The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-09-26
Stewart in Exile.

cIeWdTl Ill LAIlC.
Denver News Why has Colonel William F.
Stewart of the U. S. A. been ordered back into exile
without chance to prove whether he is physically
fit?
Was there any bias shown when the four generals
promoted over Stewards head declared Stewart unfit?
What is at the bottom of the strange moves against
the man who is being called the American Dryfus.
Army men the country over are again asking these
questions.
A terse order, mailed on September IL by General
Earl D. Thomas of Denver yesterday started Colonel
Stewart back to his exile Fort Grant Ariz, with
out his having had opportunity to establish his
physical fitness by the ride recently prescribed
for him by the department.
General Thomas last night said that the order was
issued because surgeons who examined Colonel Stew
art discovered that his heart weak and that the
ride would endanger his life
After his exile of two years. blocked at every turn
in efforts to Square" himself with the war depart
ment it is now said authority that Colonel Stew
art will be retired by the department tor alleged
physical unftness
Colonel Stewart who is at Fort Huachuca, IN
California, where he had expected to start his test
ride of ninety miles, will depart tomorrow for Will
cox Ariz., where he will be met by his companions
in exile co1ored cook and William Nail, civilian
thursday the three men will drive from Wilcox to
Fort Grant the lonely post at which Colonel Stewart
It is said that Colonel Stewart will resist retirement
and that he will demand courtmartal, before which
he claims he can prove himself fit for service. He
also declares that he will never surrender to the
"breaking" process without being given hearing or
a chance to prove the truth falsy of his claims
But it is the boast of the army that it can and
will "break' any man deemed unfit to be officer
and associate with those whom the law indirectly
designates to be gentlemen.
Four generals including Grant, Duva1l, Wade and
Murray, have been promoted over Colonel Stewards
head and these men have said they believed him to
be unfit for service.
Senator Rayner pointed out that these four had
ben promoted Stewards head and suggested that
the officers who had been Junior to Stewart re-
membered disciplinary used by the colonel
and allowed old grudgeS to prejudice them III their
reports concerning him
It has been one of the boasts of Colonel Stewart
that he is physically of the most fit men IN the
armv notwithstanding the fact that he is almost 90
wears old and has been in the army since he was II.
His father and grandfather before him were officers
and the son naturally turned to the army.
The only light the reasons for Colonel Stewards
exile and humiliation is contained in rumorS IN army
circles regarding "temperamental unhtneSS, phrase
coined bv Elihu Root while he secretary of
war 1t is said that President Roosevelt SO des1g-
mated Stewart
IF the war department can make the physically unfit
charge stick it will not be necessary to await and keep
him in exile at lonely posts until he is 62 years old
in 1911 to get rid OF him.
Civilians who have become interested i'll Colonel
Stewards case are saying that his plight is one OF the
severest examples of breaking" an officer in the
army that has occurred in years. He has many
svnpathizers in California, Arizona and also III
Florida where he passed much of his Punishment
Fighting against hopeless odds, Stewart shows no
signs of weakening or becoming gutter Every
effort to ds1odge him has thus far proved futile.