New Britain herald., 1919-09-08
AMERICA GIVES ROYAL WEI COME TO LEADER OF A F.

tration upon difficult problems that
 stood him in good stead in the great
 campaigns that were to follow in Eu-
 rope. Attracted by his earnestness
 and soldierly qualities, General Leon ard Wood, who was his superior off,
 cer at the time. elected Pershing to
 organize and conduct a campaign
 against the Moros who for centuries
 had successfully resisted all attempts
 of the Spanish army to subjugate
 them.
 Honored By Roosevelt.
 Up to that point something of a
 parallel may be found in the careers of Wood and Pershing. Each had
 made brilliant Populations as Indian
 fighters and each had been picked by President Roosevelt for extraordinary promotion because of their high
 promise of military ability. Roosevelt
 had made Wood brigadier general in 1901 and he made Pershing, then
 captain, brigadier general in 1906 to
 the absolute consternation of old lines of the army because it involved the
 Jumping" of both officers over many hundreds of their seniors.
 Pershington justified the confidence that Wood had imposed in him in his
 Moro campaign. There was a sultan of Bacalod with unknown, thousands l of followers intrenched in the marsh es and mountains of the tropical islands behind heavy forts of palm wood, logs and giant creepers and thorn bushes woven into what was
 supposed to be impregnable defenses. Pershing had made a study of the conditions and so well had he organ ized his little force consisting of a bat talion of infantry, a squadron of cav- airy and a section of artillery that in two days the Moro's strongholds were cleared out and the Island of Min l danao was soon placed under Persh- 1 ing's military governorship.
 When he returned home in 1914 he l was given but a short rest in San 1 Francisco. Trouble began on the
 Mexican border and he was sent there | in command of the Eighth Brigade, 1 charged with the special duty of run l ming down or driving off Villa His | expedition penetrated many miles into 1 Mexico and army officers believed that l the ultimate capture of Villa was pre- l vented only by recall orders from ! Washing gtOn where the authorities de- l cided that they were unwilling to con-
 tinue military policy seeming cer- l tain to involve the United States in 1 regular war with Mexico.
 When Pershing was chosen to com 1 mand the American forces in France,
 he took with him many of the brown i ed and hardened veterans of his
 Mexican campaign and these men ! formed the nucleus of the famous l nf 70 A aY~r
 ditionary force.
 Tragedy of His Life.
 A terrible tagedy had come into 1 Pershing's life during his Mexican ! border service through the loss of his
 wife and three of their little children
 who were burned to death in their 1 home at the Presidio, in San Francis l co, during his absence.
 l His life became hard and stern; not 1 towards his soldiers, however, but in 1 the regimen he imposed upon himself
 and in the objects he had marked fol ! attainment He threw himself into his l work with a passion that commanded l success, evidently seeking relief from
 his private grief in public service. Ii
 was said of him in France that he was l never tired; he could be called upon 1 any hour out of the tWenty-tour fo1 1 consultation or direction without com l plaint on his part, in contrast with [ some of his famous colleagues in the l entente armies.
 Pershing believed in teamwork; he 1 knew that whatever success the Ger | mans had attained was through their ! unified command of the armies of the ) Central powers. So he was not only willing but anxious to see the same | principle adopted by the Entente ar 1 mics. He sank his private ambitions 1 and freely rendered the services of the 1 last American soldier and al his army 1 equipmen to Gen. Foch at the most critical point in the campaign. There l is said to be no doubt that his example affected the other commands and went long way towards bringing about th 6 unification of the Entente armies un- der Gen. Foch.
 It was not until Pershing was cer- tain that the plans he had made with the assistance of his own staff for a raine had behind them the support of
 a sufficient number of American sol dlers that Pershing felt justified in taking complete command of an in-
 portant sector of the line of battle
 with the full assent of Marshal Foch
 army broke the morale of the Ger
 mans and brought the war to an end
 For what he did in Europe Pershing