on he has been in
command of the Department of the South, one of the
important military posts of the country at the
present time. With this country an active
participant in the War of the Nations and the
probability that a strong expeditionary force will
be sent to cooperate with the Allies in France,
what is more probable or desirable than that
General Pershing should command it? He has
participated in every war in which this country
has been engaged for thirty years and in every
campaign has added luster to his own name and
distinction to American armies.

One has to read no more than the painstaking reports which he sent from
the Philippines to the Adjutant General or to the Headquarters
Department of Mindanao and Jolo to comprehend the mastery of details
which has been a striking characteristic of General Pershing. From his
recommendations concerning military posts and the disposition of the
troops in the province he turns to deal specifically with detailed
suggestions about cold storage plants and to present carefully prepared
suggestions to aid the quartermaster from whom "too much is expected."
It is easy for one to tell what _ought_ to be done. The world has never
lacked, nor does it lack now, multitudes of men who fancy they are
competent to do that. But to find one who is able to tell how to do
it--he is the individual for whom the world ever has a warm welcome.
Many are officious, but only a few are competent or efficient.

Nor is this quality of mind and heart limited to details of
administration alone. It applies also to his knowledge of men. The
incident of the telegram to the former cook, John Kulolski, related in
Chapter XVI, is illustrative. Most men find that for which they are
looking. If they expect to find evil they seldom are disappointed. If
their objective is the thing worth while, that too they find. To know
men as well as maps, to study soldiers as well as supplies, to grasp the
varying and differing elements that compose an army--these are the
essential elements in a successful leader of men. To the German war
lords their men may be merely "cannon fodder." To the public a French
soldier may be a poilu, a British fighter a Tommy, an American a
doughboy. To General Pershing every one that carries a gun is above all
else a man. This is at once the basis of his confidence in a