ince he is younger than many general officers who did see
service abroad--younger as a matter of fact than General Pershing
himself. It is hardly conceivable that physical condition could have
been a reason, since at least twice in the last two years he has been
passed by expert physical examination boards in the regular routine of
army life and found sound, mentally and physically. He does, to be
sure, limp and has had to do so for years on account of an accident in
Cuba fifteen or sixteen years ago. Yet this could hardly unfit him for
service in France when it did not unfit him for service in the {232}
Philippine jungle, or the active life which he has led for the past
ten years.

There has been considerable surmise as to whether his amazing campaign
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