Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1903-08-26
SECRETARY OF WAR
ROOT LEAVES OFFICE
Resignation Is Accepted By
President Roosevelt.
TAFT WILL BE HIS SUCCESSOR.
Resignation Is Accepted by Chief Ex-
ecutiVe With the Understanding that
the Secretary viii Continue In OF.
flee at Least Until January 12.


the Secretary Will Continue In OF.
flee at Least Until January 12.
Oyster Bay. L. L, August 25-Secre-
tary Root, under date of August 19,
presented his resignation formally to
the president
The resignation was accepted by the
president with the understanding that
the secretary continue at least until
Jan. II.
Governor General William H. Taft,
Of the Philippines, will succeed Sec
retary Root as secretary of war.
President Roosevelt today authoriz-
ed the following statement:
'"The president some months ago
rendered the secretaryship of war to
Judge Taft and at that time it was ar
ranged that he would succeed Secre-
tary Root. Secretary Root will go
out of office some time in January,
and Judge Taft will assume the duties
Of the office shortly afterward"
The president also authorized the
publication Of the correspondence be-
tween him and Secretary Root con
cerning the latter's resignation. In
full the correspondence follows:
Dear Mr.. President: You have
been good to assent to the sufficiency
of the reasons for which | nave wish
e dto retire to private life as soon as
practicable after the establishment of
the general staff Of the army and the
completion of my full four years of
service as secretary of war, while it
is understood that you probably will
not arrange to fill the office as, you
wish before the end or the year, and
that | am to remain in office in the
meantime, it is probable that you will
be ready to send a name to the senate
in November or December, and before
you do SO my resignation should be
in your hands.
Il find myself on the eve of sailing
for England to attend the sessions of
the Alaska boundary tribunal and am
quite unable to judge how many
months I shall be kept away from
this country and I, therefore, now
tender my resignation of the office
Of secretary of war to take effect
upon the appointment and qualification
| of my successor. I shall carry away
with me unabated loyalty in your ad-
ministration, confidence in the sound
conservatism and patriotic unseIfsh-
ness Of your policy and enduring graf
Itude for your kindness and considera.
ton with which your friendship has
| honCred me. l shall not cease to ap-
preciate the sympathy and loyalty to
| President Mckinley with which you
took up and carried on bis work-and
l shall always be happy to have been
a part Of the administration directed
| by your sincere and rugged adherence
to right and devotion to the true in
terests of the country.
Il am with great respect and esteem,
alway, faithfully, yours,
"ELIHJ ROOT"
"To The President,
Oyster Bay August "a, 1903"
Hon Elihu Root, secretary Of war,
Washington-My Dear Mr.. Root: 1t
is hard, indeed, for me to accept your
resignation, and l do not only with
keen personal regret, but with lively
understanding of the gap your with
drawal will create in public life My
sense Of personal loss is great, and yet
my sense of the loss to the nation as
whole is even greater. You have
been over four years secretary of war.
wonder if you will realize how much
you have accomplished during that
period
"If you will turn to your first re-
ports and will read therein the recon-
mendations you made in order that the
army might be put>On an effective bas-
Is, you cannot but be pleased at the
way in which these recommendations
have now been adopted by congress
as we'll as by the administration, and
became enacted law or crystallized
into custom. We have never had a
public servant Of the government who
has worked harder than you ihave
worked during these four years and
| nail ana CnlS is not merely IN point OF
time, but above ALL in point of inten-
sity, and your success has been equal
to your labor. The only reward you
have had or can have, is the knowl.
edge of successful achievement Of the
performance in fullest fashion, of
great public duty, the doing Of which
was of vital Importance to the nations
welfare.
Your duties have included more
than merely the administration of the
department and the reorganization of
the army on an effective basis. You
also have been the head of a depart
ment which deals with the vast and
delicate problems involved in our pos
session of the Philippine islands, and
your success in dealing with this
part of your work has been as signal
as your success in dealing with the
purely military problems. To very
few statesmen, indeed, in any country
is it given at the one and the same time
to achieve single and striking triumphs
in the administration of what was in
effect department of insular depen-
dencies, where the problems were