for preparedness, his speeches and his many activities in the
officers' training camps organization and administration prejudiced
the authorities against him. This again is hardly credible since it is
manifestly inconceivable that those men in charge of the prosecution
of our part in the great war, with the immense responsibility resting
upon their shoulders, could possibly have allowed personal prejudice
and favoritism to have played any part in their decision in regard to
any man--least of all the most important man in the Regular Army.
Some controversy arose as to whether Wood's friendship and relation to
Theodore Roosevelt might not have created hostility in administration
and army circles. This again is beyond credence when the importance of
the men on both sides is considered and the terrific importance of
events at the time is taken into account. Here again it is
inconceivable that any man or group of men could at such times and in
such circumstances {233} allow anything personal to sway his or their
judgment.
The incontestable fact still remains, however, that the one man in the
Army who by his whole life in the United States, in many parts of the
earth, had during a period of thirty years been preparing himself for
just such an occasion, who had for four years been trying to get the
people of the country and the government to prepare, who had appeared
before Senate military commissions and other similar bodies and
registered his belief in the necessity for certain measures, all of
which were adopted by the Government as recommended by him--that the
one man who had done all this should not have been selected to do any
active service whatever at the front, but should have been offered
posts in the Philippines, Hawaii and California when he was applying
for service in France. Lloyd George wanted him; France wanted him; and
the American Army wanted him.
All sorts and conditions of men throughout the United States expressed
their opinion upon the subject during this war period and are doing so
{234} still, but the one man who has said nothing is General Wood
himself. With his inherited and acquired characteristic of doing
something, of never remaining idle, with the habit acquired from years
of military discipline and respect for orders emanating from properly
constituted authority, he put in his application again and again for
service and then accepted without public comment whatever orders were
issued to him.
Here again is the same simple, direct mind of the man who has at no
time lost his sense of proportion, who has not become excited because
his chance was not given him--the chance for which he had spent long
years of preparation--who did not let this outward
wallpaper--plaster--showy thing divert him from the essential point,
the great beam of our war preparation house--the necessity that every
man, woman and child should do all he or she could do to help the
Government of the United States carry the war--or our part of it--to a
successful conclusion when that Government finally made up its mind to
go in.
Wood declined to become a martyr. He had no bitter feelings. He was,
as any other man of {235} his prominence and character would be,
disappointed at having no opportunity to serve his country at the
front. But he took what came to him and did it as usual with
extraordinary quickness, effectiveness and thoroughness.
Indeed speculation on the subject is not likely to produce much
profit. It is only of importance in the present place as illustrating
again the make-up of the subject of this biographical sketch. He took
no steps other than those regularly and properly open to him to secure
service. He attempted no roundabout methods. He kept his own counsel
and followed his old maxim of "Do it and don't talk about it." His
requests for reasons for denying him of all men the right to fight for
his country on the battle line made through proper channels--never
otherwise--produced no answers in any case and to this day the whole
amazing episode is entirely without explanation.
Meantime the man's characteristic energy and thoroughness produced
extraordinary results in other fields.
In his short sojourn in Charleston it was his duty to select and
prepare at once a certain {236} number of camps, or cantonments as
they came to be called, within the jurisdiction of the South Eastern
Department. And this he proceeded to do with great rapidity. Not only
were all the sites he selected passed without exception, but they
proved to be in every instance safe, sanitary and sufficient for the
purpose. This was no easy matter with almost every town and city in
the South sending delegations to him to ask that it be selected as the
site of one of the camps, with the prodigious amount of political
influence brought to bear from all sides and with the necessity of
offending nobody, of making all work towards one end--the immediate
preparation for homes for the men who were to make the new army.
It was all so skillfully handled that there is not a place in the
South of any size which has not sounded and does not sound the praises
of General Wood. He selected the camps and made them with that
experience and knowledge that were his because of the fact that he was
an army officer and a doctor who had done much the same thing and had
had much the same work in Cuba and the Philippines.
{237}
One would expect something of the sort from any able man with such
preparation, but one would not expect such a man to leave the
Department with the extraordinary popularity and the multitude of
expressions of good will and affection which Wood carried away with
him after these few months of work.
In the midst of the journeyings to and fro to look over possible sites
and all the work entailed in preparing the camps he found time to
supervise the three officers' training camps already mentioned, which
were carried out upon the lines of the earlier ones with the aid of
the Officers' Training Camps Association.
Upon being transferred to Camp Funston near Fort Riley in Kansas, Wood
began in the first days of September, 1917, the training of a new
division of raw recruits from the selective draft. He had the
assistance of a nucleus of army officers and some few army men, but
the bulk of the division consisted of new men and of new officers
recently from the officers' training camps. And this work was well on
its way and the division {238} taking form when he received orders to
go to Europe.
It is difficult in this limited space to go into the details of his
work abroad, and most of it in any case was technical matter more
adapted to a military report. The results of some of his conversations
are, however, of interest now as showing the situation as it appeared
to important men, military and political, in Europe at that time.
Some one said during the summer of 1918 when asked how much the
American man and woman in the street really knew of what was going on
in Europe, that if the headlines of American newspapers were
disregarded and the actual telegraphic reports themselves read day by
day, nearly everything that anybody from commanding generals down knew
was known to that reader. There were, of course, many discussions
amongst the guiding intellects, political and military, which never
saw the light. There were, naturally, plans discussed and never
carried out which the American citizen did not hear of at any time.
But the general consensus of opinion seems to be that the {239}
American newspaper reader knew almost as much as any one of what was
happening and that he certainly knew as much of what was going to
happen as the men in the inner circle.
Much that has come out since the armistice shows a condition of
affairs almost as the man in the street knew it at the time. In the
winter of 1917-18 we knew that a huge drive was scheduled by the
Germans on the Franco-Belgian front in the spring. In the following
summer we knew the doubtful situation around Chateau-Thierry. In the
middle of July we knew that something was happening, that the
Americans were beginning to go in in large numbers, that the German
"push" was slowing up; and that a turn had been made. Finally we knew
that the German army was suddenly retiring, and for a month before the
armistice was signed we knew that it was going to be signed. Indeed so
sure was the American public of this last that they celebrated the end
of the war throughout this great land a week ahead of time, because of
a report which, though literally incorrect, was in essence true and
known to be true.
{240}
It is not uninteresting, therefore, to review the sentiments and
opinions which Wood found upon his arrival amongst the French and
English statesmen and soldiers between January 1 and February 26th,
1918.
In London Lloyd George, the British Premier, knew Wood as the
administrator of Cuba and the Philippines. He knew also of Wood's
experience with, and knowledge of European armies. He was anxious for
Wood to be in Europe. He laid great emphasis upon the shortage of
American air service which made it difficult for American troops to
work as a separate unit without English or French cooperation. He pled
for American troops at the earliest possible moment and offered more
transportation facilities--even though England had already transported
not only her own men but many of ours across the Atlantic.
General Sir William Robertson stated in January that there was an
impending crisis coming in the early spring; that Germany would make
an immensely powerful drive toward Paris or the channel ports or both;
and that in his opinion the Allied lines would hold until the
Americans {241} got into the war with full strength. But he made no
concealment of the fact that the next six months would be very
critical ones.
Marshal Joffre held similar views. Both officers expressed the opinion
that the summer of 1918 would be the crisis and deciding point of the
war. They, too, felt the French and English lines would hold, but they
laid heavy stress upon the importance of more troops from America.
On the French front Wood lunched and had a long talk with General
Gouraud and another at Paris later with General Petain whom he knew
and who knew well the history of Wood's career in organization and
administration. Petain is said to have expressed the hope that Wood
might soon be in France on active duty and to have said that when he
did come he would put him in command of an army of French and American
troops.
As Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, next to the highest rank in
that order--General Wood was naturally received by all French officers
and statesmen. This order having been conferred upon him some years
before because of his record in Cuba and the Philippines placed him in
a small {242} group of men, most of them, naturally, French, who are
the distinguished men of Europe. His reception by the President of
France, by the premier, Georges Clemenceau, and other French statesmen
came as a matter of course. But the conversations which took place
between the American soldier and these men have never, naturally, been
made public except in some of their bare essentials. Nor will any one
ever know just what was said unless one or another of the parties to
them shall some time disclose it himself.
There seems to be no doubt, however, of the very warm reception which
this senior officer of the American army was given. His record in
preparedness work, his record in administrative and organization work
were all well known to the statesmen of these two countries who were
from their experience with colonial matters so well fitted to judge of
what he had accomplished along these lines.
General Wood's opinion as the result of his trip was that the American
troops should serve by divisions for a time with the French and
English rather than as a separate army from the start, {243} because
of the fact that all matters of supply, equipment, artillery, air
service and so on which were so incomplete in the American service and
so complete by this time in the British and French services would
apply to the Americans as well as to the others and that the training
alongside the veterans of over three years of war would make the
effectiveness of the American troops quicker, better and more
definite--would in the end increase efficiency and save life.
After having reported to the Senate committee and returned to Camp
Funston he took up with immeasurably renewed vigor the work of getting
the 89th Division, which he was to take abroad, ready for its service,
and all was prepared when the order came for them to move to New York
for embarkation. This work of transportation being practically
completed and the big division ready to go on board ship, Leonard Wood
felt that at last his chance to take his part in the war at the front
had come.
It is practically impossible for any one, therefore, to realize just
what it meant to him, or would have meant to any man, to receive
notification as {244} he was almost in the act of going on board the
transport that his command of the division he had trained and
organized was taken away from him, another officer put in his place
and he himself ordered to the farthest possible extremity of the
United States in the opposite direction. It is certainly impossible to
express here what his feelings were since nobody really knows them.
Imagination, however, which plays so important a part in this world's
affairs will play its part here as elsewhere, and some estimate of
what effect it had upon the country was shown in the outcry which
arose everywhere and which created such sudden wrath that the order
itself was immediately rescinded and changed to the Funston
appointment.
The character of men is exhibited in infinite ways and by infinite
methods, but never more surely than during critical periods when
passions run high and injustice seems to be in the saddle. It is
always at such times that reserve force, mental strength, and all the
sound basic qualities which make up what we call character play their
important parts in the drama of life. No one has, {245} so far as our
history tells us, shown greater strength of this nature than Abraham
Lincoln, and it is that reserve, that amazing common sense which "with
malice toward none, with charity for all" led him on all occasions no
matter how extraordinary the provocation to decline to let
personalities, jealousies, or any of the baser passions control his
actions or influence his decisions.
It would be ridiculous for any one to assume that General Wood was not
cut to the quick by this unexplained action, which took the cup from
his lips as he was about to drink, but there never has appeared
anywhere anything emanating from him which criticized, questioned or
in any way took exception to it. One may read, however, between the
lines of his short good-by to the division which he created many
thoughts that may have been in his mind and that certainly were in the
minds of the officers of the 89th to whom this simple address was the
first intimation that he was not to lead them into action in France.
It is so direct, so simple, so manly that, like all such documents, it
is only with time that its great {246} hearted spirit makes the true
impression on any reader. It will take its place in the history of
this country amongst the few documents which live on always because
they exhibit a wise and sane outlook upon life and because they make a
universal appeal to the best that lives always like a divine spark in
the heart of every man.
It makes the boy in school exclaim, "Some day when I grow up I will do
that." It lives in the dreams that come just before sleep as the
attitude the young man would like to take when his critical hour
comes. It cheers the old, since they can say: "So long as this can be
done there is no fear for our native land."
Here it is:
"I will not say good-by, but consider it a temporary separation--at
least I hope so. I have worked hard with you and you have done
excellent work. I had hoped very much to take you over to the other
side. In fact, I had no intimation, direct or indirect, of any change
of orders until we reached here the other night. The orders have been
changed and I am to go back to Funston. I leave for that place
to-morrow {247} morning. I wish you the best of luck and ask you to
keep up the high standard of conduct and work you have maintained in
the past. There is nothing to be said. These orders stand; and the
only thing to do is to do the best we can--all of us--to win the war.
That is what we are here for. That is what you have been trained for.
I shall follow your career with the deepest interest--with just as
much interest as if I were with you. Good luck; and God bless you!"
{248}
[Illustration]
STATE Of KANSAS
GOVERNOR'S OFFICE
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS:
INASMUCH as the life of a state, its strength and virtue and moral
worth are directly dependent upon the character of the citizens who
compose it, and
INASMUCH as it is a solemn obligation imposed upon the Governor of the
state to promote and advance the interests and well-being of the
commonwealth in every way consistent with due regard for the rights
and privileges of sister states, and
WHEREAS, the soldier, Leonard Wood, Major General in the United States
Army and now commandant at Camp Funston, has shown by his daily life,
by his devotion to duty, by his high ideals and by his love of
country, that he is a high-minded man after our own hearths,
four-square to all the world, one good to know,
NOW, THEREFORE, I Arthur Capper, Governor of the State of Kansas, do
hereby declare the said
MAJOR GENERAL LEONARD WOOD
to be, in character and in ideals, a true Kansan. And by virtue of the
esteem and affection the people of Kansas bear him, I do furthermore
declare him to be to all intents and purposes a citizen of this state,
and as such to be entitled to speak the Kansas language, to follow
Kansas customs and to be known as
CITIZEN EXTRAORDINARY
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused to be
affixed the Great Seal of the State of Kansas. Done at Topeka, the
capitol, this 19th day of December, D. 1919
Arthur Capper GOVERNOR
[Seal of the State of Kansas] By the Governor
[Signature] Secretary of State
[Signature] Asst. Secretary of State
[End illustration]
{249}
A few days later Wood had returned to Funston and begun preparations
for the training of the 10th Division, when by executive action the
Governor of Kansas acknowledged on his own behalf and on behalf of the
State the General's services to his country by making him a "citizen
extraordinary" of the State.
The story of the Tenth Division is short but illuminating. It was
composed principally of drafted men. Its first groups began to
organize at Funston on the 10th of August--raw men from office, farm
and shop. They found there the skeletons of so-called regular
regiments--regiments which were regular only in name; that is to {250}
say, there were only a very few regular officers of experience and a
limited number of men recently recruited under the old system. On the
24th General Wood reviewed the whole division. On November 1st it was
ready, trained, equipped and in condition both from the physical and
the military point of view to go abroad. And when the armistice was
signed on November 11th an advance contingent had already gone to
France to prepare for its reception. About the middle of September the
British and French Senior Mission--three officers of each
army--reported at Funston and remained there for six weeks. And upon
their departure on November 1st after a long, rigid and critical
examination of the division they stated that in their opinion it was
by far the best prepared and trained division that they had seen in
this country.
Here again appears the same quality that made McKinley appoint Wood
Governor-General of Cuba; that made Roosevelt send him to organize the
apparently unorganizable part of the Philippine Islands; that caused
the French to award him a very high order of the Legion of Honor;
{251} that made the State of Kansas take him into its family as a
citizen; that led the generals of Europe to hope he would come and be
one of them; and finally that caused many hundreds of thousands of his
own countrymen to follow him and support him in his plans to prepare
the people of his nation for what eventually came upon them.
With the signing of the armistice and the victorious ending of the war
Wood's activities did not cease. With characteristic energy he began
the work of looking out for the soldiers who would soon be demobilized
from the army and thrown upon their own resources. He saw how changed
the outlook of many of these men would be. He saw the troubles in
which thousands--actually millions--of them would be involved, not
through any fault of their own, not through any fault of the
Government or of army life, but because they had undergone certain
mental changes incident to training, to active service, and hence
could not again return to the point they had reached when their
military service began.
He, therefore, instituted in Chicago, where as Commander of the
Central Department he had his {252} headquarters, as well as in St.
Louis, Kansas City and Cleveland, organizations to look to the finding
of employment for returning officers and men. And in addresses and all
methods open to him he urged the organization of similar bodies in all
cities to accomplish elsewhere the same object. His attitude was that
of the father of children--the rearrangement on new lines of the
American family; and he again found universal support.
"Appreciation of the work done by our Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in
the Great War can best be shown by active measures to return them to
suitable civil employment upon their discharge from service. The four
million men inducted into the service, less the dead, are being
returned to their homes. In seeing that they are returned to suitable
civil employment, and by that I mean employment in which they will
find contentment, we will find it at times difficult to deal with
them. We must remember that many of these men, before going in for the
great adventure, had never been far from home, had never seen the big
things of life, had never had the opportunity of finding {253}
themselves. During their service in the army they found out that all
men were equal except as distinguished one from the other by such
characteristics as physique, education and character. They discovered
that men who are loyal, attentive to duty, always striving to do more
than required, stood out among their fellows and were marked for
promotion. Naturally many of them now see that their former employment
will not give them the opportunities for advancement which they have
come to prize, and for that reason they want a change. They want a
kind of employment which offers opportunities for promotion. Many such
men are fitted for forms of employment which offer this advantage, and
they must be given the opportunity to try to make good in the lines of
endeavor which they elect to follow. It is not charity to give these
men the opportunities for which they strive. It is Justice. Others are
not mentally equipped to take advantage of such opportunities if
offered, and with these we will find it more difficult to deal. They
must be reasoned with and directed, if possible, into the kind of
employment best suited to their characteristics. Let us {254} remember
that a square deal for our honorably discharged Soldiers, Sailors and
Marines will strengthen the morale of the Nation and will help to
create a sound national consciousness ready to act promptly in support
of Truth, Justice and Right" [Footnote: _Address of Leonard Wood_.]
There is, with the differences patent because of time and place and
surrounding circumstances, a flavor to this plea that recalls another
address upon a similar subject more than fifty years ago: