Arizona republican., 1906-05-31

ency of our military service depends chiefly upon the efficiency of the aver age enlisted man, so the efficiency Of the nation as a whole depends chiefly upon the way in which the average man performs his plain, everyday duties
 This does not mean that the leader. whether in military or civil life. can escape bearing a peculiar burden of re- sponsibility. To him has been given much and from him much will be de- manded. It is right and proper tha. the man in a high position, whether his position be that of high civilian in time of peace or a high military or naval officer in time of war. should receive a marked degree of credit if he performs his difficult, delicate. and re- sponsible task we'll and should, on the other hand, be held to an especially sharp accountability for any shortcom- ings. In any time of crisis the man in high office in civil life. the man m nigh command in military or naval life can, if he be weak or incompetent par alyze the actions of a multitude Of brave and able men who are under him. On the other hand, if in intellect, and above all, in character. he is able to rise level to the need of the moment
 he may SO combine and direct the ac- tions of the many under him as to make their joint effort irresistible. The first duty of a leader civil or military is to lead; and he must lead well. Ex- actly as the people must demand the highest grade of integrity and effici- ency from their leaders in civil affairs so in military affairs they must insist upon every officer devoting all the best that there is in him to fitting himself in the duties of his profession, to car ing for and drilling and training those under him, so that alike in point Of
 personnel and in point of materieI the army and navy of the United States may reach as high point of perfection as is hUman'y possible. This is the work that only the leaders can do.
 and if they shirk it their shame is un- speakable.
 THE PLAIN MAN IN THE RANKS. ! Nevertheless it remains true that no
 leader can accomplish very much un-
 less he has the right kind of men to
 lead. Unless the enlisted man has the right stuff in him it stands to reason
 that no officer can get it out of him.
 because it is not there to get out. So
 in civil life. if all our leaders were , Washingtons and Lincolns they could, ' nevertheless, make no permanent i'm . average citizen had in him the capac- ity for such improvement. In the last analysis it is the man behind the bal
 lot who counts most in civil life, just
 as 1t is the man behind the gun who
 counts most in military life.
 We cannot too highly honor the mem
 Ory of the leaders in the civil war-of
 Grant and Lee, of sherman and John
 ston, of StOnewail Jackson and Sheri-
 dan, Of Farragut and of the captains
 who fought under and against him.
 But after all the man upon whom the
 chief credit must rest was the plain
 man in the ranks the man in blue or
 in gray who went in to see the war
 through and who did see it through.
 He had the courage to stand without flinching the pickering of the skir-
 mishes and the hammering of the great fights; he had the steadfast endurance
 10 bear with uncOmplaining resolution
 the hunger and the heat and the cold
 the sco-ching days and the freezing
 nights, the grinding. heartbreaking
 fatigue of the marches. the Wearisome monotony of the camps. and the slow
 suffering of the field hospitals So in the army and the navy today in the
 last analysis We must depend upon
 having the right stuff in the enlisted
 lldH anu then upon hdNlnS that Stu1L
 put into proper shape. So again in our republic as a whole it is just as true in peace now as it was forty-five years ago in war that it is the character Of the average man that must be the de- termining factor in achieving national success or going down to national dis aster. Leadership is necessary in order
 that we may get really good resu15s out
 of high average Of individual char
 acter; but without the high character