The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-23
SUCCESSOR FOR MILES.

The generosity on the part OF General
H c. Corbin in waving his Immediate
rights to succeed General Nelson A.
Miles as general commanding the army,
rolls a bitter pill on the board of fate
for the West Point clique to swallow,
for in SO doing General Corbin makes a
move which will. unless the fates pre-
vent, bring in rotation three men to the
command of the army who like General
Miles, began at the bottom as enlisted
men and worked through each grade
and rank to the top They will be in
turn General s. B. NJ. Young. General
Adna r. Chaffee and General n. c.
Corbin.
When General Miles retires next
spring by reason Of his reaching the age
limit, it would be General Corbin who
would succeed to the command OF the
army by reason of his seniority in rank
among the major generals. But Corbin
is too much of man. too big hearted
a soldier. so it seems. to demand the
right which Is justly his and thereby
euchre his fellow comrades out of the
honor they justly deserve of being at
the head OF the United States army
General Young and General Chaffee will
both be retired from the army before
General Corbin. which would mean
were he to succeed General Miles that
neither OF the others would reach the
coveted place, SO General Corbin grace
fully valves his right to succeed Gen.
eral Miles and will allow General Young
and General Chaffee that honor before
it in turn goes to him. Unless General
Corbin did this General Young and Gen.
eral Chaffee would be retired with the
rank they now have while he would be
general in command of the army.
And so General Miles, who began hiA
career as an enlisted man. will be sue
ceeded, in turn by three men who be-
gan their fighting life as privates in the
ranks General Young attained the
rank OF brigadier general OF volunteers
in the civil war and then went back to
the grade of second lieutenant in the
regular army and served as captain OF
a company for II years. General Ciaaf-
fee the pride of the first-class fighting
men. was for 81 years lieutenant OF
cavalry until the Cuban war began and
then he who had been forced into a dor
mant position for so many years. show
ed the stuff that was in him. General
Corbin, who was President McKinley's
right hand man during the war with
Spain, climbed the latter in the same
way. All three saw hard Indian fight
ing in the west at the close of the civil
war and all three have been brevetted
for bravery.
And all this will be anything but
pleasant to the West Pointers. There
is no criticism to be made of the mill
| tary college and there Is no disparagine
the well equipped men who are gradua-
| ted from the Point to take their places
| in the regular army. Everyone is proud
| of West Point and its fighters but the
| very reason that there is ever word
said to compare the graduate Of the
| college and the man who has risen from
| the ranks to a prominent place in the
| army is for the reason that the West
| Pointers have more than once ATTEMPT
| ed to belittle the men who have climbed
| from the ranks. They seem to forget
the very fundamental ideas of our dem
ocratic principles. General Miles has
| been SCORED at and handicapped be-
cause he dared TO rise from the position
| of an enlisted man.
And because of this feeling Of the
West Pointers it will be more than like
| ly that many a grizzled veteran. who
won his spurs and stars by merit alone.
will point with pride to the ladder
climbing record of four men who earned
the highest place in the army