Newton D. Baker to Woodrow Wilson

(Confidential)

I return the telegram from Cardinal Farley with a suggested reply.

The 69th New York National Guard regiment is locally known as "the Irish 69th." At the time it went to the Mexican border, its Colonel, Connolly, was found disqualified physically, and every sort of suggestion was made that his physical disqualifications, which were very serious and disabling, ought to be waived in deference to the fact that he was one of the men of the 69th of their own kind, and so forth. Captain Haskell, a Regular Army officer, was assigned to take his place, and evidently proved very acceptable to the men in the regiment.

When the National Army was authorized, it became necessary to adopt a policy with regard to the assignment of Regular Army officers to National Guard regiments, and as the National Guard had been on the border and had a lot of training while the National Army would be composed entirely of green men, it was deemed necessary to trust to the National Guard to supply its own officers and reserve the full number of Regular Army officers available for the greater need of the National Army. It therefore became impossible to retain Captain Haskell with the 69th. I have had personal calls and letters from a great number of people on the subject, including letters from Governor Glynn, Dudley Malone, Cardinal Farley and others, but as it was impossible to break the precedent without embarrassing the whole military situation, I transferred Colonel Hine of the New York National Guard to the command of this regiment. For some reason I could not bring myself to select deliberately an Irish Catholic, although Colonel Hine may be both, for ought I know; but it seems to me that a preference on either of those grounds is almost as bad as a prejudice on either of those grounds. My previous experience with the 69th, however, leads me to believe that it will be easily reconciled to their new Colonel, now that the choice is made.