Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11
LIFE
AIM IS REALIZED
Victorious Effort in A. E. r.
Enough, He Said About
Presidency Plea.


around the shoulders or being too tight
around the middle.
He saw everything going on around
him. He was receptive, but apparently
not brilliant, certainly not flashy, with
a winning smile and an aye that looked
directly into yours as he shook your
hand earnestly.
That smile could have won votes. It
might have made him Representative
Pershing, or Senator Pershing, if he
had not gone to West Point. He had
warm impulses. He could get quite eX-
cited over some human thing; then
suddenly the impulse would withdraw
under cover of the smile. He was West
Point, the soldier again, and also he
had gone to West Point from Missouri.
The dattos knew that smile. Take 1t
at its face value and everybody could
be happy together; but behind it was
shooting, and more shooting, in pursuit
IA the jungle.
Getting Valuable Insight.
On one Of our Manchurian walks 1
asked him, Are you learning much?"
The japanese staff kept the attaches
limited to a zone in the rear of the
army and gave them banquets If not in
formation.
"A great deal" he replied I'm get
DllS IlCIG anu J1lClC dllA PdbCAAAAAs
them together. All invaluable If / were
ever to command in the field" the
soldiers dream, when the only action
In sight was perhaps trouble in Cen
trail America which a landing party of
Marines might settle without giving the
Army a chance
The Russo japanese War was a great
training ground for generals. OF the
American attaches who preceded per-
shing with Kuroki's army, Capt. Peyton
g. March was to be chief of staff in
1918 and Col Z. H. Crowder was to be
provost marshal general in 1918. OF
the German attaches Capt. Won Hoff-
mann was to be at Ludendorff's right
hand and Won Etzel was to command a
German corps at Verdun, opposite Cor
vissart, who commanded the French.
After I was back in Washington
learned that the lightning of presiden-
tisl favor was to strike Capt. Pershing.
President Roosevelt, who wanted to
know all about any war from anybody
who had been present, said to me:
Roosevelt Saw His Merit.
1--WE need some fresh blood at the
top in our Army. Leonard Wood and
Pershing are the livest officers we have.
I'm going to nominate Pershing to be
brigadier general. AS his father-in-law,
Senator Warren, is chairman of the
Senate Committee on Military Affairs,
that ought to help put it over
So Capt. Pershing was jumped, as
Mai Wood had been, over all the |
officers on the list between him and |
his star.
In years to come I occasionally ex-
changed letters with Pershing. He al
ways sent Christmas cards to the people |
he had met on his travels He never |
seemed to forget name or face.
Lightning struck him again in the |
Spring of 1916. Francisco Villa, the |
bandit, sprang the bolt out of troublous |
Mexico, when his band raided Columbus, |
N. Mex, March 8, 1916, and killed |
American women and children. Brig. |
Gen. Pershing was sent in command of |
a retalatory expedition to break up !
Villas band.
For a year, with 10000 soldiers, he |
was encamped 100 miles beyond the |
Mexican border. remember that in |
letter he wrote me from Mexico, when |
I was in France in 1915, he said he |
didn't know much about the European |
War, but was having troubles enough |
of his own.
Suffers Personal Loss.
1t had been long time since we had
met. Meanwhile, Pershing had suffered
he had taken to Japan when he was
sent there as attache in 1905. together
with three of their children, had perish
ed in the burning of his home.
When next I saw him it was in
Senator Warren's apartment in Wash
angton, after Secretary Baker had sum-
moned him to command the force we
were to send to France. He was Sc
then, IL years older than when he was
n HanahfYria FTha CfaoI in him had
evidently tempered with age and
responsibility
Then saw him in the little Office in
the War Department, with his right
hand man, Harbord, going over the lists
as TO the choice of officers in his
pioneer stan. Again saw him crossing
the gang-plank from the tug in New
York Harbor to the Baltic, to start on
that mission whose end no man could
guess or foresee.
He was more West Pointish than any
of the group with him. was sure that
II any Of the officers already on board
had a button unbuttoned he would
see 1t. A reserve officer might be for
given for this civilian slackneSs, but not
q regular-above all, not a West
Pointer.
War Senseless," Pershing Said.
The next morning he and Harbord
had all the officers on board at work
on reorganization. Between committee
meetings they were attending French
classes the interpreters we're holding.
On the way across the Atlantic re-
member a picture Of Pershing as he
looked up from some papers he had
been reading on the Somme battle. He
had stopped blowing; he was surveying
the landscape instead of the furrow.
How horrible and senseless Il all isl" |
he said. But the only way is to get
enough men and hit hard enough to
win the victory and put an end 10 it."
That old way, and the only sure way |
that man has found out Of the vice Of
war
Then he was back TO the furrow, on
the job blowing.
An audience with the King Of Eng
land. gala performances at the French |
opera, madly cheering crowds Of Paris
ians, great allied leaders gathered in |
honor of the man fresh from the Next |
can sands-and his complaint was that |
these formalities didn't give him time |
to work Now he knew the grim truth i
OF the allied situation. what big job |
the Americans had in hand.
Meant to Build Wall
II was not an American tradition for |
an American general who began a war |
to end it. And on this subject, as we
walked up and down in the grounds OF
the Mills House in Paris, he said:
II don't think about that. I mean to |
build in such way that my successor |
will thank me for sound foundation"
How would he develop? Would he
grow 10 his task2 Grow in ability TO
command as his Army grew from 10000,
100000, 500, 900 to a million? In those
aarlv daur In the Pine C0nSfantina in |