The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-02
THE woon INQUIRY.

on Military Affairs that IS investigat-
Ing the charges against Gen. Wood is
/ OUo,ei IS saying that the testimony
THAI had been produced seemed to
make u ueNcSSary for that officer TO
return from SAe Philippines and testify
in rs OWE behalf II may be consid-
e7e5 therefore that Gen. Wood s
I friends regard the outlook for him as
Tat,-e7 Serious.
When che charges were preferred
lsa1. Noo5. according to report, laugh
e 81 shen. and stated there was
MIXING IN thesn. Later some of his
friends on the committee making the
. saves usatton said the charges were
nothing but froth. They have not
. made "a statement of that kind. how
ever since Mai Runcie and Gen.
4 Brooke gave their testimony. If Maj.
+ Ruacie's testimony is permitted to go
i unc1ntradicted the Senate cannot do
/ otherwise than reject the nomination of
+ Gen. Wood. and it would seem as if
/ the Secretary OF War couldn't avoid
/ !1sdtuIing court martial proceedings
/ against him.
Mai. Runcie stated in his testimony
! thai the article in the North American
/ Review. which criticised Gen. Brooke's
/ administration of Cuban affairs and
which appeared over his signature. was
! inspired by Gen. Wood. At that time
Gen. Wood was the commanding Off
! Ger at Santiago and Gen. Brooke was
! his superior. 1t seems that when there
was inquiry about the authorship Of
the article Gen. Wood claimed to know
| nothing about making charges against
! Gen. Brooke in the public prints, and
threw the blame for the whole mat
| ter upon Maj. Runcie. Under the cir
! cumstances it is difficult to see how it
| is possible to avoid a court-martial for
either one or the other of these Off
GERS, with the chances of one of them
being dropped out of the army.
The testimony of Gen. Brooke, given
on Monday puts Gen. Wood in a bad
light. 1t shows that Gen. Wood, at
Santiago, not only violated the regula-
tions, but that he ignored his superior
officer and sent his communications d.
rect to the War Department. And it
seems that he was all the time trying
to get the newspapers at Santiago to
tell the world what great man he
was and to criticise Gen. Brooke.
The road which Gen. Wood will have
to travel to get his nomination con-
frmed is a difficult one, and it is doubt
F,,I 1,a min
Senator Hanna is leading the fight
against him, and he is fighter that
will make every point he can against
him.
There is a feeling throughout the
country that Gen. Wood has been ad-
vanced far beyond his merits. He had
a little military experience in fighting
the Indians before the Spanish-Ameri-
can War that was creditabIe to him,
but in Cuba he did nothing to indicate
that he was possessed of military abil-
ity of a high order. His promotion is
believed to be due to favoritism. The
late President Mckinley advanced him
over the heads of men who had been
long in the army, and President Roose-
welt has nominated him to the posi-
ton of major general in the regular
army. He has never done anything
to justify the belief that he could plan
a military campaign or lead a great
army. If the Senate were to confirm
his nomination circumstances might
arise that would put him in command
of the army in the near future. Think
ing men view with alarm the possibility
of a man being in that position who
has never shown that he has the
necessary qualifications for it.