trouble. Roosevelt was his devoted friend and supporter, and upon his
return to the United States in early 1902 he found this devoted friend
the head of the nation, himself a Brigadier-General of the regular
army scheduled to go into regular army work and to live on an army
officer's pay. In this country there is no other procedure possible.
In England such a man would have been given a title and a large sum of
money to make it possible for him to keep up the position which a man
of his abilities and {161} attainments should keep up. Here the case
is different.
He had the alternative of going on, or retiring and entering
commercial pursuits. Offers looking towards the latter contingency
were not wanting. He was, in fact, asked to take a business position,
which offered him forty thousand a year. Here was a large income for a
man of forty-two, regular work of an interesting sort, security and a
clear future for himself and his family. Instead, he accepted the
appointment to the Philippines which meant and indeed, as the outcome
showed, actually involved more than a hundred military engagements
amongst the natives of the islands in many of which he risked his
life.
Here again he took the road of service to his country as he had each
time the ways divided since the day when as a young doctor he entered
the army. No one but he himself can tell in detail just the reasons
which led to this decision, but in the main they were the instinctive
desire for action, for execution and for the open road, which then as
now swayed him in all his actions and decisions. Then, too, he felt
that since {162} Roosevelt was President, criticisms of their
relations in political circles might readily arise, as indeed did
occur later; and lest their friendship should be misunderstood he took
the Philippine appointment--applied for it, even--in order that being
thus out of the country, cause for any such occurrences might perhaps
be avoided.
It is always interesting to look back through the career of such a man
and speculate on the chance or wise decision which caused the choice
of the right road or the left road at such a time. Neither Wood nor
Roosevelt could possibly know or foresee that this decision would
furnish the former with the material which eventually led to his doing
more than all the rest of the United States put together to start
preparation for the Great War. Neither of them could have guessed that
his administration in the Philippines would bring out further
qualities in Wood which showed the statesman as well as the
administrator in him.
What might have happened otherwise is again a futile
speculation--perhaps something to bring him still more before the
people of his country, perhaps less--yet it may be safely said,
judging {163} from history and biography the world over, that it is
probable no road he might have taken would have suppressed Leonard
Wood's executive and administrative qualities. Indeed the fact that
for practically thirty years he has been in the army, that he is a
soldier in every inch of his big body, has never even to this day made
him a militarist. He is and always has been an administrator; and that
quality with all that it means would in all likelihood have cropped
out in whatever profession he might have chosen or been forced into by
circumstances.
Men of ability are doubtless occasionally kept down; but not as a
rule. They rise to the occasion. And conversely men of small minds,
dreamers and theorists looking to the settlement of all problems on
the instant seldom last long at the top although they rise to
prominence here and there in times of excitement and hysteria such as
we are passing through to-day. It is only the sound common sense of
humanity coupled with great ability that stands the test. It is only
they who keep ever before them the fact that {164} elemental laws do
not change, cannot be changed, who stand the test and strain of
emergency.
The entire world since the Great War is filled with new theories, new
plans, new outlooks for all of us. We cannot go back to the old
status. Yet because we cannot go back there would seem to be no reason
for our going mad. The wall paper has changed--must change. New
decorations with wonderful and to American ears unpronounceable names
have been displayed before the eyes of Europe and America by the
advanced architects of the day. But that individual--not to mention
nations--who becomes fascinated with the new colors and designs will
suffer horribly in the end if, having forgotten to look to the beams
of his house, he finds it shortly tumbling about his ears. Sane
vision, clear thinking at critical times has saved and will save many
times again those who would fall but for such guidance.
To-day in this land such men are needed. They must come forward, not
in haste or with sudden panaceas, but with the same old sound common
sense which has made us what we are and will keep {165} us from
becoming what parts of the rest of the world have already become.
In 1902 the situation, while not as acute as to-day, had nevertheless
its problems to be solved; and though we had just finished what in the
light of history was a short and almost insignificant war the country
was startled from end to end by the discovery of its unpreparedness.
As has already been said our amazing lack of men and equipment for any
such occasion had been impressed upon Wood's mind by personal
experience and by his own native instinct for the reverse.
It was of great interest to him, therefore, to receive shortly the
appointment to visit Germany as an American military observer of the
German Army maneuvers. And out of this trip he learned more thoroughly
the lack of foresight in military matters in this country and saw more
clearly the position which we should be in, if such a machine as the
German Army were pitted against us instead of the weak and decayed
forces of Spain.
In the course of these maneuvers he met many of the greatest military
men of Europe. He was received and entertained by the German Emperor
{166} not only because of his position in the American army and as the
representative of the United States, but as the man who in Cuba had
treated with such kindness and courtesy German officers of a visiting
training ship who were ill with the Island fevers. He witnessed the
grand maneuvers of the greatest army the world has ever known. But,
what in his own belief was of far more importance, he met and talked
with European military experts of world-wide reputation.
Among these men the most congenial spirit was Lord Roberts. The little
man of Kandahar, the great fighter of Britain's battles, the idol of
the British public, was then striving to awaken the English people and
the English government to their own unpreparedness. He sought even
then to show them what an attack by a force like the German Army would
mean to the British Empire. For years he kept at it, lecturing,
speaking, crying aloud throughout England up to the very day when
without warning in 1914 his countrymen found themselves with a scant
two hundred thousand soldiers confronted by five millions of trained
Germans.
{167}
The great fighter, the great preacher, his little body filled with
patriotism and a great heart, unbosomed to Wood and met a responsive
assent in Wood's own nature. They discussed from all sides the right
thing to do. They went over all the European systems together with the
desire in their hearts to find something which should at the same time
give a nation a force of great size that could be quickly put into
action and still not turn that nation into a huge military machine.
Neither of them was a militarist. Both felt that peace was best
preserved by the power to preserve it.
Together they seem to have arrived at some adaptation of the Swiss
system which provides that small country with a relatively enormous
military force without causing the citizens to give up their
commercial pursuits. At that time it is probable that Wood began to
formulate the idea of universal military training of all male citizens
between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one while they were finishing
school and college and before they had settled upon their life work.
At all events the material upon the subject {168} which he managed to
accumulate in the way of books, pamphlets, records and so on
constitutes now one of the main portions of his extensive library. And
the whole trip was an example in his case of what a man can do
incidentally--or apparently incidentally--while occupied ostensibly
with some other work. During his stay in Europe he met many statesmen
in Germany, France and England and absorbed from them all he could on
the subject that was fast becoming his greatest interest.
Upon his return to the United States the difficulties which Taft, the
Governor of the Philippine Islands, was having in trying to bring
order amongst the Moro, or Moslem, Islands and the half savage tribes
which inhabited them led President Roosevelt to consider the
advisability of sending some one to undertake this difficult and
dangerous task. Speaking of it to Wood one day the latter said:
"Why not send me?"
Roosevelt immediately referred him to Mr. Root, then Secretary of War,
with the result that he was appointed Governor of Moro Province to do
{169} the work there amongst these new wards of the United States
under different conditions which he had already done in Cuba.
Wood felt very strongly that it would be far better for him to be
there during the administration of Roosevelt in order that their
personal relationship might not be misunderstood. This was the more
forcibly brought in upon his consciousness by the occurrence at that
time of what is known as the Rathbone affair.
Major Estes G. Rathbone, formerly an assistant postmaster-general and
at this time detailed to duties in the newly organized Post Office in
Cuba, had been charged with wastefulness of public moneys and
unwarranted expenditure of public funds for personal expenses. He,
with certain associates, was brought to trial and convicted. He was
sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. It was one of the few cases
of malfeasance in office which occurred in Cuba during Wood's
administration and was dealt with by the regular courts in the regular
manner.
Nothing further would have come of it in all probability had not the
extraordinarily close {170} relations of Wood and Roosevelt furnished
an excuse. The fact that Roosevelt was President of the United States
and that as such he proposed the name of Wood for advancement to
Major-General of Regulars from Brigadier-General added fuel to the
flames. The fact that Wood was the senior Brigadier and that as such
he would naturally become Major-General in regular seniority seems to
have carried no weight at the time. Even then the Rathbone affair
would have had no connection with the matter of this appointment had
not Major Rathbone possessed personal friends high politically in the
government of the time, and had not the regular army officers looked
with disfavor upon the appointment even in regular order of a man who
had been an army surgeon and who was not what is known as a line
officer originally.
All these influences, however, coming together at the same time caused
an uproar in Congress over his appointment which, while it cleared
Wood entirely, still made a political scandal that hurt to the quick
the man who had just accomplished what he had accomplished in Cuba.
Wood was charged with conduct unbecoming {171} an officer; that he
made an intimate friend of an ex-convict in Santiago, and employed him
as a newspaper correspondent to blacken the character of eminent
American officers and advertise himself; that Rathbone was unjustly
accused and convicted through Wood's direct agency; that Wood had been
guilty of extravagance; that he had accepted while Governor-General
presents from a gambling house in Havana, and so on.
All this evidence and much more was laid before the Committee of the
Senate on Military Affairs and was most thoroughly aired. The result
was the absolute vindication of Wood, his confirmation as
Major-General of the Regular Army and a report which is a part of the
records of the Senate in which it is written that:... "not one of them
has a better claim, by reason of his past record and experience as a
commander, than has General Wood; and in the opinion of the Committee
no one has in view of his present rank equal claim to his on the
ground of merit measured by the considerations suggested."
The whole episode thus ended in still greater credit to General Wood.
It is only interesting {172} and in point here and now because it
brings out the fact that the man himself never had the support of the
Washington Army Department men until his service in the Philippines,
except here and there amongst those officers who have served under
him. Doubtless his extraordinary executive work in getting the Rough
Riders ready for action and his methods which over-rode precedents and
destroyed red tape throughout the whole of the War Department of that
day had much to do with this. That there should follow in so few
months his remarkable success in Santiago, his appointment as
Governor-General of Cuba, his quick and successful organization and
administration of the Island so that it could be turned over to the
Cubans in such short order--all tended to fan the flames of prejudice.
Hence when the opportunity of the Rathbone affair occurred the flames
became a veritable conflagration, which, however, burned only those
who brought the charges and touched the character of Wood himself not
at all.
In the meantime early in 1903 he started upon his duties in the
Philippines. Instead of proceeding by the usual route through
California and {173} over the Pacific to Manila, Wood decided to make
the voyage the other way round with a definite plan for acquiring data
upon his new subject and relative to his new duties as he went along.
In Egypt he spent some time with Lord Cromer, then just preparing to
give up his work there as Viceroy. Cromer, like all other persons in
executive capacities throughout the world, knew well all that General
Wood had done in Cuba. He had a very high appreciation of what had
been accomplished in the time, because from his own experience he knew
better than most men what the difficulties had been. He took a great
liking for the quiet, stalwart American and told him that his
administration in Cuba was one of the finest in Colonial history and
the best in our generation. Later when Lord Cromer was asked to
suggest some one to succeed himself in Egypt he said that
unfortunately the best man was unavailable since he was an American
citizen named Leonard Wood.
He gave him all the facilities for studying the government and
administration of the British protectorate and helped him wherever and
{174} whenever he could. Wood's great interest was the study of the
way in which men of different and conflicting religious beliefs were
handled, and he collected large quantities of books and documents to
be studied later as he proceeded eastward. No man could have asked for
higher appreciation than was accorded him voluntarily by the able and
experienced administrator of Egyptian affairs.
From Cairo he proceeded to India and spent sufficient time to
accumulate information there. He was to govern a Mohammedan population
mixed up with Confucians, cannibals, headhunters and religions of
twenty different varieties, and he studied as he went along all the
methods employed in similar situations to preserve order without
creating religious wars.
He even made a special journey to Java at the invitation of the Dutch
government, where the Dutch governor gave him all the assistance in
his power. Here he found the problem more closely allied to his own
than elsewhere.
So that on his arrival in Manila he had gathered information upon most
of the problems which would shortly confront him from sources {175} of
unquestioned authenticity and from men of unquestioned ability. Some
friend one night in Manila spoke of the large number of books that
filled the walls of his house and wondered when he expected to get
time to read them. Wood's answer was that he had read them all and
only used them now as reference books to refresh his memory.
New as the problems were, therefore, he had by the time he began
active work as Governor whatever preparation any one could secure for
the work in hand.
The Spaniards had failed in their government in the Philippines as
they had elsewhere. In Mindanao and Sulu--the country, or islands,
inhabited by the Moros--they had failed signally because of their
intolerance of the religious beliefs of the people and their careless
impatience generally towards a colony which from its very nature could
not produce much money. Furthermore they did not send sufficient
military forces or sufficiently able officers to maintain their
supremacy. And finally they did not deal with the people through the
native clergy and priests. Consequently when the Americans came in the
Moros were united only {176} in their hatred of the white race, placed
no confidence in anything their rulers told them and only obeyed
white-man-made laws as long as the white man was in sight.
After all a sultan or datu had his position and authority which had
come down to him through generations and his religion which had been
taught him from birth. He saw no reason why he should give up these
without a struggle just because some other man arrived with a
different religion and a different form of sultan government. The
country was such that it was easy to avoid the new rulers.
Transportation over large parts of the southern islands was through
jungle and pathless forests where even riding a horse was impossible.
Streams without bridges, settlements without approaches except a
trail, tropical climates to which only the Moros themselves were
accustomed spread over a land of almost impenetrable jungle. The Moros
themselves understood such a situation and could easily move from one
spot to another, one island to another, one settlement to another;
while the army had to fight its way in and then fight its way out
again.
{177}
While the problem of administration was not unlike that in Cuba in so
far as the organizing of courts, law, education, native officials and
so on went, there were here in Moroland the infinitely more difficult
and delicate tasks of dealing with many different religious laws and
customs and the hereditary rank and rights of tribal rulers, none of
which existed in Cuba.
The quality of statesmanship in Wood which dealt with these problems
and settled them so that from a slave-holding, polygamous, headhunting
land there arose a self-governing community is of the highest order.
It was put into force in the commander's usual, commonplace, thorough
way without haste or excitement, but where necessary by force of arms
which required more than a hundred engagements and many hard-fought
battles. Wood first spent some time in Manila going over the situation
with Mr. Taft. There he learned Taft's wishes and views and prepared
his military forces. He was both military commander and civil governor
of the Moroland and as such was again an absolute autocrat. When he
was ready he started directly {178} into the jungle from Zamboanga.
The journey took him and his staff through forests, over unfordable
rivers, across mountain ranges on foot, across the straits that
separated one island from another in dugouts, into forts, into towns,
into villages and hamlets in a nerve-racking journey of over a month
without a pause except for necessary sleep.
He wanted to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears at first
hand what was the condition of affairs, what was going on, what were
the different and varying situations in order that he might the more
correctly and certainly draw up plans for the reorganization of the
colony. In one village he was a military commander issuing orders; in
another he was a criminal or civil judge sitting in session; in
another he was a listener to the advancement of the plans and the
religious ceremonials of the sultans or datus of the place.
Naturally all came to see him. He was the embodiment of the new
conquerors and curiosity alone would have brought every one, to say
nothing of policy which brought those who desired {179} to impress him
in order that special favors might be expected for themselves. He was
the Great White Sultan judged by the standards known to their other
sultans.
And the problems were infinitely varied and in most cases entirely new
ones to the "doctor from Boston."
But, as in other places, he used his own methods in each instance to
settle the particular problem, always emphasizing the one great fact
that if the Moros would deal fairly with the Government of the United
States they would benefit as never before, secure fair and just
treatment and be assured of their right to live in peace.
Yet when things became a little clogged he took immediate steps to
clear the situation with force if necessary, but always with diplomacy
if that could be made to do the job.
"In Jolo there was a mess. The puffed-up Sultan, with whom General
Bates in 1899 had made a treaty by which the Sultan engaged to keep
order, was away in Singapore having a 'time.' His brother, the Rajah
Mudah, was acting as regent. The sub-chiefs and datus were in a great
{180} row. The Moros were murdering and robbing, all over the island.
General Wood led an expedition to find out what was the matter. It was
not a punitive expedition, but rather one meant to let the natives see
the stalwart soldiers of the United States and understand the futility
of resisting them. The Rajah Mudah was sulky. The General sent him a
polite invitation to visit him in camp near Maibun, the Rajah's town.
Mudah returned word that he was ill. Another invitation failed to
budge him. General Wood ordered Colonel Scott to pay a call upon the
sick Rajah and to take along a company of infantry. Colonel Scott and
Captain Howard found the Rajah lounging among his pillows. He greeted
them in the languid accents of the sick. Solicitous inquiries about
the nature of his malady were made. The Rajah had a boil. Colonel
Scott was deeply sympathetic. Would the Rajah object to showing his
boil. Perhaps the visitors might be able to suggest a remedy. The
Rajah did not show his boil. Captain Howard put his company into line.
The Rajah sat up with a jerk, and Moros came running from all
directions to see what was {181} happening. Colonel Scott very quietly
explained that the soldiers had been sent as a guard of honor to
escort the Rajah to the General. If the Rajah was quite sure that he
was feeling sufficiently strong to travel, they would go.
Peering through half shut eyes, the Rajah Mudah pondered for a moment.
Then he announced that he felt greatly improved and that undoubtedly
his condition would be immensely helped by a ride in the air.
"General Wood greeted him cordially and ceremoniously. He personally
conducted him around the camp, pointing out what fine, big men our
soldiers were, and especially directing his attention to the machine
guns. Would the Rajah like to see the guns in operation?
"After the guns had mowed down a few trees the Rajah's face assumed a
thoughtful expression. He became enthusiastically friendly."
[Footnote: _World's Work_.]
Such methods in time made an impression. Even the Moro mind began to
absorb the fact that it was much better to accept the invitation than
to undergo what followed any failure to do so.
{182}