The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-20
LUKE WRIGHT AS SECRETARY Tennessee Democrat to Succeed Taft. NOMINEE RESIGNS HIS POST Appointment Will Be Made Very
 Soon. Memphis Man Selected by Roosevelt to Show that There are No Longer
 Sectional Lines in
 Country.
NOMINEE RESIGNS HIS POST

Washington. June 1S-Secretary Ieie today presented to the President his resig nation. to take effect June SOth, and it was announced af the White House that Luke E. Wright. of Ten nessee. will be appointed Secretary or War to succeed Mir. Taft
 In making this appointment, the President was influenced somewhat oy the desire to reconize in an emphatic way that there Is no longer any divid- ing line between the North and the South, and that all good Americans are in thought and deed one, and the Presi- dent was influenced still more by the fact that Governor Wrights personal attributes and experience pre- eminent ly fit him for this particular position.
 The correspondence between the President and Secretary Taft relating to the latter's resignation Is very brief. Secretary Taft simply said In his resignation:
 T hereby tender my resignation as Secretary of War, to take effect June 90. next"
 The President. in his reply, said:
 Your resignation Is hereby accept ed to take affect June S0."
 The resignation was dated yester- day and the acceptance today. It was said at the White House that as the President so recently as yesterday had given out q formal stetement concern ing his high esteem for Secreary Taft. 1t was not deemed necessary to repeat what was then said:
 Mir. RooseveIt'a Statement.
 The statement given out at the White House concerning Mfr. Wright's appointment. says:
 "As Philippine Commissioner and later as Vice Governor. he won the affection and regard of the Army to q high degree. and many of the most dis tinRuished of the men who served in the Army at the time he was In the Philippines have urged his appoint- ment because they felt in peculiar way that he was their champion and in a peculiar way understood them and their needs. This is especially true a regards the men who were Union veterans of the civil war 1oi 1 these grew to feel that lie was always especially interested in their welfare.
 Moreover. his great administrative and legal ability, both peculiarly nl him to deal with the problems In the Philippines. Panama and Cuba: for the work of the War Department Is now such that only man with special nt- ness and unusual training Is able to do Justice to 1t. Of all the men In the country the President feels that Luke Wright Is the man best equipped to take up the work of the department which for the last seven years has been under the control. first of Root and then of Taft.
 "As a young man, he was captain in the Confederate Army. He Is ono of the leading lawyers, not only of his State. but of the entire South. He has also been foremost in advocating and insisting upon fair treatment for the colored people. He first definitely es- tablished his reputation in the terrible days of the yellow fever epidemic al himself mayor of the town and took charge of all the relief measures. showing what may justly be called he roic devotion to duty and indifference to his own life together with the mas. terful qualities of a successful admin istrator in q great crisis. He was himself struck down by the plague he was fighting, but lived to see il stamped out and himself to take part in introducing into Memphis the hy- gienic measure which have since made 1t one of the model health cities of the | world.
 "He was appointed by President Me. Kinley as one of the Philippine Com. missioners and enjoyed President Mo, Kinley's heartiest confidence, being SC. Iected as one of the Southerners who were in sympathy with his admins. | tration. By President Roosevelt he wa, promoted first to be Vice Governor anc then Governor of the Philippines. ana was afterwards made first Ambassador | to Japan. Tn all positions he served with signal ability and has been ir hearty and outspoken agreement with the administration in all It's main pol | lcies."