The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-09-18
The MAN WHO HAD
To STAY AT HOME

(By John Bruce Mitchell)

"T. R." was 81. W.; and IL. w"
was "T. R." From that evening
twenty-three years ago, when they
were introduced 1T dinner in the
Lowndes house in Washington, their
lives were entwined. Both prophets
of the strenuous life," both or
ganizers and administrators of "big
things" both men of broad vision,
with that gift of being able to think
ahead; both vivid students of nation
alism; both highly bred from old
American ancestors; both men of
few words and quick action; both
preachers of "Americanism'' long be-
fore that became significant; both
diplomatic, democratic and expon-
ents of the square dealt seemed
that when their paths crossed there
was something infinite in the doing.
One was Damon, the other Pythias.
And Wood was not the kind of
Pythias to carry a knife that knows
no friends. A man of great talents,
he somehow gave the impression of
always stepping back a little, while
Roosevelt stepped to the fore; for
Wood possessed gratitude and one
would be rash indeed to say that
1T. r." did not give him his oppor-
tunity. Noblesse oblige! But the
nations hero, Teddy, is gone. What
will his boom friend do now? From
his career it would seem that when
opportunity came Leonard Wood was
always ready.
In the ANIMALS of the wal he is
known as the man who had to stay
bnp mali vrhN ntoxrol 1900 - gaI.l
not talk" The strange analogy of
their lives is that both were eager
to serve the striking arm of the ma
TONS strength and both, Theodore
Roosevelt and Leonard Wood, stayed
home. Neither vas permitted to
serve abroad in the clash. When the
reports of Americas victories were
cabled from France, Woods was not
the mann. signed to them. Wood was
out in the corn country, obeying
orders, training soldiers on the Kan
sas plains. When the armistice was
proclaimed and the headlines blazed
with our victorious generals name,
Leonard Wood was quietly at work
IN Camp Funston. Yet the other
night, when, on the screen of q New
York motion-picture palace" there
f1ickered the imagine of the man who
had to stay home, a whole audience
clapped and cheered. Why?
Yet Wood Said Nothing.
Because they knew him for a man
"a man who obeyed orders without
a wry face, who kept his mouth shut,
and gave his country the best there
was in him, in the one way that was
permitted him. There was that and
the somewhat intangible thought that
possibly Leonard Wood was the herit-
age of Theodore Roosevelt, and a
thought that just as during the war
the service of ct. R." was "at home"
so was that of his lifelong friend,
IL. W." Only a most powerful per-
~sonality can keep green, a little, an
event which has passed. The Amer
lean people have not forgotten the
men who had to stay home.
When early in the war he was sent
to France to make a quick study of
the front, to bring back his exper-
fences for the benefit of men training
in the United States, he went into an
extremely delicate situation. The
French and British military author
tiles realized that he was the fore
most military man in America, yet
he was not in command of the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Force. They
realized that he knew more about
European warfare, due to a irst-hand
study of the French and German
armies, than did any man in the AM
erican army. They knew that the
British War Ministry was particularly
worried because Leonard Wood had
been relegated to the mere role of
division commander. They realized
that his presence in France would be
embarrassing to the Commander and
Chief Of Staff of the American army.
Leonard Wood had an international
reputation. He had been the guest
of the French Army at
He knew the French President, and
he was a Grand Officer of the Legion
of Honor. He knew all the French
Generals, Lloyd George wanted him
to come to England. 1t was a chance
that a man who could not efface
self, who was not a diplomat, might
have seized, but the whole time
Leonard Wood was in France he
simply obeyed orders. There was
not a word out OF him. He sought to
see no one, except in the line of duty.
The only time his name appeared in
the newspapers was when he stood
near a field gun which burst, wound
ing him. When he came out of the
hospital, and sailed back to America,
correspondents begged him for in
terviews. Leonard Wood said moth
ing.
Leonard Wood lis not merely a
soldier. Arts, other than the mill
tary, he has mastered. His mental
equipment is varied. His career
shows that his constitution had
enough iron in 1t to enable him to
serve in a, blazing cline, as law
maker, Judge and governor at the
same time. He has cleaned up filth
and disease, built sewers, devised a
scheme of finance, placated a power
full church influence, laid to rest a
bitter race hatred, and emerged from
the conflicting cross currents impelled
by these activities a popular man,
1t was said Of him by Roosevelt
that what Cromer did for Egypt,
Wood did for Cuba-except that
Woods task was the harder of the