The Career of Leonard Wood

by Joseph Hamblen Sears

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He might have said all this to himself--doubtless has done so many, many times with much more to the same effect--but the outcome is a witness of the fact that he has from a long and active life as fighter, soldier, organizer, administrator, diplomat and statesman in the West, the South, in Europe, in Asia, in Cuba, in the Philippines, in South America, in Washington--in most parts of the earth--learned again and again that nothing can be really done on the spur of the moment, that everybody must prepare from school days to death. And in 1913 he had his first real opportunity to preach this nationally to all the people of his own native land.

That within a year of that time prepared Germany should have upset the world and found the British Empire, the French Republic and the Italian Kingdom unprepared--to say nothing of the United States--may have been one of the accidents--strokes of fortune--that some people say have made General Wood. But it would seem that the only thing this Great War did in this {206} connection was to prove by a terrific example that Wood and those with him were right and that those who were against him were wrong.

If the war had not come, it would have taken longer to awaken this country to the facts and it would have delayed perhaps the growth of General Wood's name as that of a national and international character of highest importance. But it would not have changed the truth of his Creed--or rather the creed of which he has become the great protagonist. Nor does the fact that the war did come when it did give any ground for making Wood one of the greatest citizens of our country to-day because he preaches preparedness. General Wood stands at the forefront of the leaders in America at this time because of his own personal make-up and character and because of the amazing variety and extent of his services to his country which are written upon every page of its history during the last thirty years. It is the variety of things done which puts him in his present position, just as it is the variety of high qualities that has made the great men of all times great. King David was not only the greatest {207} general of his time. He was one of the greatest administrators of all time and perhaps the greatest poet that ever lived. Washington was not only a fighter of the highest order. He was one of the great generals of history; and a statesman and ruler of a higher order still.

It might very aptly be said, therefore, that General Wood's campaign for national preparedness was only the accomplishment of a task for which he had all his life been preparing himself.

Upon his return trip from the Philippines in 1908 he had come by the way of Europe studying always military systems. There was a short stop in Ceylon, in Singapore, in Egypt, in Malta and Gibraltar and a summer spent in Switzerland, ostensibly for health recuperation after the tropical life in Moroland and Manila, At the same time this gave opportunity for a closer study of the Swiss system which with an admixture of the Australian system furnished the basis for the training camps afterwards inaugurated by him here.

At the same time he had the opportunity by invitation of seeing the German and French {208} armies mobilized at the time of the Bosnia-Herzegovina episode when all Europe was on the verge of war. The German army of maneuver was at Saarbrücken--ready. Practically the whole of the French army of maneuver was on the Loire--ready. He saw one immediately after the other--less than two days apart. Mr. White, then American Ambassador to France, asked him what he thought of the French army and his answer was that despite the fame of the German military machine France in the next war would surprise the world by the fitting effectiveness of her forces. He based this conclusion on the relation of officers and men and the discipline founded on respect and confidence rather than fear of officers.

Then followed the centenary mission to the Argentine and a couple of years as Chief of Staff of the American army before he could effectively begin his campaign.

The first gun was a letter sent out by Wood under permission of the Secretary of War which proposed to many presidents of colleges and universities in the United States the establishment of several experimental military training camps {209} for students. These camps were to be placed one on the historic field of Gettysburg and the other at the Presidio of Monterey, California. The former opened on July 7th and closed on August 15th, and the latter extended from July 1st to August 8th. In all 222 students took this training, 159 at Gettysburg and 68 in Monterey.

It was the first trial, and it was a very small and insignificant response. Indeed it gives a good idea of the importance in which military preparedness was held in this country at that moment-- 100,000,000 inhabitants; 222 volunteers.