The Washington times., 1903-11-17
Leonard Wood
Is the Military Experience of His Critics
Greater Than His?

The New York Sun" remarks:
Indignation is intense IL, many quarters over
the injustice to the hundreds Of honorable and
/ experienced army officers who have been wronged
by the unexampled promotion Of this physician.
Rubbish The Indignation is IN
tense only among incompetents and
nincompoops. A soldier-the real
thing, we mean-doesn't 90 about
blubbering like a schoolgirl, nor does
lac air his grievances on the housetops.
He does his duty and doesn't critieise
his superiors. He knows that to dc
the latter is Incompatible with disci-
pine. And discipline, he has been
taught, is the essence of military life
What means all this hullabaloo
about Gen. Leonard Wood, anyways
Has he shown himself to be less com
retent than others Of his rank in the
handling of men, or IN the discharge
OF purely Military duties? Has he
rot, on the contrary, proved that he
belongs to the class Of people who be-
l;eve IN doing things and do them
Is not his experience IN Indian war
fare quite as extensive as that of most
officers who now are said TO criticise
bis promotion on the ground that he
Possesses monet And what other mil
itary experience, pray, have these
stern critics of the whilom army sur
geon? VIII anybody seriously con-
tend that Leonard Wood wouldn't do
cutie as well as, and perhaps a great
deal better, than, say, General Shafter
did, whose army escaped complete
humiliation on the southern coast of
Cuba only through the Incompetence
Of the eaemy, and who, a few days
after his grotesque landing near
Guantanamo, was ready, panic
stricken, to order a retreat from IN
front of Santiago7 VIII anybody
maintain that Gen Leonard Wood.
Of whom the "Sun," with in-concealed
contempt, speaks as this physician
would not have proved a more ener-
getic and efficient commander-in-chief
than that pompous theorist, General
Otis, who spent his days and nights
seribbling misleading dispatches,
bully-ragging newspaper correspond
ents and never once stirring from his
desk in the walled city of Manila to
cake the field against Aguinaldo and
his rabble Of bare-legged patriots p
History abounds in examples of
successful military leaders whom the
"Sun," and others, no doubt, would
have called, at the outset of their mil
itaTy careers, inexperienced amateur
soldiers" Our own civil war gave
abundant proof that the art of war
can be and is often acquired, as
matter Of fact, by men Of little or no
previous military training almost IN
tuitively. A great man is a great man
In any place he chances to be. Leon
ard Wood may not be a great man;
ho certainly Is very remarkable
man. His military qualities, as far
as q laynan Is able 10 judge, are quite
Oh a par with those possessed by
other officers IN the army. And they
may be greater, though he has had no
opportunity to show them. But nei-
Tier have they. It's mere guesswork
When the "Sun" talks of the Presi-
dent. "for friendships sake" as tax
ing the chances and decreeing "the
appalling risk" involved IN the posi-
bllity of Gen. Leonard Wood one day
commanding the United States army,
II talks, we repeat, rubbish. It's
twaddle Of the worst kind.