Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-12-15
ROOT DEFENDS WOOD
Secretary Addresses Chair
man on Military Affairs.
REPORTS SENT OUT FULL OF ERRORS
SFalse Reports Furnished the Press
to the Prejudice of nm Honorable
Oflcer and Man of Integrity
Fighting In Philippines"

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10. Elihu
Root, secretary of war, has addressed
The following letter to Senator Proctor,
acting chairman of the committee on
military affairs:
IL inclose Il letter from BrigadieT
General Tasker II. Bliss asking atten.
ton to the report of his recent testl'
mony before FOUR committee as a wit
ness regarding certain objections to the
confirmation of General Wood. 1t APP
pears that the press report of General
Bliss testimony is the precise con-
trary of what he in fact testified. lie
wishes this set right for his own repu-
tation, and | shall take the liberty OF
doing so as far as practicable by CIV
ing his letter to the press.
AT the same time | wish to call
the attention of your committee to the
fact that some person seems to be per-
sisteXtly furnishing to the press false
statements of the testimony taken be-
fore you. the perversion of the evidence
being in every case to the prejudice OF
general Wood. 1t cannot be doubted
that the newspapers publishing these
reports believe them to be true and
that the reports are sent to them by
the representatives of the press in good
faith under the same belief.
ut is evident that some person is I'LL
dertaking to convey to the press rep
resentatives information of what goes
on in the committee and is taking adj
vantage of the fact that the evidence
is not published to state it falsely for
the purpose of injuring General Wood
in the public estimation, so that, while
your committee will act upon the evi
dence actually before it, the public
judgement as to how you ought to act
will be based upon an entirely different
and idea of what the evil
dence is.
IF the evidence actually given called
for General Wosl's presence l should
of course bring him back from the
Philippines, but | do not feel justified
in withdrawing him from the impor-
tant duties which he is performing on
account of false reports of evidence
which has never in fact been given.
It hardly seems fair that an officer who
is not here to protect himself, but is
serving his country faithfully under
orders on the other side of the world,
should have his reputation stabbed in
this way. | earnestly request your
committees attention to this subject"
General Bliss in his letter contradicts
the report that he strongly opposed the
admission without payment of duty
of the silver service purchased in New
York by the Jai Alai and that ne re-
ccived mandatory instructions from
General Wood to admit said silver
service free of duty. He says he tcsti-
fled most positively under oath that
neither directly o indirectly, verbal
ly nor in writing, personally from him
moi through any subordinate nor from
any person Whatsoever, had | received
even an intimation as to the remission
of duties upon these articles; that | or
dered the remission of duty because
/ believed then and believe now that it
was in accordance with the law; that
responsible for it. | further testified
that during the two and n half years
that / served directly under the orders
of General Wood as military governor
of Cuba | know of no action of his
that was not consistent with the char
acter of an honorable officer and Il man
of integrity"