July, 1900. On March 28, 1901, advanced two (2) numbers in rank on the list of Majors, in the Marine Corps, for eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle on June 21, & 23, and July 3, and 9, 1900, at Tientsin, China, from March 8, 1901. Under suspension for ten days (10) from September 18, 1901, for being under the influence of liquor, and thereby unfit for the proper performance of duty. Suspended from duty for being drunk, with an official entry made of the event, Waller was still promoted from captain to full colonel in less than six years. This is hardly indicative of a stalled career, especially in the early twentieth century. It becomes hard to believe that the court-martial prevented Waller's appointment to the commandancy, especially since he is promoted less than a year afterward. But if it was not the reason, it may have been the excuse. Captain Archibald Butt, U.S. Army, military aide to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft, recalls a White House meeting in March 1910. The subject was the next Marine Commandant. Secretary of the Navy George Meyer had the necessary papers to appoint Waller, and President Taft agreed. Then, according to Butt: (Waller's) name was practically written, when Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania called on the President, and in five minutes Waller was sidetracked and Biddle elevated to the place in command. (Biddle) happened to be a cousin of the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, George T. Oliver. With no love for the Marines and no reason to care who their Commandant was, Butt had no reason to lie. Nor is he alone in giving this version of events. In the Proceedings of the U. S. Naval Institute, November 1986, Lieutenant Colonel Merrill L. Bartlett, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), discusses the career of Waller's protege Smedley D. Butler. Like Waller, Butler was the choice for Commandant among the rank-and-file of the Corps. Butler, too, was denied the position, because of the influence of politics. Col. Bartlett writes: In 1910, following a spate of in-house acrimony between the CMC, Major General George F. Elliott, and the Adjutant and Inspector, the colorful Colonel Charles H. Lauchheimer, Elliott opted for retirement. Most observers -- including Butler -- assumed that the venerable Waller would gain the Corps' highest post. However, in a private meeting with Secretary of the Navy George von Meyer, President William H. Taft bowed to pressure