The Washington herald., 1918-05-29

der relieving him of his command
was received.
Mr.. Baker is said to have replied
that he was powerless even to con-
, slider the appeal. as the matter was
entirely in the hands of President
Wilson. In a spirit of fairness Mr..
Baker is said to have suggested
that he would bring the matter to
the attention of the President and
report. The visit of Gen. Wood to
the White House was the result.
The basis of the complaint made by
Gen. Wood was that IL he was not to
go back to France he be given active
duty with troops in this country. The
order detaching him from duty with
the Eighty-ninth division specified
that he should take command of the
, Department of the West at San Fran
cisco. The latter duty is purely of a
routine character and does not include
the command OF troops.
May Get Active Command.
Whatever the reason. the best in
formation obtainable here is that Gen.
Wood will not go back to France, but
will get the desiresd active command
and responsibilities requested as an
alternative.
Gen. Wood went to the Capitol in
| the morning and called upon Senator
Warren, Of Wyoming. who is Gen.
Pershing's father-in-law. He sought
from Senator Warren verification of
the report that Gen. Pershing had re-
quested that he be not sent to Frame.
Senator Warren said he had no in
formation on the subject. and zen.
Wood expressed his regret that he
was to be detained for duty here in
stead Of being sent abroad.
Il am a good soldier and will obey
any order that Is given to me- was
the only comment Gen. Wood would
make after his conference with Seua-
tor Warren.
Hundreds Of protests against the
removal of Gen. Wood from command
of the Eighty-ninth Division poured
in upon Senators from States repre-
fsented in the division. Senator
Thomas, Of Colorado, received a large
number of these, and he sent them
by special messenger to the White
House. so that the President might
see them before his conference with
Gen. Wood.
The tenor Of the messages was a
vigorous objection to the displacement
of Gen. Wood as commander OF the
division which he had so laboriously
trained.
Explanations Suggested.
Speculation at the Capitol as to the
cause of Gen. Woods removal
brought forth the following sugges-
tions:
THAT General Wood was "set
] l. II
/ Icriticizing the army organization
and the activities of the War De-
| partment.
2.-That his displacement was due
to his close friendship with Colonel
Roosevelt, who has become an open
and violent critic of the admins
tration, including President Wilson
and Secretary Baker.
3.-That the change was forced
by the old army clique" in the War
Department, which has always re-
sented General Woods rapid and
somewhat spectacular advancement
over the heads of older officers in
the department.
It is recalled that when General
Wood returned from France. he
went before the Military Affairs
| Committee and made a long state
ment OF conditions abroad. AL
though his statement was made in
executive session. enough Of It
reached the public to cause It to be
known that General Wood was not
in full accord with everything that
had been done in the handling of
the overseas forces. Officials of the
War Department never made any
denial of the facts. as plainly and
even bluntly told by General Wood,
but the attitude of the officials was
that the statement was untimely
and some of the things would have
been better left unsaid.