The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-23
PET OF THE PRESIDENT
THE NAME OF WOOL LEADS
 NEARLY ALL.
Scores of Accompanied Veterans Showed Aside in Order That Roosevelt May Keep Favors
 on His Favorite.

Washington, July 22.-(SpeciaL)-The glad moment to the ccmmander-in-chief ief of the army, President Roosevelt, when he may again favor his pet and chum, Leonard Wood, is at hand.
 Woods name pretty nearly leads all the rest on the slate of the army officers in- tended for promotion. There is pathos as we'll as injustice in the fact that scores of gallant and accomplished veterans Of the Civil War are to be retired and de- nied the chance that is marked out for the Presidents playground pal. Simply because Wood has been the friend, con- fidant and playfellow Of the playful young man who happens to be President Of the United States, Leonard Wood, five years ago an army doctor, with the rank of captain, has been continually advanced in rank, pay and opportunity, over the heads of older and veteran soldiers whose lives have been not only faithfully de- voted to the service of their country, but have been imperillad in every crisis which has confronted it in forty years. It matters not if the old veteran officers shed their blood for the Union and are entitled by every precedent of custom, mode of honor and logic of justice to rank above the army doctor. From Colonel of a volunteer regiment Brigadier-General. Then to Governor-General of Cuba, pO- sitlon in which he was given unlimited power along with the privilege of dis bursting a fund of $30, ,0O0. 900, for which he has been held accountable to nothing hatt oxxyy will If has matfpTnd not that occupations so grave against General Woods conduct of Cuban affairs provoked an effort to investigate his ad- ministration. Wood was supremely in- different to his ccusers. Had not Presi- de,.t Roosevelt, in public speech, de- nounced Woods accusers as branded with infamy?" So Roosevelt Congress- men and Roosevelt administration blocked all inquiy as to Woods conduct in Cuba. Woods notorious acceptance of costly gifts from the "Jai Alai," a Havana gambling concern, was published every where. It mattered not if it shocked the Christian sentiment of the country. It was all right with Roosevelt if Wood did it. When the question of Cuban reciprocity was pending before Congress, Wood busied himself with sA,king to in- fiuence the legislative branch of the Gov ernment employing Cuban funds to pro- mote reciprocity. At the same time 1t happened that the beet sugar people of the West, knowing that Secretary of Az riculture Wilson was their friend. ap- pealed to him to say a word to Congress- men in their behalf, which he very prop erly declined to do. But it was different with Wood. He could do what no other executive officer of the Government would dare attempt. Wood had no sooner be- come Governor-General of Cuba than he at once consorted with newspaper writers to discredit the administration of his predecessor, General Brooke and to boost the administration of General Wood One of Woods proteges in the exploita-
 tion of his autocratic glories was one Bellairs. an escaped convict. Wood | complacently took credit for nearly every thing good done in Cuba and laughed at | everything bad for which he was blam- | ed. Returning to Washington at the close of American occupation of Cuba, | he loafed at and around the White House | Yet he was an officer of the army, liable to duty, as any other officer, and for | months and months he remained in Wash
 ington, unassigned, doing nothing of which the public could learn, except to chase across country with Roosevelt and | play slap-stick with the President in the
 Roosevelt White House play-room.
 ~Ae AoSI titC llIlic COIl6S TOT " OOu 10 De l moving. The best of friends will some time tire of each others company. So it is arranged for Wood to go to the Philip pines. there, in due course of expeditions arrangement. to be the military chieftain of that archipelago. Now. having been made major general, with abominable in justice preferred above officers of stain less records, he is placed in line to out rank the best and oldest generals of the | a rTaN Hn hA Men who have been lifetime soldiers. | trained at the United States military academy as such, educated in the service schools and that superior school of camp, field, campaign and battle, who have never been found wanting in any hour of dan ger are to be forever debarred from hope
 of the highest honor that may come to an American soldier. to commmand the American armies, because age will have retired them-every one of them-in or der to make the best possible place for
 Roosevelt's pet. But it is not to be all smooth sailing for would-be Major Gen eral Wood. His name is to be considered by the United States Senate.
 President Roosevelt was informed by several senators upon his return from his long western trip that if he sent to the Senate the name of Wood to be major general a strong effort would be made to defeat his confirmation.
 Nearly all of the members of the Mili- tary Affairs Committee of the Senate have expressed themselves as opposed to Wood, at least on the ground that he has done not enough to merit this extraordi- nary advancement. These senators have said that if the President persists, there will be an investigation of all of Woods doings in Cuba.
 The members of the Senate Committee on Military AAffairs are Hawley, Proc
 tor, Warren Quarles, Scott, Foraker and Alger, Republicans, and Bate, Cockrel and Pettus, Democrats, with one Demo