The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-11-23
men are right and that congress ought
to give them the relief they so CO.
gently ask.
Why General Wood Is Opposed.

1t Is gratifying to be informed by
ington that the able committee on mil
itary affairs in the senate, made up en-
tirely of old veterans of the civil war,
will make short shrift of the crusade
against the confirmation of Major Cen
eral Leonard Wood
The committee will probably hear
patiently what Rathbone and other
witnesses may offer and it will be
of the army and the satisfaction OF
the country that it should record their
testimonies.
It will be we'll for the country to
know that Rathbone was the cause OF
his own troubles When General
Wood became military governor OF
Cuba, he called upon all departments
of the government to submit their re-
ports, estimates of receipts and expend-
itures to his office, to be examined by
his chief Of staff, and to have their
departments supervised by the regular
| inspectors of his military department
| All department Of the Cuban mill
tary government submitted to these
orders implicitly and gracefully, ex-
cept Rathbone, director general or
| posts He had refused to recognize
his subordnation to General Brooke
| and he would not do SO to WOOD.
| The more SO because he had been in
! triguing industriously to end military
supremacy in the island government
and have himself appointed the su-
preme authority under the title OF civil
| governor of Cuba
General Wood referred the matter
to the postmaster general. to whom
alone Rathbone claimed he owed re-
sponsibility The postmaster general
tentatively sided with Rathbone. Gen
eral Wood then appealed to President
Mckinley, as president and command
er in chief Of the army, who had erect
| ed the military government or the
| island.
Here was the issue at headquarters
| Where was Hanna then? Was he not
regarded everywhere as the fidus
| Achates and alter ego OF President NC
| kinney? Could he not, II any one,
have settled the case there and then
| for Rathbone's contention? But he
did not. President Mckinley saw
! clearly that Rathbone's claims were
untenable and persistence in his acts
would be INSTRUMENTATION. In his
view there could be no divided author
]tv in dealing with the whole sum OF
| Cuban governmental affairs. He sus-
tanned the orders OF General Wood,
| and right there began the fall OF Rath-
bone.
Inspector General Burton had
scarcely turned ten pages in the postal
records until frauds began to pop up
like lacks in their boxes. General
| Chaffee, then chief of staff. found them
galore in the official figures OF the de-
partment OF posts. Then followed
| Bristow and Fosnes, the exits under
arrest of Rathbone, Nicely, Reeves ct
| i'd omne genus.
The courts were not packed to CON
vict these culprits. The same judges
| tried them who were on the bench
| when the Rathbone-Neely bunch were
rolling around in rubber-tired car
| riages as the leaders of the American
official elite The claim that General
Wood prosecuted them is balderdash!
But for his act, when leaving the
island. In persradlng President Palma
TO issue q general amnesty to Arneri-
can offenders in and out of Jail. Rath-
bone would today be doing a fourteen
year convict term in Las Cabanis IN
stead Of posing as a martyr and de-
manding OF the United States senate
the humility Of an honest and able sol
der