Part 8

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.

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Wood had also to add to his difficulties in the beginning the prejudice of army officers he found in the islands. The older men over whom he had been promoted by President McKinley had no love for him. They called him a doctor. He was not of the army fraternity. They had heard that he had done well, but not by established methods. The younger officers took their cue from their seniors and so did the enlisted men. It was a difficult problem, or series of problems, through which he had to steer a careful course. But he did it and turned the tide entirely in the other direction.

He did it by always taking his share of the hard work. Object lessons of this sort multiplied as time went on. When troops were sent out to an engagement Wood went with them and kept in the front line. When they camped for the night in the jungle he had the same bed--the ground. When they had little or nothing to eat, he had the same. Once when they came out upon the beach of one of the islands after a hard trip Wood's launch was reported a hundred yards off the surf ready with cooling fans, a good mattressed bed, excellent food and a bath. He told {183} the orderly that he would stay with the men and sent him back to the launch, taking no more notice of the matter except to scrape out a new hollow in the burning sand in the hope of finding a cooler spot to sleep.

Such episodes repeated again and again soon made a vital change of views in regard to the new governor and commander. They occurred so regularly and so often that it appeared true--this taking what came along in the day's work with the others--not a case of trying to produce effect now and then. Mr. R. H. Murray, in his article written in 1912, quoted above, speaks of an officer who served under Wood at this time and as he says quotes him as literally as he can:

"When Wood first came out in 1903, the army in the Philippines didn't know him. There were plenty of officers who reviled him as a favorite of the White House, and cussed him out for it. Pretty soon the army began to realize that he was a hustler; that he knew a good deal about the soldier's game; that he did things and did them right; that, when reveille sounded before daybreak, he was usually up and dressed before {184} us; that, when a man was down and out, and he happened to be near, he'd get off his horse and see what the matter was and fix the fellow up, if he could; that when he gave an order it was a sensible one and that he didn't change it after it went out; and that he remembered a man who did a good piece of work and showed his appreciation at every chance.

"Well, the youngsters began to swear by Wood, and the old chaps followed, so that from 'cussing him out' they began to respect him and then to admire and love him. That's the word--love. It's the easiest thing in the world to pick a fight out there now by saying something against Wood. It is always the same when men come in contact with him. I don't honestly believe there is a man in the department now who wouldn't go to hell and back for Leonard Wood."

It was again much the same story as in Cuba. It was not only the personality of the man himself, his personal magnetism, but the quiet simplicity of his methods backed by knowledge and good judgment. It was the absence of doing anything for effect, anything of the personal {185} "ego;" the getting of things done quietly, without ferment or conversation. And back of it all the absolute certainty of every one who worked with or under him that Leonard Wood would do exactly what he said he would, even though he said it quite quietly only once and even though the doing of it meant a military expedition, a battle and the death of many a good man who perhaps knew nothing of the real reasons.

Here again space is too limited to permit of an account of the work done by Wood which made a group of pirates into a relatively law-abiding community. Yet some attempt to picture the situation is necessary in order to give a slight idea of what the problem was.

It should be borne in mind that the country over which he was made Governor-General consisted of two-thirds of the Island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago--a long chain of large and small islands extending almost to Borneo. The inhabitants were principally Mohammedans, known to the Spaniards as Moros. Along the coast of Mindanao were scattered small Philippine settlements--Christian Filipinos. Widely {186} separated back in the islands were numerous tribes speaking different dialects. In appearance they were not unlike the Diacs of Borneo. Some of them were headhunters. Among some of them cannibalism still existed in the form of religious ceremonies.

The Moros were the masters of all the seas in this vicinity. They were the old Malay pirates so well known in books of travel. The Spaniards had waged intermittent war against them since early in 1600, but they never effectively conquered them. They would send down a large expedition, win a victory and withdraw. This procedure, however, made little or no impression on the pirates, who shortly returned to their trade when the Spanish victors had returned home.

The Moros were all fanatical Mohammedans, intolerant of Christians or Christian influence, and when the Spaniards arrived in Manila about 1687 they dominated all the seas about the Philippine Islands. They were armed with all kinds of firearms, ranging from the old Queen Bess muzzle-loader to the most modern rifles. Their artillery ranged from the broadside guns of battleships of {187} the 18th Century to a smaller cannon of bronze, made principally in Borneo. They were bold, adventurous sailors, slave traders and slave hunters and successfully terrorized the hill tribes. Indeed, they were greatly feared along the coast of Mindanao.

Early in the American occupation a treaty had been made with the Sultan of Sulu, who claimed the headship of Moros from the Island of Sulu northward to the great Island of Mindanao. In Mindanao there were different sultans who claimed headships in their own districts, and foremost amongst these was Datu Ali, who had waged a long and successful war with the Spaniards.

Here then was a difficult problem: to establish civil government among these wandering hill tribes, Filipino settlements, and piratical Mohammedan groups, each fearing and hating the other. General Wood's first task as he conceived it was to stop slave-trading and establish relations of tolerance, if not friendship, between the Filipinos and the Moros on the one hand and between the Moros and the hill tribes on the other; to stop the Christian Filipinos from imposing {188} on the hill tribes; and to begin some method for substituting respect for law and order, for government and authority in the place of terror and hatred. The ending of the slave trade resulted in many heavy, long-drawn-out fights with the principal Moro bands. The Sultan of Sulu had not lived up to the Bates Treaty and he had to be deposed, therefore, as a sovereign in Sulu.

The next step was to organize some form of government that would fit the situation. To start this Wood divided the entire Moro area, including the islands, into districts and appointed American officers of experience and ability as governors of the districts.

He then visited Borneo and studied carefully the laws and regulations under which that chartered colony governed the Malays within its borders. The policy laid down by him for the district governors was to stop slave-trading and the taking of life and property at once; to establish next friendly relations between the people living on the coast and the timid tribes up in the hills; to build up commerce on a fair basis; to open up trails and lines of communication between {189} villages; to assure to every one, no matter what his religion, a fair deal. He also laid great stress on the necessity of bringing the headmen of the different tribes into contact with the district governors and of doing all that could be done to build up and increase commerce.

At the same time the new and energetic Governor-General instituted a strong policy to stop forever the inhuman practices and customs highly repugnant to what Americans considered humane conduct. Every effort was made to insure better treatment of women, who up to that time had been nothing more nor less than chattels. On the seacoast trading stations were built and put in charge of men who spoke the dialect of the wild people. At these stations there was always a provincial agent who had authority to see that the hill people got fair prices for their products and just treatment from the Malays. Little by little as a result of this wise and sane policy they were all induced to come to the stations and make their head-quarters there during the trading period. In former times they had been accustomed to bring down their heavy loads of jungle products on their {190} shoulders and rather than stay in the neighborhood of the pirates over night they would sell their goods for anything they could get and hurry up into the hills again before dark. Moro, Filipino and Chinese traders had for centuries systematically robbed them. Money was of little use to them and therefore all trading was by barter. It was a long campaign of education which Wood instituted to build up confidence amongst these timid people, and he sent young American officers among them, traveling often-times hundreds of miles on foot and practically without any protection to help them and give them confidence.

Little by little confidence was built up; great peace meetings were arranged among the different tribes; old grudges were wiped out; scores were balanced and old feuds settled. It took time and brains and painstaking patience, but it was done and done well.

At the same time, taking a leaf from his own Cuban notebook, Wood started schools in the Filipino villages and took steps to do the same among the Moros. It was very difficult to {191} find teachers who would be received by these Moslems. It was at first almost impossible to get them to send their children to school at all. Nothing but time and sound, honest methods in dealing with these people made all or any of this possible.

Patrol boats were put on duty in the waters about the islands. Simultaneous with this building up went the organization of the customs service, since the province had to be entirely self-supporting. Native people from among the Moros and Filipinos were organized into what was called the constabulary. Every effort was made to turn the attention of the people from irregular and piratical activities to the activities of commerce. School laws were put in force, written in terms to meet the situation. Increased cultivation of new land, cultivation of cocoanuts, cocoa, and various local products, including hemp, was encouraged by exempting it from taxation provided certain amounts of useful crops were planted thereon.

Communications by land and water were built up as fast as possible. After a time taxation was {192} imposed very gradually in the form of a cedula, or poll tax. The money so collected was spent so far as possible in the district where it was collected. The headmen of the tribes and sub-tribes were made officials of the province and given a baldric bearing a brass shield with the seal of the province. In time they were given certain police authority for the maintenance of order. If the local headman could not handle the situation, the local constabulary was called in. If they in turn were not sufficient, then the troops were sent into the area.

A free man's life was worth fifty-two dollars and a half in gold; a male slave one-half this amount; a free woman was worth as much as a male slave; a female slave half as much as a male slave, and a modern rifle about two hundred dollars in gold.

As the simple processes of law came to be better understood natives were encouraged to appeal from the tribal to the district court, consisting of the district governor and the local priests or headmen, who advised the former upon tribal {193} customs and scales of punishment, in order that no injustice should be done to any one.

Gradually appeals were taken from the district courts to the regular insular courts, which were represented by itinerant judges of the first instance. The latter belonged to the regular Philippine judiciary and were at this time all Americans. Women were given equal status before the law and the rights of property were safeguarded.

After the first hard fighting the need for the use of troops gradually diminished and more and more of the policing work was done by the native constabulary. The wildest regions became practically safe.

After the districts were in working order municipalities and townships were established and the framework of civic organization begun. The Mohammedan religion was left undisturbed. Religious freedom was guaranteed to both Mohammedans and Christians. In addition to the Catholic missionaries who had been working there for hundreds of years, missionaries of other denominations commenced to take active interest in the situation. The revenue was sufficient to maintain {194} the province in good shape and there was a considerable amount of money in reserve.

Thus in three years, with the knowledge he had acquired in Cuba supplemented by his visits and study amongst the colonies of other nations where similar problems existed, with his extraordinary energy and capacity for working through innumerable subordinates, Leonard Wood again built up a community out of nothing but land and human beings. But in the Philippine instance he built up a community largely governing itself upon a system of laws still in force--though three governors have succeeded him--from a hopeless mass of Christian Filipinos, Chinese traders, Malay pirates, Mohammedans, cannibals and feudal tribes.

It was a remarkable instance of state building, which following upon the Cuban episodes, stands out as the greatest achievement any man has accomplished in Colonial history.

It is impossible to state the relative importance of this work without appearing to overdo it. Yet if we could but collect the tributes that have been paid to Wood upon its accomplishment they {195} would make a volume, Richard Olney wrote: "... to congratulate you personally on the most successful and deservedly successful career, whether as soldier or public man of any sort, that the Spanish War and its consequences have brought to the front." John Hay, then Secretary of State, wrote Wood a note "with sincere congratulations on the approaching fruition of all your splendid work for the regeneration of Cuba," and Senator Platt, of Connecticut, wrote of his "admiration for your administration under difficulties greater I think than have ever had to be encountered by any one man in reconstruction work." So the record of two statesmenlike and administrative works stands to this day as a witness of Wood's qualities.

In 1905 after a visit to the United States he returned to the islands and became commander-in-chief of the American forces in the Philippines, General Bliss taking his place as Governor of the Moros, who were now established under a basic form of government and procedure which Wood had inaugurated.

By 1908 this work was practically completed {196} and the procedure laid out for the future rule of that part of the Philippines. At that time General Wood was transferred to Governor's Island in New York Harbor as Commander of the Department of the East, strangely enough the first command he had held within the United States since the Geronimo days in the Southwest.

There followed in the next six years a diplomatic mission as special Ambassador to the Argentine Republic upon the occasion of the centenary of Argentina, where he met and talked with General von der Groltz, the German officer, who had so much to do with the Great War later. From this meeting Wood absorbed more of the necessity for universal military training and more of the aversion to a standing army such as existed in Germany. After this mission he became the head of the American military forces under the President of the United States and for four years held the position of Chief of Staff.

Thus beginning his army life in 1886 as an army surgeon he rose in twenty-two years to the highest position in the regular army that any one can hold. That, in a sense, closes a certain {197} period in General Wood's career. For when in 1914 he was again made Commander of the Department of the East he had already started upon his campaign of national preparation which had been growing and growing in his mind as he lived and served his own nation and observed and studied other nations. The knowledge he had acquired in the four quarters of the earth showed to him conclusively that a nation must be ready to resist attack in order to live in peace, and yet that that nation must not spend all its wealth and time and brains in building up a military machine. In a strange way the attitude of this New England "Mayflower" descendant resembled the attitude of his own native Cape Cod, which stands at the outposts of New England with its clenched fist ready and prepared, yet which lives on quietly in the lives of its inhabitants who proceed in peace with their commercial occupations and their family existence.

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THE PATRIOT

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VIII

THE PATRIOT

"There are many things man cannot buy and one of them is time. It takes time to organize and prepare. Time will only be found in periods of peace. Modern war gives no time for preparation. Its approach is that of the avalanche and not of the glacier.

"We must remember that this training is not a training for war alone. It really is a training for life, a training for citizenship in time of peace.

"We must remember that it is better to be prepared for war and not have it, then to have war and not to be prepared for it."

Such sentiments quoted from General Wood's many speeches and writings might be continued until they alone made a volume--a book of the Creed of the Patriot. For in his crusade up and down our land for the last six years he has developed an unsuspected ability for epigrammatic phraseology, for stating in concise, homely {202} language the principle that no one in any successful operation has failed to get ready. This was unsuspected in him, because up to 1913 he had had little to say outside of his official reports. His motto of doing the thing without talking about it had been followed to the letter by himself.

When he finally arrived at a position which was important and powerful enough to give him an opportunity for putting his beliefs into effect, when he furthermore arrived at a point where there was not the immediate necessity for feeding a starving people, or fighting a hostile military force, or reorganizing a tumbled-down state, or doing any of the things demanding immediate action with which he had been employed during most of his life--then with characteristic energy he did begin. Time could not be bought by him any more than it could be by others and his work of preparedness had to await a period of peace when the time was at hand. This period having arrived in 1912 and 1918 he found that in order to produce any impression, to get action upon this plan, he must not only have a high and powerful position but he must awaken the public {203} to its importance before he could expect legislative or departmental action. Hence the volume of the Creed of the Patriot.

With his accustomed energy therefore he started upon a campaign of writing, speaking and promoting in all ways open to him to bring this new plan before the people of this country and in doing so he developed the hitherto unsuspected qualities of a speaker of the highest, because the simplest and most homely order.