Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-02


States Army. He is one of the young
est men in the service to wear the stars
of brigadier general He comes from
Iowa: his intimates call him Charley
and the others call him Gen. Charles
Mckinley Saltzmau.
AS a little chap he was always spend
ing his time around telegraph Offices,
poking around the wires and keyboards.
He soon picked up Morse" and then.
although a mere boy. got job as a
regular" on one of the railroad lines
running into his little town. He was
having his way until the idea took him
that he wanted to be n regular soldier
and that the way to this ambition was
through the gates of West Point Acad-
emy, He had a notion then. which ha
grown with him into fxed idea. that
the way to succeed Is to work hard for
what you want. So he buckled to the
lob of winning an appointment by way
of a competitive examination, ana ne
was successful. He says that is the
way he has won every good thing that
has come to him. but his friends believe
that concentrated effort from long
practice has become easy to a superior
order of brain. Be that as 1t may, he
never forgets anything or anybody, and
his answers come with snap.
All through West Point his love Of
electric work never died down, and his
expertness as an operator on occasion
took him into high-class society. On
election night in 1892. when Cleveland
was elected over Harrison. the officers
and instructors had a special wire run
into their hall and invited a lot of
guests to hear with them the election
returns. Saltzman was then a humble
plebe and of course not recognized by
mighty first classmen, but knowledge
counts and they came to him.
The linemen had run the special wire
of the officers SO that it swung tempt
ingly near the corner of one of the
dormitories and the good little devils
of the place, despite West Point dis
cipline, tempted the cadets. With the
assistance of the plebe from Iowa, and
under his direction. they cut wire
into the exclusive special OF the OFF,
GERS. and all night long. behind win
dows covered with many layers OF
blankets. young Saltzman sat at an
improvised or stolen key tapping the
"enemy's" reports for the benefit of the
first classmen. happy in their success
full Communications experiment.
Saltzman graduated with the class
of 1895. Not quite making the exclu-
sive engineers, he was assigned to the
cavalry and was the first man of his
class to be made a captain, a major,
colonel and now general.
He saw his first fighting in Cuba In
1898. while he was second lieutenant
in the LIST Cavalry, and there he made
SO good a record that the following
year, on his promotion to the next
grade. he became aid to Gen. Merriam,
and later, on the reorganization of the
Army in 1901. captain in the Signal
Corps. He was attracted to this
branch of the service by reason of his
old fondness for electricity, which Is
employed in SO many forms in the
activities of this corps. If headquar-
ters wants to know what the line is
doing, 1t telephones; the man at the
front telephones to the artillerymen
how to direct the fire; the observer in
the airplane sends a wireless message
through the shrapnel-torn atmosphere
to tell the movements Of the enemy.
Signalmen under fire advance the wire
communications and follow on the
heels of the line when the men "go
over the top" In every direction. in
crater. trench, the air and under the
sea. the Signal Corps throws out the
lines that form the nerves of the fight
ing body.
With the entry of the United States
Into the war practically new Signal
Corps had to be created. The old body,
both in the Regular Army and the
National Guard, lost many of its Of
fcers. who sought preferment in the