The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-12-27

-...... U H
ant of Cadets to the University O.
Nebraska, and later was sent bach
| to West Point as an instructor, ant
still later, was made a member O.
, the government war college at Wash
ingtOn, d. G.
| Everywhere he was the ideal alike
of his associate educators and the
students under him. Just as the
| farmer boys of Nebraska were enthu-
siastic over him, SO were the embry
onic soldiers at West Point, and sc
were his mature, weather-beaten anC
fire tried associates in the war col
| lege at Washington, and, if we have
| interpreted Alright the reports from
Europe, just so the officers and SOL
| diers of the Allied Armies we're en-
! thusiastic over him.
He was born to be great, and he
never put anything in the way of 1t.
He kept his habits good, his mind
occupied, and his heart pure. When
he was in the State University OF
Nebraska, he was an officer of the
United States Army with a job for
life and promotion certain. Many a
man would have been contented to
have performed his regular duties
and wasted his leisure time; but
Pershing entered the law college, and
graduated with the class of '93. Some
people have wondered if he intended
to quit the army, but the fact that he
did not is the best answer.
He was only laying the fOunda-
j H. III
work Of his life when it should come
to him. He then had law course
more to his advantage than the aver
age army officer. When he went to
West Point to teach, he occupied his
leisure moments with the study of
international law and international
diplomacy, and added another title to
his equipment for life's work.
Is it to be wondered then why as
a captain he succeeded in bringing
order out Of chaos in the Philippines
and of establishing a civil govern
ment that has endured for twenty
years with hardly an amendment or
change after others of maturer
years and higher rank had failed?
Is there any wonder that as the
youngest of his associates in the
great war college at Washington he
at once was recognized as it's leader?
He was prepared he had fitted
himself God gave him a strong
physique, but he took care of it; God
gave him resourceful mind, but he
nurtured and developed it into a
mighty machine that has worked mir
acles everywhere; the government
trained him as warrior, but he
trained himself to be a diplomat; the
government educated him at West
Point to be a soldier, but he edu-
Gated himself at Nebraska University,
Columbia and elsewhere to be a civil
ian statesman. He went to Europe
at the commanding general of the
most potent army the world ever saw,
but he organized the greatest trans
portation system in the shortest time,
and negotiated the most important
treaties and international obligations
that nations have ever assumed.
His services in Europe are no less
as a statesman and as an
Industrial genius, than as commander
of our ExpeditiOnary Forces. Was it
all an accident; was it an accident
that President Wilson selected him;
was it an accident that he was given
these mighty tasks, and this tremen-
dOus power and responsibility; was 1t
an accident that President Roosevelt
made him a brigadier general ahead
of his time and in advance of his
years; was it an accident that he
made world peace in Europe with
the same triumphant success and the
same humble and modest efficiency?
Was it an accident that from the time
ne arrived in France the whole meth
ID of warfare was changed from the |
trenches and the long waits between
battles into that of fighting every day |
and every night, Sundays and holidays,
with no quarter to the enemy any
where at any time? That was PERISH i
ng's fight as a captain in the Phil
ppines 20 years ago, it was America S |
light in Europe, and it won in both
places.
Is it an accident now that he
comes back home and generously
gives all the credit for his success as
/ soldier to the brave American boys
Who did the fighting, and to the
splendid men of business for his sue,
less in the industrial end of itxf4nd
III the while claiming nothing for
himself?
A thousand times we answer mo"
there is no accident about it, there
s an invisible power that guides the
lestiny of men and nations through
luman instrumentalities. Just as
Seorge Washington was the instru-
mentality under God by which this =
lation was born, and just as Abra-
ham Lincoln was the inStrumentaIity