The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-27
THE MAN THAT CUBA MADE.
Wood, Captain and Surgeon, Who
May Command All the Army.

NAY command AL the ARMY
From a plain assistant surgeon with
the rank of captain 70 a brigadier gen
eral in the regular army, in less than
] three years-that is the record OF Leon
ard Wood. now military governor Of
! Cuba. He is 80 years old and has be-
/ fore him twenty-fOur years in which
/ to attain the highest rank in the serV-
/ ice. OF course. this is on condition that
/ the nomination of General Wood by the
! president passes congress. 1t is pos
sible that there will be opposition to the
: appointment there
! No soldier who ever served the United
! States, at least in modern times. has
risen to fame so rapidly as General
/ Wood. His reward rests almost entire
/ " upon the eight weeks service when
/ he was colonel of the regiment which
bears the name of 'ROOSeVelt'S Rough
Riders" OF which Roosevelt was lieu
/ tenant colonel, and on the record which
/ he made as an administrator in Cuba.
/ When Wood became colonel of the
I Rough Riders" in May, 1885, ne was
unknown outside of his circle of friends
/ in the army and at Washington. His
brilliant dash at Las GuasimaS made
/ him a brigadier general of volunteers,
and the fight at San Juan hill. in which
/ he commanded a brigade, brought him
the gOvernOrship of the city of Santi-
ago.
i Wood received his military training
1 in the Indian country of the southwest.
/ Years before the Rough Riders" We're
/ thought of Wood was past master of
I the art of rough riding. 1t was he who,
/ with Captain LawtOn of the Fourth
/ cavalry, later General Lawton, who
was killed in the Philippines, brought
f in Geronimo. the Apache. The hard
ships of this pursuit, which reached
/ many hundred miles into the noun
! tains of Old Mexico, can hardly be real
! lied. Wood, although not then regular
] ly an officer in the army, being only
contract surgeon, commanded the in
fantry of the expedition, as well as, a
/ times, the Indian scouts. So notable
were his achievements that congress
/ presented him with medal for dis
/ tingUished service. 1t was the training
/ in this Indian campaign that led partly
/ to the victory in the JungleS OF Cuba
and placed Wood in a position to &C
Quire further distinction as soon as an
| opportunity should offer.
! Although Wood possesses rare talent
| in his chosen profession OF medicine,
/ having been graduated with hOnOrs
/ from the Harvard medical school and
/ later serving as official physician TO
J President Cleveland and to President
/ Mckinley, he is by nature fighter, and
/ it has been his ambition from his ear
/ lest days to find place in the active
! line of the service.
/ General Wood has ruled in Cuba with
! the power of a car, and yet he is one
/ of the most popular men on the island
/ This has been due to his tact He dealt
with the Cuban agitating editor with
wisdom. Santiago is the hOtbed of
! Cuban revolution. Every Cuban insur-
1 rectiOn has had its origin within fifty
miles of the city of Santiago. The
mOuthpiece of the Cuban insurgent is
the editor. After the Americans came
/ into power this functiOnary was, for
| time, devoid of a purpose in life. The
/ Spaniards were gone, and the ag1tdung
/ DaDer no longer thriVed. II was ma
/ turaI therefore, that the editor should
/ eventually begin an assault on the Am
/ orleans So bitter were the attacks that
many residents of.the city advised Cen
/ eral Wood to suppress these papers, but
/ the general knew the mistake OF max
ing martyrs martyrdOm in Cuba being
another name for patriotism. He sent
/ for the most violent Of the editors.
You may say anything you please
! against me personally he said, in his
/ quiet way, but the moment you at
/ tack the government I shall put you in
/ MORO castle and keep you there"
Another one of these editors had sug-
! gested going to the hills" which In
! cuba. means rebellion. Wood sent for
/
/ he went to the hills the better 1t would
be for his own safety, and he said 1t so
! seriously that the next day the editor
did go to the hills, alone, and he has
J since caused no trouble.
Wood is thorough, with q thorough
! ness that is an unfailing asfenishment
to the native. An officer stayed in "a
hotel that was just being reoccupied
~
! proprietor was telling how Woods men
/ had done the fumigating.
/ Why" he said, they squirted their
! disinfectants under the tiles of the
roof. That was something that no one
! of Spanish blood would have thought
/ of doing"
/ Of the government of Cuba General
/ Wood had his own definite though sim
pie plans. He believed in removing
/ largely the American troops from the
1 island and substituting a number of
/ regiments enlisted from among the
! CUbans themselves. This was no mere
/ theory, for before he ventured to sug-
/ gest such a scheme to the war depart
ment he had experimental with it in
] Santiago by the enlistment of a small
/ company of men under the general
rules of the Rural guards, drilled and
| differed as an American company
! would have been. He found that the
/ Cubans we're readily amenable to the
! discipline of American army life. His
! idea was to have a number of such
J regiments differed, in the higher places,
/ at least, by Americans. These could
occupy the forts and other points of
vantage, and he still has confidence
| enough in the Cubans themselves to
! promise peace in the island. He be-
/ lieves that President Diaz of Mexico
is the ideal ruler of a SpanishAmer-
lean cOuntry-strOng, honest and
| steady.
Success" he said, 'is so easy that it
| is a crime to fail"
! 8 o o
/ When Leonard Wood was a student
at Harvard his name was intimately
CONNECTED with college athletics of all
sorts, but principally with running and
/ walking. Big, raw-bOned and 1.-THE, he
/ resembled in his poses an Indian I'M
; trammeled by civilization or civiliza-
4 tons clothes. The free-and-easy swing
: of his gait in those early formation
/ days at college has never left him.
/ Out on the plains in the '90s, when his
/ military yearning led him to forsake his
Official dutieS-thosS of an army sur
! geon--tor the dangers and destinations
! of volunteer scout. the tireless energy
4 won by athletic training stood him in
! good stead the young army doctor.
even at that early period of his career
/ became famous for his long and power
/ ful stride This fame followed him to
San Juan, and when in after days he
added leaves to his wreath of glory by
retaining Santiago from its degrade