The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-07-26

many fights through the civil war; hui
Captain Pershing is the coolest mar
! under fire | ever saw in my life"
Soon after these Cuban battles Per-
the volunteers, serving as chief ord
nance officer and later as assistant
adjutant general.
But mere personal bravery does not
necessarily make great general, how
ever desirable it may be. Pershing
was soon to show in the Philippines
that he had that discretion. judgment
and restraint, together with a mag
netic personality that qualified him for
high command. AS early as 1908 Gem
eral Davis wrote from the Philippines
urging that Pershing be made a brig
adler general. In 1901 he was placed
in command of five troops of the 18th
cavalry, a company of engineers, and
a battalion of the 9th infantry at
Camp Wears, in the Lake Lanao dis
trict of Mindanao, taking the place of
General Baldwin. 1t was made as a
temporary appointment, but Captain
Pershing handled the Moro situation
with such skill and tact that General
Sumner retained him in command. He
| learned to speak the Moro language
and conducted all the negotiations
with the Moros On four occasions he
ed expeditions against the rebellious
tribesmen, being i'm the hostile jungles
anywhere from four days to two weeks
at a time. His effectiveness both as
a fighter and as an administrator in
/ this campaign led President Roosevelt
to compliment him by name in mes
sage to congress.
This extraordinary distinction came
to him in 1908. In his message at the
beginning of the second session of the
! fifty eighth congress, President
Roosevelt complained that there was
no system in the army for granting the
ecognition of promotion to officers
who deserved promotion because of
their ability in the service. After call
ing upon congress to remedy this sit
uation with necessary legislation, Mr..
Roosevelt wrote:
when a man renders such service
as Captain Pershng rendered last
spring in the Moro campaign, it ought
to be possible to reward him without
at once jumping him to the grade of
brigadier general"
Promoted by President Roosevelt.
1t was a signal and unusual honor
for an army captain to be mentioned
in the presidents annual message to
congress. Mr.. Roosevelt devoted only
a single paragraph to the army in this
message, and Pershng was the only
officer named. The presidents wish in
1903 to reward Pershing by promotion
is evident in the message. Then, as
now, the president was unable by law
to promote officers to any grade below
brigadier general. Mr.. Roosevelt
waited three years for congress to pass
the laws that would enable him to
give Pershing smaller promotion,
and then, his patience at an end, gave
that officer the long jump over the S62
grades.
1t must be borne in mind that when
Mr.. Roosevelt mentioned the gallantry
of Pershing to congress in 1903, that
officer had not yet met Miss Frances
H. Warren, whom he later married,
and through whom it was alleged he
secured the political influence for his
appointment
Except for the four years which
Pershing spent at the University of
Nebraska, one year (from June, 1897,
to May, 1899 as assistant instructor
of tactics at West Point, and a little
time spent in Washington just prior
to his marriage to Miss Warren, he
has been continually out with the
fighting forces. Washington does not
know him.
He was married just as he receiv-
ed the appointment of military attache
at Tokyo, and he and his bride antic-
ipated wonderful honeymoon in ia
pan. Instead of that he arrived just
in time to be sent to Manchuria as
the American observer with the Jap
anese army, and spent the next two
years almost continuously within the
sound of guns. His report on his OBJ
servations is regarded as one of the
most valuable documents of the kind
ever submitted to the department. In
cidentally, in order to make his work
in Japan effective, he studied and
gained speaking knowledge of the
Japanese language. He also speaks
French and Spanish fluently
Prior to the Mexican affair Per-
shing's most conspicuous service was
in the Philippines in 1913 as command
er of the department of Mindanao and
governor of Moro province. His diplo-
macy and knowledge Of the Moro tom
que enable him to settle most of the
difficulty there without bloodshed. But
when force was needed Pershing
struck hard. The campaign terminal
ed with Pershing's defeat of the hos
| tile Moros at the battle of Bud Bagsak
on June IL. 1913. In reporting this op-
Grafton to congress in December 1913