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Show 'H THE UNIVERSITY TRAINING CORPS OUTRAGE. H IT took the daily papers a long time to wake up to the seriousness H of the situation in the student army training corps at the U, but iH now they are blazing away with front page stories that should- have H been written weeks ago. The first indignant protest regarding condi- H tions there appeared in these columns a week ago as soon as the mat- H ter was called to our attention. H I Before the article was written Colonel Wright was asked re- H garding the conditions and assured the writer ten days ago that there H were only eighteen cases of flu out of a body of over eight hundred H men. His statement has not been borne out by the facts subsequently H made public, for since November 18, 181 student soldiers suffering H from influenza have been admitted to the post hospital, and a total of H 399 cases or nearly half of the organization have been admitted since H the disease first took hold. There have been fifteen deaths from the IH disease among the students. Could it be possible that he was ignorant H of this or merely wished to be quiet concerning actual conditions? 'H One death was that of Ernest B. Watkins whose mother with a H family physician went to the post hospital to see her boy. She was told he was improving rapidly, but that the rules forbade anyone seeing the ,H patients. She returned to town, and upon reaching her home re- ! ceived a wire from the war department at Washington that her son H was seriously ill at the Fort Douglas hospital. She returned to the H fort with the wire, and was admitted. The boy died next morning. ' H We have it on most excellent authority that the students were H improperly clothed in the severe weather. in November, that the food H has been sour and rotten, not plain, good food such as soldiers have, H that the sleeping quarter's were freezing at times, and that the entire H condition was deplorable. The sick and mortality reports make the H truth of this very apparent, and there must be some person or per- H sons whocan be held to strict accountability. H It is too late to do anything for some of the poor fellows who H were in the student body, but it isn't too late to mete out punishment H where it is due, for there has been incompetency, carelessness, gross H neglect and willful concealment of conditions, and the authorities re- H sponsible for it should be called to account. H H |