Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1920-01-22
WOOD HAS VARIED
CIVIL EXPERIENCE
Administrative QUALITIES ARE
TESTED AND PROVED IN HAN
DLING GREAT BUSINESS
PROBLEMS.
BY EDWARD B. CLARK.

From time to time people ask,
"What has been the administrative
anu business experience o. Leonard
Wood? What has been his experience
with men outside Of the army? What
does he knew about conditions in the
different parts of the United States
and in our overseas possessions? Has
he any thorough knowledge of foreign
affairs and of our foreign relatiOnsT
The administrative qualities Of
Leonard Wood have been tested and
proved. No American living has been
tried more thoroughly than he in COM
plex fields of constructive civil work,
administrative work of the highest
order which carried with it the neces-
Sty for the exercise of keen business
acumen.
The republic of Cuba, built upon
firm democratic foundations, Is a mon
ument to the administrative ability of
Leonard Wood. In the Philippines is
TO be found another monument to his
craftsmanship.
Leonard Wood graduated in medi.
and served for more than year in
one of the great hospitals, later to
take charge of the charity depart
ments In a section of the city Of Bos,
ton where the poor lived.
Not long after the completion OF
Woods work In Boston he became an
assistant surgeon in the army, coming
S,,fn 70 af hn tDi ne
man, the miner, the people generally,
and giving much of his time to the
work of assisting the Indians and to
a study of the problems of irrigation
and reclamation.
Then for Leonard Wood there came
four years In California. He covered
the state many times in pursuance of
his duties and extended his field as
occasion required into the states of
the Northwest. Then for two years he
was in service in the South, having
headquarters in Georgia.
From the South Leonard Wood went
to the city of Washington, where his
work brought him into daily contact
with Grover Cleveland. Then he had
the same intimate relations with VIII
liam Mckinley and the men Of his
time.
Then came the Spanish war and the
active campaign in Cuba as the col
onel of the regiment of rough riders
OF which Theodore Roosevelt was the
lieutenant colonel.
At the close of the Spanish war
Leonard Woods supreme administra.
tive duties began. He was made the
governor of the city of Santiago and
a few weeks later of the entire east.
ern half of Cuba.
Under Wood prohteering was abol.
ished, industry was built UP, agricul-
ture rehabilitated, hospitals organ,
lied, equipped and maintained. tens
of thousands of people clothed and
fed-and all this done in a thorough
businesslike manner. 1t was done un.
der tribulations which arose from
the fact that the people were i'm
poverished to the point of starva-
tion and had been dying by thousands
for the lack of the things which Wood
quickly provided.
Then there came the rehabilitation
of the municipalities, the establish
ment of schools, the opening Of roads
the organizing of government in the
provinces, the readjustment of taxa.
ton and Of the courts, and the work
of providing for the thousands of chill
dren made orphans by war or famine
There was more business and more