Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-09

On September 8. 1906, came a
great event in the life of the Per-
shings. Their first child was born
Helen Elizabeth. Later there
were other children-Anne Orr,
born March Is, 1908, at Camp John
Hay in Benguet province of the
Philippine Islands; Francis Warren,
born June "a, 1909, at Cheyenne,
Wyo, and Mary Margaret, born May
10, 1912, at Zamboanga on Mindanao
of the Philippine Islands.
Soon after the birth Of Helen
came another great event. Pershing
was made briga dier-general; made
so by Roosevelt, then president, who
jumped Pershing over the heads of
862 other army officers who were
his seniors.
Row in Army.
1t was on September 20, 1906,
Roosevelt, actuated by what he be-
lieved a paramount duty, sent to
congress the nomination of Capt
John Joseph Pershing to be brig
adler general.
What stir!
Those officers of our army who
recognized no stronger tenet, no
stricter fiat, than the long estab-
lished custom of promotion by
seniority, arose to protest. They
organized a lobby to try to prevent
confirmation of the appointment
They even went so far as to make
charges against Pershing's charac-
ter. Their charges were ridiculous,
absurd. They were proved, ridicu-
lous, absurd. Each and every one
of the imputation was refuted; was
proved false and without founda-
ton. ~
The appointment was confirmed.
Captain Pershing became Briga-
dierAGeneral Pershing.
Still the howl of the envious con-
tinued. \
There were those who said that
Pershing owed his appointment to
the fact that his father-in-law, SEN
ator Warren, was chairman of the
senate committee on military at
fairs. This charge was as false as
the other charges.
Roosevelt silenced those who
made it. Said he at the time:
A Greater Infamy.
ITO make this man a brigadier-
general because his father-in-law is
a United States senator would be
infamy, but to decline to make him
a brigad;er-general for that reason
would be greater infamy."
Truly the whole protest was in
famous and l mention it in passing
only because it is a part of the real
story of General Pershing's life.
But then, was there ever great
man, really great man like Per-
shing, who did not have his detrac-
tors?
Pershing and his wife left Tokyo
for the United States in October,
1906. Pershing was made COM
handing general of the Department
Of, California. He held that office
less than a month when conditions
became such in the Philippines and
the Far East that it was thought
best by the War department to have
one of its most able officers in close
touch with the situation. Pershing
was ordered to the Philippines and,
with his wife, he reached Manila on
December 3, 1906.
His Mother Dies.
It was while in the Philippines
this time that Pershing suffered an
other loss. His mother had died in
Chicago in 1902 when he was in
Mindanao. On March 10, 1907, his
father died in Lincoln. Neb. Fate
had decreed that this soldier SON
the first born-should not be at the
deathbed of either of his parents nor
attend their funerals.
Meantime, in the summer of 1908,
war seemed impending the Balkans.
Pershing received orders in July to
sail for Europe. The orders desig-
mated him as observer for our gov
eminent should hostilities ensue,
and instructed him to proceed to
Paris and remain there pending
eventualities. Pershing and his
wife left for Paris on August l, 60
ing thence through the Far East
and Vladivostok.
Senator Warren told me an inter
esting anecdote in connection with |
the trip.
Penniless on Train.
"Jack and my daughter" he said,
chad tickets to leave Vladivostok on
a certain day. The morning Of that /
day Jack found he was without