Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-08
GEN. DAWES PAYS
. PERSH|NG tribute
Holds General Permitted
None to SWerVe Him From
Doing Full Duty.
CONTINUED From First Page)


ceive OF such a thing as yielding to
outside pressure. Nor can any but
those who were closely associated with
him in the war realize how impossible
1t was from the inside to influence him
to change any attitude determined BY
him in cold blood as essential TO the
best interests of his Army Just as
the courageous attitudes Of public men
which made them unpopular in their
lifetime become with posterity often
their chief claim to craftsmanship, so
with this Army commander history will
assign as evidence Of his greatness some
OF the very acts in time of emergency
which set his contemporaries abuzz with
indignation.
Attitude 10 Politicians Shown.
Those characteristic qualities which
enabled Gen. Pershing, against enor-
nous pressure. to maintain the indie
pendent functiontng of the American
Army were manifested continuously in
similar but less critical situations. For
instance, the difficulties of the COM
mander in chief Of our Army during its
| poSt-armistice sojourn in France and
Germany are little realized and a
reference to them will illustrate Gen
Persh1ng's attitude toward the poll
tieian.
Men who had emerged from more
than 40 days Of terrible fighting in the
Argonne. and, indeed all the Army in
France, realizing that the war was over
and won, naturally tended to resent the
degree OF discipline maintenance which
the commander in chief deemed abso-
lutely necessary as q matter both of
wisdom and duty With the coming
OF the armistice there had been loosed
upon France like q swarm of locusts a
great number of well meaning Amer
leans, including politicians, who, forget
ful that the field was already covered
by our civil and military wartime
organizations, plunged themselves into
various activities, including oratory
which, for want of better terms, may
describe as designed partly for the
serial relaxation Of the American soldier
and partly for his overpraise. In
speeches and published interviews they
were telling the soldiers of the great
debt the Nation owed them and that
when they came back to the United
states our citizenship would sit at their
feet as constituting its real leadership
individuals and organized minorities of
every kind were pressing up the authori-
ties and officers of the Army for prefer
entail treatment for individuals and
troops IN the matter and method of
rehabilitation.
Protested Road Work.
One of these individuals, who after.
ward came not only to recognize ano
confess his error, but to defend Gen
PerShing at home, protested that IL was
an undignifed and a wrong thing &c
compel the American doughboy to work
upon the restoration of certain French
roads In accordance with wartime inter-
army agreements. He regarded this
work as something insulting to them
and to their service.
A very considerable part OF our Army
OF necessity never handled anything
but spades and other implements of
| hard work in the war, and they did
their glorious work with them. It was
not their fault that they were not at
the front. They were the same kind of
men as the rest of the Army and when
the German break through came on
March 81, 1918, some of these Engineer
soldiers working near the British line
rifles from the dead on the battlefield
and joined in the desperate counter
attack with British troops.
This particular individual, far from
resenting an insult to the American
Army, was himself insulting a consid.
cradle section Of 1t who had spent
virtually all their war service digging in
bitches, building railroads, erecting hos
pitals and procuring and moving sup
plies ana munitions. He was unwittingly
encouraging INSTRUMENTATION In the
military organization at a time when
the natural reaction made maintenance
OF discipline unusually difficult.
Another man published critical inter-
views based on American complaints as
to the alleged non-delivery or loss of
Army mail sent during the war TO SOL
dlers and received at a time when the
troops were in action under conditions
Impossible properly to visualize.
Critics Became Defenders.
mention these two instances because
the men in question-two powerful
american politicianS-were called be-
fore Gen. Pershing, who set forth the
natural consequences of encouraging
characterization and trouble in the
american Army at such critical time
OF natural reStleSSneSS. These men were
honest enough and sensible enough to
realize the force of the facts of which
they had not known, and the reason
for the attitude of Gen. Pershing. on
their return to America. they imne-
diately became powerful defenders of
the honor and record of the American
Army and of its commander, at the
very time when the serialed investiga-
ton committees were starting upon
their quest with the fool idea that they
could exploit themselves and their po-
iitical interests by throwing muck upon
IAAC AIllCA4Cdu Ill1lLdIy dCnleVcmenC.
Our great war President, Woodrow
Wilson, and his Secretary of War, New.
ton D. Baker, had protected the Amer
lean Army from political mischief
makers. Thank heaven that the then
commander in chief was spared this
kind of trouble during the war itself.
He did not then, like the generals in
our Civil War, have political assaSsir1s
firing at his back when he was facing
the fire of the enemy.
Knew Of UnpOpuIarity.
Nobody knew better than Gen. PERISH
ing that his refusal to grant the gen
orally demanded relaxation of discipline
In our Army during the post Armistice
period was making him unpopular for
the time being among our soldiers But
ne knew that he owed it to them and
70 the country to take no risks by grant
ing indiscriminate leaves of absence, for
instance, and sent his men back as he
did-an Army upon whose conduct dur
ing their entire stay in France there
had been no spot or stain and who left
a memory not only in France but in
the world which Is a glory to our Ma
ton and its history
Gen. Pershing'S closest associates in
the war remember no act or decision
In matters relating to the welfare of
his Army and to the carrying out of
his duty to 1t and our Government in
which he seemed unduly influenced by
personal interest.
In these days of widespread political
cowardice and playing to the crowd, it
is well to point out that in the long
run, Gen. Pershing has been rewarded
for his performance of duty, not only
by general public respect and high ap-
probation, but also by the love and
devotion of his noble comrades in the
rank and file of the American Expedi-