The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1919-05-13

pert in III" use Of Army slang. He may
harr shocked sop" az his hearers when
hr talked II guys ".lnks." nuts,
"cocky G"rmanS.' ''1!tllc" "dInky.
swat en-" and similar choice English
but never thc Jess. his story came from
the lips of 4 true soldier. whose profess
sion is soldering.
And in passing Colonel Sweeney re-
marked that every hoy should soldier.
not necessarily IN battle. but should DC
compelled by his country to learn IT, de-
fend himself. will there be more
vars he was asked. Il don't know.
Bu, we owe it to our boys TO teach them
to defend themselves"
Colonel Sweeney was born in Wheel
ing. He Is a brother TO Mrs John b.
Garden. of Edgar Sweeney and of tho
late Sheriff A. T. Sweeney. He is here
cnroute to his home At San Francisco.
after Two years overseas.
\ soldier would term Colonel Sweeney
4 very important part of the army. al
though civilian can hardly grasp his
value in the office he occupied and how
many lives he actually saved In his
work.
Colonel Sweeney was for a time chief
Of staff of the 18th division Way back
in 1895 he enlisted and went to the
PHILIPPINES with John J. Pershing, whc
wasn't so high then either. Both re-
manned in the army and each OF them
climed and climbed and became fas.
friends
Job weighty One.
It is no wonder then that When CHl.
Sweeney sailed for France in July. 1917.
that he was al once attached to General
PershinGs staff. as head Of the intel
ligcncs general staff division. He was
in charge Of tho department tina:
handled the press. photography. public
ity. censorship and handled all inforna-
ton going from tho army. no matter
where II went To. He was the man who
could not permit soldiers to write home
where they were. hat they ere doing
and hoy they liked The country and he
doesn't care no cusses> him FOR doing
these things becaCse he maintains that
the German eSpionaE" system was pretty
shrewd and that had these things not
been conceaiedj the American army
would have suffered terrible losses =
For one year ne was with General
PcrShinE and every important visitor
to headquarters conferred with Colonel
Sweeney. Later he attended the general
staff school for officers and after tcl;-
ing of his training there Colonel Swcen-
ey asked his audience TO forget that
soldiers win battles and said, that sol,
diers without officers would only be q
mob. He said he did not reflect Oh the
men Ia the lines, for che officer who
didn't come up to scratch was canned"
and sent back to the states. He told Of
personally canning" Colonel Duckworth
of Pennsylvania who upon his arr-va
home created the nation wide howl that
regular officers were discriminating
against reserve ofGcers. Colonel Swecn-
ry said: That is lie. On the other
hand we had higher standard for re-
serve officers for We felt they had no.
had much experience and reserved an
other chance. while @ regular officer was
expected to know better" The colone'
sail Colonel Duckworth WAS "canued'
for sitting in a dugout and permitting
his organization 10 80 to pieces.
Supporting his statement, Colonel
Sweeney said that General PcrShing had
canned his best friends. One OUT Of
IS regulars was canned" and only one
out Of rs reserves.
The colonel explained how. at the close
Of the war. he slipped his name on the
list OF officers TO rrturn to the States
l1c was al that llTTlN CHlfl OIL SL1u OF the
Twcnty-ciEhth division. hut General
PrrShing ordered him back to general
headquarters and no was placed in
charge Of n tour of tho battle. lines and
fields from til" French ports to thc
Rhine. This tour WAS explained to the
audience with the aid of a map.
Important Command.
The tour was made by 500 soldiers
Of the 4. E. F.. who. in civil life. were
newspaper men. They travelled in Is
cars. in command Of Colonel Sweeney.
who was General Pcrshing's personal
representative.
"On the outset" said the colonel. II
told them that the American expedition
airy force had nothing to conceal. there
were no CRAFTS. no scandals. and invited
them to save their knocks. if they had
any. until the peace terms were
signed up"
ETe t<en proceeded TO explain the won
dsrful. almost unbelievable, magnitude
of the job the American boys carried
out. There wer" three great landing
ports for tho Americans. At Brrst SOL
dierS were landed. At 81. Nazaire food
was landed. while at Bordeaux railroad