serious Mistakes Made.
OTHERS TELL DIFFERENT STORIES.
Regiments Poorly Supplied With Clothing and Arms and Never Fully Supplied—Requisitions Never Fully Filled—Commanding Officers Did Not Enforce Discipline.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5.—In testifying before the [Spanish-American] war investigation commission General Lawton said his division had lost 410 men killed and wounded, and that all the wounded had been accounted for. This latter remark was brought out by the suggestion made by Colonel Denby that a statement had been made to the effect that some of the wounded soldiers wandered into the woods and were never seen again.
"I never heard that before," he said. "All the wounded were accounted for, and they were all taken to the field hospitals." There were no ambulances but some litters, how many he did not know.
"Knowing there was to be a fight, how does it happen that you did not have enough litters, enough surgeons and their hospital corps?" Colonel Denby asked.
"Well, I cannot say there were not enough," General Lawton replied.
"How do you account for the fact that medical men did not provide themselves with everything for taking care of the wounded?"
"I think they did provide themselves with everything they thought necessary, considering the material they had to choose from. There was no time to do more or get more surgeons than we had. They were distributed to their various commands."
The general said that while it was difficult to get supplies to the men while they lay in trenches from the 2d to the 17th of July, he thought the quantity was sufficient. There had been no sickness worth mentioning until after the campaign. There had been no tents except the shelter tents, which some had until just previous to the embarkation for the United States.
Asked where he fixed the responsibility for not having the tents there, General Lawton replied: "I don't fix it at all, because I don't think there was any responsibility about it. The men were there without tents because of the fact that it was impossible to unload them from the ships for lack of facilities. It is a difficult matter to unload a ship in a rough sea. There was very little complaint on account of the tents. Complaints did not come to me, and I was with my men constantly. That they should have to lie out as they did was one of the contingencies absolutely necessary in the conduct of the war."
It was true as reported, he said, that men had to wear their shirts for possibly 30 days without a change, but this was because they had thrown away their extra clothing.
He held the climate responsible for the sickness that followed the campaign, though it was possible that with more appropriate food, better cooking and shelter some of the sickness might have been prevented. He had, he said, remained in Santiago until about two weeks since, and while the health conditions were not improving, there had been much suffering among the soldiers left there. "It is my opinion," he said, "that anyone going from this climate to Cuba will have to suffer the acclimatizing fever there. I doubt if 1 per cent have escaped absolutely."
Replying to a question as to whether the navy should not have control of the transports, he said: "No, indeed."
"You think that the army ought to have control of them?"
"Absolutely," was the laconic reply.
"While they are acting together?" Colonel Denby asked, and the reply was: "They won't act together. That is where I make my point. Two men cannot command the same affair."
Summing up, General Lawton said: "Taking into consideration the conditions that we were obliged to face, the character of the country, its climate and other things being considered, I can say there was no serious or gross mistakes made. I can say there was no lack of care on the part of any of those in authority, whose duty it was to look after the interests of the campaign. We had with us as fine officers as there are in the world; no better could be found. These men worked night and day and no human being could do more than they."
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
What Croker Is and What He Seeks.
No more pitiless, and at the same time no more just description of Richard Croker, and of what he seeks to do, and of what Democratic success in the state this fall would mean, has ever been given than is found in the editorial columns of the current number of Harper's Weekly. The picture drawn is one which good citizens may well consider over Sunday, and then ask themselves what is their political duty on Tuesday next, in view of the terrible facts so forcibly presented.
The Weekly says: In the city Croker has a body of voters numbering in the neighborhood of 200,000, who can be moved and voted almost as one man. This body of voters has seized upon the liberties of the metropolis of the country, and has made him its king; the question is, shall it make him king of the whole state?
Let us consider him a moment. He is an ignorant, brutal man, who has come from among the moral dregs of the people, and by base arts and strong will reached the head of the government. He was described with pitiless accuracy by Mr. Bourke Cockran, in his speech at Carnegie hall. Ex-leader of the "tunnel-gang," ex-prize fighter, race-track gambler, this man who is now mysteriously rich, and who probably would be ruined even in the eyes of his base associates if he revealed the sources of his wealth, was once the head of an oligarchy known as the "Big Four" of Tammany Hall. Now he is an absolute ruler; more absolute within his jurisdiction than is the Tsar in his. He reigns over more than 2,000,000 of subjects, not one of whom, especially if he is the owner of property, is safe from his enmity. He is reported to have asserted that he intends to remain at the head of Tammany for the remainder of his life.
No such power, no such confidence of power, is known elsewhere in any republican form of government in the world. This ruffian from the slums, whose notions of civil government are of that sort that fired the mob which ruled France during the "Terror," has declared himself ruler for life. How soon will it be before he announces that his power is to be transmitted to his eldest son? Croker the king is so sure of his power that he does not hesitate to abuse it openly. The Weekly has exposed the manner of his government of New York City. The vice to which he is native reigns with him, and pays tribute to his reign. The laws of the state are defied. The guardians of the peace are the servants of crime. The good citizen lives by suffrance, taking what his majesty bestows upon him. The criminal and the vicious may buy indemnity, make the city a hideous abode of orgy and brutishness, and prey upon the victims which their knavery selects.
This is Croker's rule in the city. He wishes to extend it. He seeks to put his creatures at the head of the state government. He wants to repeal the laws which incommode him, and to make fresh laws which shall aid his absolute rule, or disobedience to which he and his creatures may sell for money. He is king and legislator for the city; he would be king and legislator for the state. His rule is sustained in the city by its beneficiaries—public plunderers, criminals of all classes, from the bank robber to the sneak thief, gamblers, pool sellers, greengoods men, while prostitution buys from it the right to flaunt its shame in the eyes of innocent youth. Does the state want this vulgar cormorant to flap his wings over the capitol at Albany? Does it wish to promote his ambition to befoul Washington? Does it want Croker managing its canals, its asylums, its hospitals, its prisons, and its militia, and to prey upon every corporation created by its laws?
Finally, is Croker to be helped to own the judiciary? The courts now afford the one refuge of honest citizens. Thanks to the vigilance of the bar, and especially to the intelligent activity of the Bar association of the city of New York, the courts have been kept reasonably pure. In no other way has Croker more offensively shown his contempt for public opinion and for the rights of citizens than by his refusal to nominate Judge Daly. It is too late now for him to declare that Judge Daly has outlived his usefulness. He admitted the true reason before he discovered that he had aroused the people by his assault on the independence of the judiciary. He refused renomination because Judge Daly declined to obey his orders, and in doing this he has announced that he will have no judges who are not his obedient henchmen. The issue is clearly drawn. Shall the last refuge of decent men be filled with Croker's creatures? Shall crime and vice sit also on the bench? Shall Croker's enemies, who are all good citizens, seek their rights in Croker's courts? Shall it be Croker's justice or the people's that shall be administered by the judges?
In this attack upon the bench the vulgar boss has at last played the fool, and has made himself the chief instrumentality for the election of Roosevelt, whose success alone can prevent the consummation of Croker's ambition.
On a Thirty Days' Furlough.
Mr. Fred D. Pierce of the United States general hospital corps located at Camp Wykoff returned to his home in Cortland last night on a thirty days' furlough. Mr. Pierce was one of the Cortland boys who enlisted in Company L, Two Hundred and Third New York regiment. On Aug. 26 he was transferred to the hospital corps at Camp Wykoff, but was himself taken ill with malaria Sept. 17, and a few days later removed to the New York infirmary, where he has been since that time. Mr. Pierce speaks in the highest terms of his care both at Camp Wykoff and in the infirmary.
A CROOKED STORY.
MORE DETAILS ON THE STRANGE HORSE TRADES.
Two Boys Arrested—Two More Still at Large—One Makes a Confession and Tells of a Long Series of Escapades—Went with Mr. Taylor to Recover His Horses—If the Animals Come Back Perhaps His Story is True.
There are more details in regard to the strange series of horse trades noted in The STANDARD yesterday and two boys are under arrest. They claim that they had two confederates who are still at large. The boys when sharply questioned told conflicting stories. One of them finally declined to say more, but the other at last said he would make a clean breast of it and tell all he knew. He told a long story, some of the features of which have already been verified. Other parts have not yet been substantiated, though the falsity of his statements has not been shown in any particular, after he really began to try to tell the truth, as he said.
The two boys are George and Henry Corwin, aged, they say, 18 and 17 years respectively. They are related in some way to George Green who lives on Evergreen-st., Cortland, and they make their home there. Their first known connection with the case seems to have been at about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon when they were going up Clinton-ave. toward Mr. Taylor's home inquiring for stray horses, saying that two horses had escaped from their stables, having slipped their halters. They had hunted all over Homer, they said, all day for them and had finally started up the Truxton valley. They arrived at the Taylor place and claimed to identify as their own the two horses which had been left there in the pasture during the previous night by parties unknown, Mr. Taylor's two horses having disappeared from the same pasture during the same night. They took the horses away with them.
Mr. Taylor returned at night from a fruitless search after his horses and heard of the boys taking these horses away. Early this morning he notified Sheriff Brainard of the fact. The sheriff himself at once started for Cuyler to follow up a clue there which, however, proved to be fruitless except as it afterward tended to verify the truth of some features of the story of the boy arrested during his absence. He asked Deputy Sheriff John Miller to go with Mr. Taylor to the Green house on Evergreen-st. and see what he could learn from the boys.
The two went up there and saw the two horses which were yesterday at Mr. Taylor's, standing by the house, one tied to a tree and the other to a wagon wheel. They inquired for the boys and the two appeared, bareheaded, barefooted, ragged and dirty. The rest of the story we get from Mr. Miller as it appears from his questions of the boys. He asked them where they were yesterday and they said they had walked to Dryden and back and that the horses had strayed away in their absence.
This did not agree with their story last night that they had been hunting all over Homer all day for the horses, and furthermore the horses were found in Mr. Taylor's pasture at daylight instead of straying off after the boys left for Dryden in the morning, as they said. They made several more conflicting statements and then Mr. Miller told them to come along with him to the jail. They asked permission to go into the house to get their hats and he told them to go on. When they failed to appear after a reasonable time he went after them. There was but one room to the house and three people were there, but no boys. He asked where they were and was told "upstairs." "Upstairs" is a little, low, unfinished attic dimly lighted. Up there the tall deputy sheriff climbed, but could sec nothing. There were three cot beds there close together. He turned them all over and also a lot of other truck and under the last bed found a boy's foot. A pull at the foot developed a boy and the other one was quickly discovered there too.
Arrived at the jail the boys were separated and quizzed. The boys claimed to own the horses, and the older one said he traded a fiddle for the roan horse, but the younger boy says the other fellow stole it, and there was no trade. Regarding the black horse they cannot find out much but it is thought he probably belongs to some of the gang.
Finally Henry, the younger boy, said he would tell it all and started in. From this story, if true, it appears that four boys started out on a trip Thursday night. They began operations at Cuyler, where they first called at the home of Elwin Church and stole an open buggy. Then they came down to Charles Short's at South Cuyler and stole the roan horse, which Ward Woodward sold to him some years ago. At Nelson Albro's near Truxton they got a new single harness at A. B. Griffith's, just north of East Homer a whip and some blankets. At J. H. Allen's just south of East Homer they traded off the old buckboard they had with them for his side bar top buggy and took also the calf which they then thought was pretty good veal and which they intended to eat. When they got down to L. D. Taylor's they thought it was time to make a horse trade and get something that was not so tired and which would drive better. They saw Mr. Taylor's horses in the orchard and swapped. By this time they had found that the calf was a pretty young one and concluded to discard it, and so the poor bossy was left in the ditch by the orchard bars. At Mr. Taylor's too they needed more harness, and secured it from his barn.
Then they drove to McLean and took breakfast with an aunt of the two boys. When daylight came they concluded that Mr. Taylor's horses were not quite as good [as] they wanted to have if they were going to run them out of the country and so they parted company with the other two fellows and started to return to Cortland with Mr. Taylor's horses. They didn't want to bring them clear back to town so at a convenient place they turned them loose in a pasture and concealed the Albro harness in an unused barn to be called for later. Then they walked home and at once started out to reclaim the horses left in Mr. Taylor's orchard, thinking they could work off the "strayed away" story and regain the horses and escape detection.
The older boy was then locked up in jail while the younger one in company with Mr. Taylor started off to point out the place where they had left the two horses and the harness and to get them all back. They had not returned when The STANDARD went to press. If the horses are found and the harness it may be believed that the story is substantially true.
Try as they did, they failed to connect these boys with the butter stolen from Charles Knapp's. That was probably the work of other and slicker fingers.
For obvious reasons The STANDARD refrains from giving any of the particulars stated in regard to the other two fellows, but officers are already hot on the trail and it is likely that they will soon rejoin their friends at the county boarding house, [Sheriff] A. E. Brainard, landlord.
BREVITIES.
—The Y. M. C. A. football team went to Homer this morning and defeated a Homer team 15 to 0.
—A regular meeting of the Women's Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. will be held in the Y. M. C. A. parlor Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 3:30 P. M.
—The Ithaca Journal says that the Presbyterian society of that city is to have a new church edifice right along and it will probably cost $100,000.
—Mrs. Thomas Park died yesterday afternoon at her home on South hill of dropsy of the heart. Her age was 58 years. The funeral will be held Monday morning at 11 o'clock and the burial will be in the Cortland Rural cemetery.
—A regular meeting of the hospital managers will be held at the hospital Monday next, Nov. 7, at 3 P. M. Following this, and beginning at 4 o'clock there will be an adjourned meeting of the Hospital association. A full attendance is desired.
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