Show I DEMORALIZING THE ARMY Disgrace ad Danger of the Ager JIle Disagreement New York Herald Secretary Alger with the active assIstance of Adjutant General CorbIn seems determined to keep alive the feeling that permeates the country against the war department depart-ment for its blundering and Incompe tency in the handling and care of the troops The special Washington dispatches to the herald Indicate that the secretary by snubbing the commanding general of the arJby overruling his views when expressed and by ignoring him in maters about which he should be consuledIs punishing him for publishing pub-lishing the statement he gave to the public upon his arrival from Puerto Rico It would have been much more manly and more satisfactory to the people if an official reply had ben made to Gen oral Miles statements I It were In Secretary Algers power to refute them he should have done so By remaining silent under the charges and then after af-ter the lapse of time subjecting their author to covert offIcial annoyance and insults Secretary Alger and his adju I tant general are unintentionally doing I all they can to remove any IngCring doubts that may have remained a tu I the correctness of the position originally origin-ally assumed by General Miles Our correspondent st te that the ors der of threes or-s ago reorganizing I the rbe army corpshiad not been seen by Gen oral Miles until after i was issued That a measure of this sort should b2 framed and the order Issued without the counsel of the men at the army headquarters and actually without their lcnewledge points to such an attitude at-titude of the war department toward the head of the army as calls for the I serious consideration of the country and will demand the consideration of congress when it meets In me man congss tier when reinforcements were ordered 1 to General Bacon In the Bear Island rglor we ure told that the commanding command-ing general was ignored i Stil another instance cited occurred a I I few das ago In connection with the mustering out of the First immune reg 1nent at Galveston General Miles did not consider the unruly acts of a few men sufficient cause for disbanding the whole regiment He argued that the offender should be dismissed and the regiment retained in the service and he revolted the order to muster it out Secretary Sec-retary Alger on his return continued the original order Upon pleas made by Representative Hawley of Texas i seemed for a tIme as if the secretary would reconsider the mater but upon the instance of Adjutant General Cor bin he yielded to the later and General Gen-eral Miles was overruled In view of these facts I is not surprising that many army men are biter against Al ger and Corbin for their treatment of the commmdln general This pet warfare In an Important arm of the government service 15 not merely disgraceful to the persons responsible sponsible for It and mortifying to the American people it Is a detriment to the service and in an emergency might prove a source of great danger It is vitally necessary that there should be god feeling and hety cooperation between the department and the commanding com-manding general The existing situation situa-tion is destructive of esprit de corps and demoralizing in Its influence demorizing is Infuence upon the service and must be terminated wIthout delay |