ese 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 be