| Show WORTH ITS WRIGHT WEIGHT IN GOLD new york aug 22 lieutenant colonel nicholas senn who went 0 cuu cutha as chief of the operating staff of the army has just returned from porto rico and is in the city speaking of his ept nonce he said in cuba our army met as its most formidable enemy one of the most dreaded d of all accuse infectious diseases yellow fever the cuban invasion was characterized by hasty action a lack of organization and inadequate preparation on the art of the quartermasters department for which the mede al branch was waa in no way responsible in less than two weeks af after ter our army landed in cuba yellow fever made its appearance in less than two weeks from that time nearly fever cases most of them thein yellow fever impaired the fighting force and seriously taxed the resources of the medical department fortunately tuna tely for the army the type of the disease was mild and the number of deaths was wak small in comparison with some of the epidemics in the past it was extremely fortunate that santiago surrendered rendered at the right time our army arlay surely would have met the fate of the spanish forces who lost over fifty per cent of their men during the last laet year from sickness in planning the porto rican invasion general miles made madd the proper arrangements range ments for preventing a repetition of this calamity thus far our troops an porto rico have escaped yellow bev ar but bu t soon moon after landing fever cases came into the different hospitals at an sl alarming armIng rate after landing at ponce on august 8 1 I found at least oases cases of typhoid fever in some of the cases jt wan mm difficult and almost impossible to nus make a differential diagnosis between malarial and typhoid fever without the add id of the microscope a resource which unfortunately was not at hand pol fol lowing the order of colonel greenleaf chief surgeon of the army armei investigated for two days all of the fever cases in the hospital for the purpose of locating the origin of the typhoid fever A careful study of all the cases showed te owed that ninety per cent were genuine typhoid fever cases cages and the infection in the army was brought directly erectly from the camps occupied in the united states I 1 am firmly of the opinion that if the american army now in porto rico remains there much longer or the loss 1008 of life due to sickness will vill tie be a as great as an at santiago the order to general wilson to td take ap pp the march towards san juan made nc mceary eary to eva evatna tUa the division hospital all of the patients were transferred to the spanish military hospital in ponce khilch caused the temporary overcrowding the club houses of the city and the school for girls in charge of sisters of charity were also offered to the authorities for hospital use and were accepted I 1 want to make especial mention of the valuable services rendered by miss chandler ot your atty who night and day with untiring energy administered to the sick and wounded soldiers all of the officers in the club house became very much attached to miss chandler Chaa idler nostalgia or homesickness in a large measure has led to the wretched condition ot of the soldiers not or only lly in cuba but in potto rico also the post office department has shown serious neglect in forwarding mail you give a man a letter from home and he feels like fighting I 1 know as aa an actual fact that more than letters were sent to me while I 1 have been away from home but I 1 have received only two of them newspapers were in great demand and were eagerly bought and read the war has again demonstrated the great value of the small calibre bullet and has shown that it is a most humane weapon contrary to expectations but few surgical operations were necessary and our at tenion was directed entirely to the proper dressing of wounds 1 I want to correct some off of the reports which have come from cuba and porto rico as to fro the feelings of the spaniards against the red cross the spaniards never purposely fired at the red cross crosa representatives of our country and if any ot of those were injured it was entirely due to th e fact that the red badge of the order could not nat be easily distinguished at a distance the fo lowing touching incident tor for example shows that the spaniards are in sympathy with the work of the red cross organization while a company of infantry was charging a hill at Gun guanita guanica Gu anica nica a who had rushed yards ahead of thie the live line was suddenly prostrated by the heat A spanish officer near by ran to him and picked him up and carried him to our line amid the chews cheers of our troops colonel senn is enthusiastic about porto rico and declares axes the island to be worth its weight in gold it to is a beautiful country a combination blua tion of italy and switzerland and its ite resources are incalculable what is now needed to in porto rico is amerian civilization with its little red school house it will take st at least 50 years to bring the natives of porto rico and cuba to such a of civilization that they can govern them selves I 1 think the best plan for the united states would be to establish a colonial government in the new colonies somewhat upon the plan by which england governs india I 1 am of the opinion that even in cuba military oc cu pation of the united will be necessary sary for a long time |
