Collins had written what he considered a conservative review of the situation in June, saying reinforcements were needed. Of the suppression of this he says:
The censor's comment (I made a note of it) was: "Of course we all know that we are in a terrible mess out here, but we don't want the people to get excited about it. If you fellows will only keep quiet now we will pull through in time [232] without any fuss at home!"
Mr. Collins's letter proceeds: "When I went to see him [Otis] he repeated the same old story about the insurrection going to pieces."
As to the charge of suppressing the real condition of our sick in the hospitals, Mr. Collins says that General Otis remarked that the "hospitals were full of perfectly well men who were shirking and should be turned out." On June 2, 1899, according to General Otis's report (p. 121), sixty per cent. of one of the State volunteer regiments were in hospital sick or wounded and there were in its ranks an average of but eight men to a company fit for duty. The report of the regimental surgeon stating this was forwarded by General Otis to Washington with the comment that there were few cases of serious illness; that the then "present station of these troops"--the place where the fighting was hottest, San Fernando--"is considered by the Filipinos as a health resort," and that "when orders to take passage to the United States are issued, both the Montana and South Dakota troops will recover with astonishing rapidity." [233]
This round robin of course produced a profound sensation in the United States. It was just what the American public had long suspected was the case. Shortly afterward Secretary of War Alger resigned. Coming as it did on the heels of the scandal about "embalmed beef" having been furnished to the army in Cuba, it made him too much of a load for the Administration to carry. He was succeeded by Mr. Root, an eminent member of the New York Bar, whose masterful mind soon saw the essentials of the situation and proceeded to get a volunteer army recruited, equipped, and sent to the Philippines without further unnecessary delay.
And now, a man of head being at the centre of it, the whole matter gets vital.--Carlyle's French Revolution.