The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-24
THE PRESIDENTS STRENUOUS
POLICY NOT WISELY
DIRECTED.


cally right when he directs the Secretary
of War to address him a note of censure
But. granted that the President has the
advantage in being technically in the
right there is no warrant or excuse for
the brutal and severe manner in whicl
he administered the censure The letter
was SO Incorporate and so brutal as to
read more like the illumination OF a
John l.. Sullivan than of the occupant oi
the White House. 1t showed a vicious
ness of temper that ought not to char
acterize any official paper. Objectionable
however. as the letter was, the Presi-
dents treatment of General Miles, when
that officer called at the White House
to make an explanation, was even more
reprehensble. Here is the story of it as
told by the Washington POST
so severe a reprimand as that received
by Lieutenant General Miles has lever
before been administered to an officer of
highest rank in either service. What
The result may be cannot be foretold, al
though it is assumed that General Miles
will submit without further comment, os-
pecially as his view of the Schley case
is in accord with public opinion.
General Miles called at the White
House yesterday afternoon, evidently with
the intention Of making personal state
ment to the President, in the hope of Eav-
ing the reprimand withheld. There were
other callers in the Presidents room at
the time. General Miles had barely be-
gun to state the object of his visit when
Mr. Roosevelt, anticipating what he was
about to say, brusquely told him that MS
course in taking part in the Schley con-
troversy was wholly wrong and urpar-
donable. The President did not mince
his words. He spoke right out so that
everybody in the room could. hear. The
spectacle of the President lecturing the
Lieutenant General Of the army was such
an unusual one that those present VINO
were not appraised of the pending repri-
mand did not know what to make of it
all. 1t was very embarrassing to Gen
eIal Miles, naturally, and it is needless
to say that he cut his visit as short as
he could under the circumstances.
THE President subsequently, in talk
ing with other visitors, expressed de-
termination to have an end to the Schlcy-
Sampson controversy, so far as the navy
and army are concerned, for all time. The
approval of the court of inquirys verdict,
the rebuke of General Miles, and the
request for the resignation of the his
torian. Maclay are intended to close the
chapter-officially at least
The bad temper and worse manners Gis-
played by the President dscloses his
state of mind. Irritated and harassed
by the scandal in the Navy Department,
he ought to have had the courage to set
tie the matter in fearless way by clean
ing out the Navy Department from Long
and Hackett down to the smallest OF the
ring responsible for the scandal. Instead
of doing this, he makes a grand-stahd
play by removing Maclay, the "laborer'
who did the writing while Sampson and
those higher up read the proof Maclay
was the tool Of Sampson and the Navy
clique responsible for the trouble, and
the President cannot have an end to the
Scbley- Sampson controversy by censurine
General Miles and kicking out Maclay
while unfolding the men who are the
cause Of the whole scandal. If he will
have the nerve to reprimand Sampson
and his aiders and abettorS, that will
show the stuff of which brave men arc
made, but to ow-beat the highest Off
Ger CT the army because he has made a
technical error ard kick out Maclay, is a
sorry way Of meeting the issue. 1t is a
disappointment to all who had believed
that the new President would rise above
red-tapeism and compel the right thing
to be done.
The people will care less whether Gen
Miles transcribed rule of the War De-
partment than whether he told the truth
Instead of making a parade of his indlg-
nation and bullying General Miles, it
would have been more fitting for the
President to have asked General Miles for
the facts upon which he based his criti-
cism, and gone to the root of the matter.
His loud and vicious abuse Of Miles be-
trays the Presidents lack of satisfaction
in the course he is pursuing, for he knows:
that the treatment General Miles him
self received at the hands of the ring
in control of the War Department was
some excuse for his breaking through the
meshes of red-tape and speaking out for
great officer who had suffered even
greater persecution than he received al
the hands of Alger and the rest
General Miles has suffered every humii-
iation at the hands of this and the last
administration because the little fellows
in charge feared him as an aspirant for
the presidency. The same fear as &c
Schley haunts all the fawners around the
White House. Both must be destroyed
1t had been hoped that MIR. Roosevelt,
advertised as a strenuous man who rights
wrongs. would kick out all these little
fellows, do justice to Schley, and thus
"put an end to the Schley- Sampson con
troversy.' 1t seems that instead OF doing
this, he is going to let the same crowd