The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-14
GENERAL BELL NOW
At HEAD OF THE
ARMY
Chief Of Staff Bates Succeeded
i. BY Popular and Efficient
Officer.

Washington, d. c., April 14.-After
having served at the head of the army,
as chief of staff, with the rank of
lieutenant general for little less than
three months, Lieutenant General John
c. Bates relinquished his duties today
to his successor in office, Gen. J.
Franklin Bell, who has recently been
in charge of the staff college at Fort
Leavenworth, Kas.
The retirement of General Bates and
the accession of General Bell was
marked by the usual recention to the
outgoing and incoming official. This
reception took place in the office OF
the chief of staff. and was largely at
tended by army officers on duty in the
war department and vicinity.
General Bates will not reach the
statutory retiring age of Ga years I'M
til August 26 next. and his retirement
today was in accordance with an ar
rangement made between himself. Gen.
Chaffee. his predecessor in office, and
the secretary of war.
Frank Bell. as the new chief of
staff is known by his brother officers.
is probably the most conspicuous of
the younger men who made good in
the Philippines during the short cam
paign against the Spanish and the
longer insurrection of the Filipinos
When the war with Spain broke out,
Bell. West Pointer. was first lieu
tenant of cavalry. with twenty years
of service to his credit. He was about
the Oldest first lieutenant in the army,
and except for extraordinary promo
ton the most he could hope for at the
opening of the Spanish war was re-
tirement as a major.
He was promoted to the rank Of
major of engineers in the volunteers
and assigned to Gen. Merritt's division
for service in the Philippines. He
went out in the second expedition of
troops in July, 1898, and almost imme-
diately was made chief of intelligence.
In that capacity, after the fall of
Manila, he conducted most of the ne
gotiations with Aguinaldo and other
Filipinos for Gen. Otis, who had sue
ceeaed Cen. Merritt
Transferred to MacArthur's COM
manu. ne became scout master He
picked out about twenty men, and they
covered the entire country in front Of
MacArthur's lines. He had been
wounded in the first days fighting
around Manila, when the insurrectiOn
began, but he did not let that bother.
or interrupt him, and was in the field
again in a week or less.
In the summer of 1899, the lieuten-
ant colonelcy of a volunteer regiment
was offered him, but he declined it.
Soon afterward he obtained permits
sion to organize regiment from
among the time-expired volunteers
who were then due to return to the
United States. He got the men who
would keep shouting and shooting, and
presently began to demonstrate the
correctness of his theory that that was
all that was needed to go anywhere
in the islands. In the general for
ward movement of the fall of 1899, he
operated on the left of McArthur's
line, and the usual thing was for him
to report at night that he had cap
tured the town he had been sent
to reconnoitre.
He was made brigadier of volun-
teers and put in command of north
ern district. with headquarters at
Dagupan. There he began the policy
of garrisoning every town of any size
or Importance in his district. with the
result that it was one of the first dis
tricts selected for the installation of
civil government. After he had been
made brigadier of regulars he was
in command in the province of Batan-
gas. There he put into execution the
policy of RECOMMENDATION camps which
earned him very bitter denunciation
from senators and others at home
The policy was undeniably success,
however. and accomplished more than
anything else to the ending of the
revolution.
General Bell served five years in the
Philippines, and came home a briga-
der general of regulars, to take COM
mand of the infantry and cavalry
school at Fort Leavenworth.