The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-03
Representative GalIiyan Says
General Wood IlItreated.
Has Letter From 40 Army Of
ficers To Back Charges.
IS A MOST efficient MAN
Wood the Idol of Officers and
Men Alike.
Yet Kept in Corner at Home
Who Did It?

Washington, Feb. "a letter,
signed by forty-nine officers of the
army, who were wounded in France
and are now in hospital in this
country, was cited by Representative
Gallivan of Massachusetts, told of dis
honorable treatment of General Wood
as he visited the front in France.
''The part that attempts to protect
these men will go down in ignominious
defeat" he shouted. Il am trying to
save the Democratic party. The men
of New England who are coming back
are a unit in their criticisms of the
methods of the men responsible for
these injustices. They found in our
ranks the autocracy they had gone
over to destroy. We are proud of our
returning soldiers. Investigate and
you will find that they are telling the
truth
The Boston representative stated
that since making his speech in the
house two weeks ago in which he
charged that national guard and re-
server officers and some regulars,
notably Mai. Gen. Clarence Edwards,
had been the victims of military
cabal he had received more than four
hundred letters from thirty-nine states
approving of his action, the writer's,
all army officers and enlisted men
who had been overseas, offering to
furnish him with facts to support his
charges if an investigation was
ordered. He explained that he had
paid no attention to any letter from
an officer with grievance because he
had not been promoted or for other
personal reasons.
OF these letters, he stated, forty-siX
had come from commissioned men
above the rank of captain, who had
seen service at the front, who had
been denoted while the men who had
Aeen given their places had been
officers who had never seen fighting
service.
In respons? to repeated demands
from both Republican and Democratic
sides of the house that he place the
responsibility for the autocracy he de-
clared ruled the army. Mr.. Gallivan
finally said:
The LcaverworGI Clique.
81 attribute it to the Leavenworth
clique We have certain army schools
at Fort Leavenworth, postgraduate
institutions. The men who come out
of those schools are responsible for
the influence and power in the army
to which 1 have referred. 1t was the
Leavenworth clique that dominated
the high command"
When asked what he meant by the
high command, Mr.. Gallivan replied.
''tha general staff" He denied that
he was attacking General Pershing.
But he added that Pershing's staff was
controlled by the influences he had in
mind.
The reference to General Wood was
in letter read by Mr.. Gallivan, which,
he stated, bore the signature of forty
nine officers, who had been wounded
abroad and who now were at q base
hospital in this country. He withheld
the names of these officers.
The letter reads:
Disgrace II Complained.
ut has been impossible for anyone
fo criticize If YOU did that here you
would be PROC erman', if you said
p home in disgrace. The car in his
pallniest days never enjoyed the auto
or ltic power the staff enjoyed here
and abroad 1t can be proven on in
vestigat.on that medical officers were
percmptorially ordered (and dared
not disobey) to find that officers unfit
when it was not desirable from the
staff standpoint to send them overseas.
when General Wood visited our
front he was treated more like a Ger
man spy than an officer of the United
States We have the word of several
colonies that knew him we'll for this
He was hurried thru his visit and or
dered back home without allowing him
to visit the Italian front or returning
thru England as he was invited to dc
by Lloyd George. General Wood was
the idol of the army, officers and men
alike, was one of our most efficient
officers. vet he was kept in a corner
here at home. Who did it?
Regulars in S. O. S.
~"You are absolutely right as to the
high command. The S. o. S. (service
of suppltes) was full of regulars and
seyv. Offices, as far as the fighting
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