The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-08-08

Washington, July .21.-In the life
story of Lieut.. Col James G. Har-
bord, General Pershing's chief Of
staff and right-hand man of the
American commander in France,
there is inspiration for the American
boy who is ambitious, yet faces big
obstacles to success. .-.
Harbord is not West Pointer. He
was born poor boy in Illinois
hfty-one years ago and enlisted in
the army as q private in the Fourth
infantry on Jan. 10, 1891. AS a boy
he had gone with his parents to
Kansas, and in due course of time
was sent to the Kansas State Agri-
tural college to master the scientific
points of farming. He was an apt
student and was graduated with
honors in 1885.
In the Kansas district in which
Harbord lived there was a vacancy
for West Point in 1887. Harbord
started out to win it. One of the
youngsters who beat him on the COM
petitive examination was Claude B.
Sweeney, now Lieut.. Col. Sweeney
and Harbord's junior by twelve files.
Sweeney went to West Point and
Harbord went back to the. farm. But
Hartford had made up his mind to be
soldier and an officer. and so it
was that in January, 1889, he ap-
peared at the recruiting station. He
announced at the time that he ex-
pected to win an officers commission
sooner or later.
Makes Rapid Rise.
The young soldier passed through
every on-commissioned grade.
Within three months he had won his
corporal's stripe, in six months he
was a sergeant, and the beginning of
his second years service as an en-
listed man found him quartermaster
sergeant of his regiment-in other
words, the second ranking man of
the non commissioned staff. In July,
1891. he appeared before an army
board to be examined for a commits
sion and got it with flying colors.
On Aug. 2 President Mckinley made
him a second lieutenant of cavalry
and assigned him to the famous
Fifth. When Sweezey, who had won
the West Point appointment which
Harbord had so desired, was grad
uated from the military academy in
1892 Harbord had been an officer
nearly a year.
Harbord's first duties as an officer
took him to Cuba, where during the
reconstruction period he served I'M
der Major Gen. Leonard Wood, who
was one of the first high ranking
officers to realize that in Harbord
the army possessed a soldier of great
possibilities. Later, in the Philip
pine constabulary, under Brig. Gen.
Henry T. Allen and under Col. H. H.
Bandholtz, now chief of staff of the
national guard division of New York,
he made record for efficiency.
When he arrived in the Philippines
he was a captain in the Eleventh
cavalry. and his transfer to the con-,
stabulary carried with 1t the tenn
porary rank of colonel. AS Colonel
Hartford he was assigned to organize
the Moro units of the Philippine ma
tive forces, in the Island of Minda-
mao. General Wood was then, as he
under whom he worked.
Good Work In the Philippines.
In 1905, after two years in Minda-
mao with the Moro contingents, Har-
bord was ordered to assume COM
mand of the constabulary in Central
Luzon, succeeding Colonel Band
hoItz, who had been promoted to
chief of constabulary 1t was not un-
til June, 1914, that he was relieved
from duty with the constabulary
and ordered to return to the United
States. The ''Manchu" law was
responsible for his failure to sue
coed Colonel Bandholtz in the COM
mand of the native organization.
Under that law only field officers
could succeed to the command, and
Harbord was still only a captain.
Returning to this country, Har-
bord was stationed on the Pacific
coast. Then he was ordered to the
Mexican. border to serve under his
friend Pershing. In 1916 he was
ordered to the War College division
of the general staff. A few weeks
ago came the order to proceed to
France as chief to staff to General
Pershing.
You ask me-" said an officer of
regulars few days ago, "to tell you
what kind of an officer Hartford is.
/ can only answer that he is one Of
the ablest in the army, a man of
splendid appearance, magnetic per-
sonality, and, to top it all, a brilliant
writer, a fact which is indicated
when one recalls that he is a gold
medalist of the military service in
stitution,"