the handwriting on the wall. We thought we were so devilishly good that they could not help using us, and we agreed that we would all go together. I said good-bye to them with a terrible heart pang, and I made them one promise, that I would get them all to Boston. I got to Washington. Before I left I got two or three cables. I think I knew a few people in Boston. I got to Washington and I had seventy-six letters. One of them only asked for a position. Seventy-five of them were all kindly offers of welcome and help and assistance. After you have been a servant, you know what that means. I got over here to Boston, and I entered a lively campaign. My office has been filled, or my rooms, which are my offices, with a stream of visitors, apologizing to me for bothering me, offering me every help on earth. That has been my experience. "I said recently, to a man of great distinction, who has jumped up to a high general rank in the army, a personal friend of mine, 'Don't you go out and take command of a division of ten thousand troops until you have worked harder than you ever worked in your life on the great accomplishments that you have made and succeeded in." He said, 'What, leading men?' I said, 'I had a similar experience to to yours, and I had the great advantage of the Philippine campaign, under the greatest soldier that we had developed since the Civil War, whose chief of staff I had the honor of being, Henry W. Lawton [applause]; and when I went and took command of a peace brigade, I never had to work so hard in my life, grounded as I have been in the military; and it was just continual work and the devotion and aid of a lot of brilliant officers. When some man would step up to you and give you a general situation about war, and then hand you a special situation, and you could not consult Bob, or Jim, or this technical fellow or that technical fellow, but you had to stand up there and dictate your orders, with about forty or fifty highly specialized men all surrounding you and sizing you up, it was the biggest test I have ever seen of a man.' You take a general officer in our service and let him go on and not neglect his opportunities, and work and slave, and I certainly have for the last thirty years, anyhow, and when I realized my deficiencies, to have charge of the life of from ten to fifty thousand men absolutely unnerves me. I believe, gentlemen, that the profession of arms to-day is more jealous in its demands of excellence than any profession in the world, and it comprehends an element of leadership, of experience, of study, of knowledge of human nature, that is appalling, and nobody has a bigger contempt than I have of the ordinary military expert. I don't think such a fellow as that exists, to a great extent. I can gain a lot of military expert knowledge, or the factors of it, by going to men like this, and this, and that makes up the whole thing. A National Crisis "Now, remembering my caution and I tel you it does cramp me - I think that the Governor and the other speakers, and Mr. Anderson, who has made the speech that I would like to and was told not to, have made it plain that we have never faced a more frightful crisis in our lives than we do to-day. Mr. Knox said to me at midnight, in the Metropolitan Club, before I left, that he thought President Wilson had to-day the greatest executive job of any man in history. I said, 'You mean the President of the United States?' He said, 'I do not. When I consider the destiny of the world, I believe President Wilson faces the greatest executive job of any man in the world.' I have thought of it a good deal, and I think he is right. The regular army officer of experience, study, thought and age, has been a very sad man this last fifteen years, and this last five he has about given up. But, as Mr. Anderson said, after that magnificent, ringing declaration of war, inspired by that great speech of the President's, every army officer is heartened, has taken courage, and is going to try. Several of them think it is too late. I don't know anybody who has been more discouraged than I have been with the question of equipment, the question of no universal service, and I felt that it was not a question of gaining a lesson to make us adopt universal service. The day of a lesson has gone by. "Before the Commission came here I heard it advanced — and without quoting anybody that here was the situation, that we could not furnish enough small arms to arm the number of troops that was essential within a year; that within two years we could not make up our deficiency from 4.7 up to 12 field guns, and that if we did, we would take away the Allies' one resource of rolled steel, take that over there and forge them into field pieces to keep the superiority that was essential in the barrage fire, and that it would take us two years to do it. So some people argued, there is only one way to do, and that is to send over your battalions, trained for three months, touch them en suite into a French regiment, take them out, arm them, polish them off quickly, put them in and blood them, and you know what that means, and the remnants come back behind the line, recover, and go at it again. That gained credence and support like a snowball. I cannot pass upon it or say anything about it; but I have had five large commands that I have raised to war strength. We recognize that marvelous things can be done in a year. The demand may be so great, the sacrifice so necessary, that they may have to go quicker. Faith in National Guard "I have not had much to do with the National Guard since the Spanish War, where I had a lot to do with it. I have heard, in the five years I have been away, about how much better they are. I am conscious of the unselfish action of the Massachusetts militia, and their voting for a federal status, and the unity that they present behind the one idea that will save the United States, and that is universal service. That prejudiced me entirely in their favor. It showed me that they were unselfish, and that they have the right idea. They have been down at the border. I have just met their officers. Colonel Morton, who has since been made a brigadier-general, was in my command for two years, and he told me much about it. I do not believe they endorse that political militia hunter, who did more to hurt universal service in Washington, and did more to emasculate that magnificent law that Chamberlain put through than anything else. And therefore my sympathy and appreciation is with that guard, for the attitude that they have presented, which shows that they attempt to eliminate that fatal political factor that will kill any concern on earth. And so, therefore, I say I have heard good things of them. I do not speak significantly. I have nothing in mind. But anybody may judge from what is in the paper this morning, and God knows and I think He alone what the duty of America, as interpreted by the people who have the responsibility as such may be, after listening to that great soldier, Marshal Joffre, it may become our duty to make some sacrifices and help hold the fort over there, in spite of the fact that we cannot feed what they have, and send troops over. "I have it in mind that if any national guard is called upon, this may be. And there will not be ever anything given to the people of the United States that will be of a greater sacrifice, and no people on earth will stop a gap more heroically, than those people will under the circumstances. All I can say, gentlemen, is, with the way you have met me, with my own traditions and there is no buncombe in it that if you have to go I want to go, too [applause]. "Now, regarding my anxiety and duty, if you have to go, there is one practical exception, that the tonnage situation is such when you realize that it takes four tons for a soldier and six for a horse - is such that that alone may give us the time to train you and put you in a condition to make the best fight you may. The corollary, then, comes, Get them into a cantonment, sleep with them, cuss them and devil them, and advise them and polish them, which means take them away from the illegitimate duty of policemen and leave to the patriotism of the people whatever may be necessary to supply their places. There are several thoughts in that, and I am going to have more talks with your Committee on National Safety. I personally lean to the mobilization of every plant and industry, and to so equip those men who have the job we have with a pistol and a club and five or six nights in bed as we call it in the army that they can, in addition to their other duties, take care of their industry and plant, which is the contribution of their bit; and then take the matter of home defense and largely rely upon the voluntary patriotism, which is just exactly as good to stop clandestine damage as any regular can do it. He must not be put to work on the job with a high-power rifle that shoots three miles and kills some woman in an adjacent town. The only way we get rid of that in the regular service is to give what we call "guard "cartridges, that die at two hundred yards. And so it is just a thought. "As to the navy, we had the happiest combination in the navy in Panama, and I have served much for the navy. Thus, I have taken such long journeys that I would have to tell the captain about it, and he might give me a stripe with the navy. In the Canal Zone there was a captain of the Charleston, who served on my staff as a member of the defense committee. He commanded the Charleston and two or three other cruisers that they had, and the submarines. He was perfectly independent of me in his navy functions, and I gave him a house near mine. When they sent me down to solve that problem I said, 'I do not care to solve it unless you will give me the services of the navy that the ridiculous solutions of a lot of our problems, which we will not mention and I am silent again now, was because both services did not participate.' Finally, the navy sent me one of their great experts, and I made a dough boy with him. He went with the troops. He investigated the beaches, and he solicited the aid of all his command; and that is what we have kept up for two years and a half; and the solution that I have put in was the combined and unanimous solution of both branches, the army and the navy. Between you and the post, I think that there is one department of war, and I think it is made up of the navy and the army; and I am rather inclined to think that we ought to go back to what we were before except I would not saddle them with certain handicaps that I have struck recently and be that department of war that you cannot separate, because their functions intertwine and overlap to a degree that they have got to be absolutely harmonious and act with a concert. "My experience with the navy has been delightful. We have never disagreed when we got together, and if ever I saw a problem that is intertwined, it is this, that we are absolutely dependent upon the combination of the navy and the army. And therefore I thank the captain for this assurance, which I can tell him, except through courtesy, really was unnecessary. Now, gentlemen, I have been sailing through some shallow waters, and there have been some reportorial rocks I have tried to escape, and I can talk to some of you more confidentially. But the way I feel, the way I appreciate all your courtesy and kindness, makes me feel absolutely not equal to the occasion. I never have felt yet that is, in my own estimation - too big for my job, and if ever I saw anything inspiring to take off a man's coat and work for, it is this, and I have never had any job in the service except to create from the ground. But this is a little bit smothering. "When I saw that flag go up to-day, and when I stood here the recipient of all your kindnesses, and real charity and mercy, there was one little couplet that occurred to me. You might apply it to women about whom Mr. Butler Ames only knows; but still the sentiment of your courtesy and kindness to me might be expressed in a little couplet about that flag: "Not in the whole wide world do I seek thee, sweetheart, Light of the land and the sea; For the whole wide world could not contain thee: Thou art the whole wide world to me.' HONORING THE OFFICERS OF FRANCE At this dinner President James J. Storrow presided. He said: "Fellow Members of the Boston City Club, - As your presiding officer I know that I am expected to be very brief. We have some very good speakers from whom you wish to hear, and we have our distinguished guest here from whom we especially wish to hear. [Applause.] "I don't know what sentiment especially dominates your feeling to-night, but I know what feelings I have had since I sat here. France is an old friend of ours. [Applause and cheers.] She stood by us in a very critical period of our career [cries of "Yes! Yes!"], and we are going to stand by her now. [Prolonged cheers and applause.] But I feel, and I believe that you feel, very humble this evening. We are standing here. having as our guests brave men who typify that wonderful spirit which France has shown during these long two and a half years [applause]; not only that wonderful spirit, but that remarkable organized army which has been battling during those years for themselves and for our ideals. Now the time is here when we have got to stand alongside of those men and make our record. This is a great democracy. Can we acquit ourselves as we should? Are we going to organize and get into the places where we belong, alongside these men? [Cries of "Yes."] We are, but the task is not easy. How soon we can do it, I don't know. We ought to get there as soon as we can. [Applause.] They have not asked our help, but they need our help. "I spent this last week in Washington, and there is one thing which I found mighty encouraging there, and that is that everybody seems to be taking the situation with the utmost seriousness. They are hard at work. Of course it is easy to say that the work is not yet efficiently organized. That is the truth, it is not. How soon it can be, how fast it will be, no man knows. If it is not done pretty fast, and does not become efficient reasonably soon, then we are going to feel very humble and we are going to feel very much humiliated. We have got to uphold the hands of the Government. Each of the forty-eight states must do what it can. At the meeting which I attended in Washington there were the governors or their representatives present from each of the forty-eight states, and the feeling typified by those men, and the feeling that they reported back in their states, was certainly very encouraging. But we are about to make our record. I think we ought to feel humble about it, and feel that we are on trial. Now, what can we do, and how soon can we do it? I am going to introduce and ask to speak to you as the first speaker of the evening an American officer who is chief of staff of General Edwards, of this Northeastern Department, General Edwards who has just come here. Unfortunately he could not be here to-night, but his chief of staff represents him. I present Lieut.-Col. James T. Dean, United States Army." [Applause, the members standing.] LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JAMES T. DEAN "Mr. Toastmaster, your Honored Guests, and the Boston City Club, I regret very much that I am not able to represent General Edwards here to-night in a speech. I simply want to express to you the regret of General Edwards that he was not able to be present on this occasion, and help with you to honor the guests that are here present to-night." [Applause.] PRESIDENT STORROW. It is fitting that I should ask, to say a few words, the highest federal officer that we have here in Massachusetts, and the representative of the President. I present the Hon. Edmund Billings. Applause, the members standing.] |