Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-01-27
The Santiago Object. Lesson.
A Short Chapter OF Common Sense on
Very Timely Topic,
from the Hartford Courant. ]


From the Hartford Courantl
1t is no news to our "anti" friends that
they are making Governor Roosevelt tired.
He considers the attitude OF some OF them
during last years war las profoundly I'M
American as was that of the 'Copperheads'
in 1861" The present attitude of these
people does not please him much better,
but he is convinced that they are a pretty
small crowd numerically and that it's
waste of time to argue with them. lie
feels a comforting assurance that the
country will not return the islands to
Spain, nor suffer any unfrendly European
power TO grab them, nor suffer them TO
sink into "a condition of squalid and saw
age anarchy" If the islanders can in
time be made fit for self-government, well
and good meanwhile we must govern them
as best we can. discussion of theories
will not avail much, says Gov. Roosevelt;
1--WE have bit of very practical work to be
done, and done it must be, somehow"
In the current issue of 1.-THE Outlook"
the governor suggests that Gen. Leonard
Wood at Santiago has given us an invalu-
able object-lesson in how to do IL. He
speaks of his comrade in terms of warm
personal affection-indeed, their friend
ship seems to have a strain of the old
David and Jonathan quality in it-but it
is with Gen. Wood the administrator that
he is concerned in this very timely article.
He points out that the generals whole
young life was a training for the duties
that have now come to him. He testifies
that, while the general is honoraby am
bilious of a reputation for doing his work
well his first care is that the work shall
be done thoroughly well-'let the credit
go where it will" He recites the things
done in four short months by Gen. Wood
in city where "all conditions were ripe
for period of utter anarchy" and where
foolish, or violent, or weak governor
would undoubtedly have precipitated it.
He gives us this glimpse of his friend at
work.
81 was frequently in Santiago after the
surrender, and | never saw Wood when he
was not engaged on some one of his null
titudinous duties. He was personally in
speeding the hospitals; he was personally
experimenting the cleaning of the streets
he was personally hearing the most i'm
portant of the countless complaints made
by Cubans against Spaniards, Spaniards
against Cubans, and by both against
Americans; he was personally engaged in
working out better system of sewerage
or striving to secure the return of the land
tillers to the soil. | do not mean that he
ever allowed himself TO be swamped by
mere detail; he is much too good an eX-
ecutive officer not TO delegate to others
whatever can safely be delegated; but the
extraordinary energy of the man himself
is such that he can in person oversee and
direct much more, than is possible with the
ordinary man"
What Leonard Wood has done at Santi-
ago-this is Governor Roosevelt's deduc-
ton and moral-other men of the Wood
type can do at Havana, in Porto Rico. in
the Philippines. The first thing is to get
the men; the next thing is to leave them
for the present with very free hands. Pol
itics should have no more to do with the
choice of these military governors than
with the choice of an admiral or a general.
and they should be allowed to pick their
men for the work that is to be done. and
not have incompetents or misfits forced
upon them by pull-manipuating politi-
clans. Nor should they be needlessly and
unwisey hampered in their administration
by minute instructions and unintelligent
interference from Washington. I'VE
cannot possibly" says Theodore Roose-
welt, "at any rate for the present, do bet.
ter than to take for each province some
man like General Wood, give him the
largest power possible both as to his meth
DDS and his subordinates, and then hold
him to a strict accountability for the re-
sults-demanding that he preserve I'M
furnished the honor of the American name
by working not only for the interests of
America but for the interests OF the peo-
pie whose temporary ruler he isl
III this isn't common samoa ua dOpis
know that article when we see It. But
common sense, resolutely and successfully
applied to the practical solution of import
ant national problems, has another name.
Writing about 1t in the after times. the
historians and political essayists call it
constructive craftsmanship.