When he reached the European waters in command of the United States naval forces, with a destroyer flotilla, and the British officers who greeted him asked when the flotilla would be ready to assist in chasing the submarine and protecting shipping, Admiral Sims created a surprise by tersely replying: "We can start at once." And he did. Admiral Sims married Miss Anne Hitchcock, daughter of Former Secretary of the Interior. The couple have five children.
Major General John J. Pershing, of the United States Army, Commander of the forces in France and Belgium, is one of the most picturesque figures in American military circles. "Black Jack" Pershing is what the officers call him, because he was for a long time commander of the famous Tenth Cavalry of Negroes, which he whipped into shape as Drillmaster, and which saved the Rough Riders from a great deal of difficulty at San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. He was also at the battle of El Caney where he was given credit for being one of the most composed men in action that ever graced a battlefield. He served with signal results in the campaign against the little "brown" men in the Philippines; was in charge of the expedition which chased Villa into Mexico.
General Pershing was born in 1864 in Laclede, Missouri, and is tall, wiry and strong. Every inch of his six feet is of fighting material. He is a man of action and has a penchant for utilizing the services of young men rather than staid old officers of experience. Pershing is a real military man, and has been notably absent from such things as banquets and other functions where by talking he might get into the lime light. It is true that he was jumped over the heads of a number of officers by President Roosevelt, but he has carved his way by his own efforts, and no man could have more fittingly been sent to take charge of the American forces abroad than "Jack" Pershing.
CHAPTER XX.
CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR.
Substitutes for Cotton—Nitrates Produced from Air—Yeast a Real Substitute for Beef—Seaweed Made to Give up Potash—A Gangrene Preventative—Soda Made Out of Salt Water—America Chemically Independent.
It is when men are put to the test that they develop initiative and are inspired to great things. In the stress of circumstances there were created through and in the great war many unusual devices and much that will endure for the benefit of mankind in the future. It is probable that the advancements made in many lines would not have been attained in years but for the necessity which demanded the exertion of men's ingenuity, and in no field was this advancement greater than in that of chemistry.
Any struggle between men is, in the last analysis, a battle of wits, but it remained for those planning and scheming to defeat their fellow men or protect themselves in the world conflict to make for the first time in history the fullest use of the chemist's knowledge. Largely the successes of the war have been due to the studies and activities of the chemists, working in their laboratories far from the actual field of strife.
Not only has their knowledge been turned to the creation of tremendously destructive explosives, the like of which have never before been known in warfare, but the same brains which have been utilized to assist man in his death-dealing crusades have been called upon to thwart the efforts of the warring humans and save the lives of those compelled to face the withering fire of cannon, the flaming grenade and the asphyxiating gas bomb.