Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-08-24
A SLAP AT MILES
HIS CENSURE OF COLONEL
WOODRUFF REBUKED.
President Roosevelt Promotes an Officer Who
Was Censured by General Miles for Max.
ing a Profit Out Of Starving Reconcen.
trados in the Philippines


Although General Miles has endeared
himself to the people because of his faith
full service, present and past republican
administrations have marked this old
soldier as their victim. By order of
President Roosevelt, Colonel G. A. Wood
ruff, chief commissary in the Philippines,
was recently promoted to be brigadier
general, and under the regulations will be
promoted to 60 upon the retired list.
The Washington correspondent for the
New York World says that Woodruf's
promotion is regarded as an intended
punishment to General Miles for his dis
closures concerning the rice transactions
in the Philippines" The World corre-
spondent reminds US that Colonel Wood
ruff was the originator Of the system
under which tons Of rice, much Of it Sec
ond class, was bought with army funds
and sold at profit to Filipino reconcen-
trados in certain provinces in the island
Of Luzon. More than 100000 pounds
Of rice we're thus disposed OF at total
outlay of 100000 in commissary funds.
1t was claimed in defense of this plan
that it was charitable act made neces.
sary by war and pestilence and that it
was intended to sell the rice only at a
price that would pay the expenses. But
this statement did not correspond with
the fact that the system yielded profit
Of nearly 100000.
On the day that General Davis took
command Of the Philippines, he ordered
the discontinuance Of this practice and
as the result OF his investigations and his
orders, the sum Of $4,000, representing
certain profits, was paid over to the civil
government. The World correspondent
reminds us that the rice transaction was
severely arraigned by General Miles in
his report on the Philippines and was re-
ferred to as an open violation OF the law
and army regulations. In the report OF
General Miles made public by Secretary
Root the reference to the rice transact
tons was omitted, but subsequently Mr..
Root made public the suppressed part OF
it referring to the rice transaction. Ac'
companying the correspondents was a
letter from General Davis in which he
said that the transactions were clearly in
violation OF the law, and that he had
stopped them and ordered the profits
turned over to the civil government on
the day he took command. General
Davis said that there might have been
some excuse for these transactions while
the island was under military rule, but
there was no possible reason for their
continuance after peace had been pro.
claimed.
1t is strange that Mr.. Roosevelt should
lend himself to an attempt to rebuke
General Miles by an undeserved promo
ton, and in this instance it is all the
more strange because of the experience
which Mr.. Roosevelt himself had with
Colonel Woodruff. The World CORE
spondent reminds us that at the time OF
the war with Spain, Colonel Woodruff
bought nearly 900, 900 pounds OF canned
beef one.third OF which had been shipped
back from Europe. This was the ma
terial which Mr.. Roosevelt, then a
colonel, testifying in the beef investiga-
ton, declared was ian utterly unfit and
utterly unwlolesome ration"
The World correspondent says that
hundreds OF Colonel Roosevelt's Rough
Riders were made sick by the canned
beef and that his testimony against it
was the strongest brought out in the in
vestigation. Colonel Woodruff, in his
examination, testified that he had served
in the army in the far west prior to 1873
and that during all his service there he
had never seen beef on the hoof served
to the troops, but this testimony was in
direct conflict with the testimony of Off
GERS who had served on the frontier at
the time Colonel Woodruff was there.
General Miles always carried herd Ct
cattle with his troops and in the fall OF
1876, the Indians stampeded 275 of Miles
cattle up the Tongue river ara the gen
eral sent a detachment OF cavalry to re-
capture them. The World correspondent
says that at the time Colonel Woodruff:
testimony was given, the man who hat
charge Of General Miles herd and the
man who slaughtered the cattle were il
the Soldiers home at Washington bu
they were not called, although the com
mission was requested to summon them
No serious effort has been made t.
question the accuracy of any of Genera
Miles reports. Every possible effort hal
been made, however, to humiliate him
Many people find it difficult to understand
how it happens that Mr.. Roosevelt ha
so readily inherited the antipathy towar(
the commanding general when they re