he 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 Roosevel