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Underwood & Underwood

A FRENCH GENERAL REVIEWS OUR TROOPS CLOSE TO THE FIGHTING FRONT

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The keystone of fighting America. West Point Academy has graduated in all nearly 6000 officers for the United. States Army. This is the entrance to Cadets' Barracks; on the hill in the distance is West Point's famous chapel

W

THE FIRST TEN THOUSAND

HATEVER may be in the minds of the five thousand or so student officers undergoing, many for the first time, some for the second, the intensified training under way at Plattsburg Barracks that is designed at some no distant date to produce "The First Ten Thousand" who are to organize, instruct, and finally lead the shadowy millions of Americans who thru the selective draft will be called to serve their country, there is in the minds of their experienced instructors one basic idea, and that is that we are at Not that we are preparing for war, but that we are at war. It is a sweeping change in attitude from the old training camp days when we were preparing for war perhaps. The

war.

BY HERBERT REED

the little I have seen so far, and convinced as I am that these molders of men have always before them the vision of those shadowy drafted millions which are in the last analysis the nation. They are determined that these millions shall not be thrown away-indeed, that they shall have every chance for their lives compatible with victory.

I want that fact to sink home in the breasts of the mass of men of all orders who will be called to the colors, for I have been on the ground where the problem is being worked out, and I have been among hundreds of men who will be called, and I know their fears based on the experiences of the old volunteer system with its rank favoritism.

attitude of the gray-haired man of forty who had fought the workaday world for the sort of life he meant to live and had lived till now; who had thrown away the fruits of that fight to fight for the world that he had found so good. These two stand side by side in the ranks, the older as proud as the younger of the new equality.

On the surface these things do not appear. One has to dig deeply. But they are everlastingly there and they are that "atmosphere" of which I spoke. The process of stifling those who were not and never could be of that atmosphere began early, and, as I write is still going on. You cannot serve Caesar and the ideal which is ours at the same time. And those who

change is evident in little things, but 'ORTUNATELY for the purpose of prefer Cæsar are being sent back.

above all in the great fundamental determination to wipe out at one stroke in the personality and previous attainments of the candidate everything but the man himself. The military life of every man who reported at the bleak barracks on the shores of Lake Champlain after the preliminary weeding out process in his home territory, which in this case comprises New York and New England, began the moment he reported for duty. His future lay thereafter in his own hands. In the mass I believe that has been understood by the candidates for commissions. And that understanding in the mass cannot help but grow until it so dominates the place that the exception will be obliterated.

That is the way "atmosphere" is made in any great assemblage of men. afield whether in the great games of peace or the greatest of all games now in its third year on the raw fields of Europe. And in such an atmosphere the man who hugs his individuality cannot breathe. And yet, from Lieutenant Colonel Paul Wolf down there is not a regular army instructor at Plattsburg who does not realize that this is but half the problem. How to crush out of the candidate everything but the priceless kernel of his character, and so nourish that character that it will develop leadership of an order never before demanded in such a branch of human activity in this countrythat is the problem in its final form. Will it be solved? I believe so, basing my judgment on even

American Press

this chronicle I reached Plattsburg on the day when the first thousands of student officers, after a week of shaking together, had been set free for rest and recreation. From little talks here and there, with men I had known, with men I was seeing for the first time, with pairs, with groups; from a study of their faces and of their bearing I gained an indelible impression of seriousness. There were exceptions, of course, but in the main I found a realization of the task in hand among men of all classes, of all sort of previous attainments and experience, from the youngest to the oldest. There is as I write vividly before me the face of the young man just out of college, superb in his youth, ardent in his aspirations, who said: "I want my ticket for France." Hardly less vivid is the tense

One man wanted a few days off to attend to his business. He had forgotten that he was now about his country's business. He received an honorable discharge on the spot, and even that was a concession. There were here and there cases of overanxiety which will wear off, of sheer exuberance which will also wear off to a large extent without adversely affecting the morale of the men. Despite discomforts due to the sudden, the tremendous, and in some ways unexpected growth of the post, it has so far been a happy encampment. Much has been said of the grinding work, but there is nothing in the schedule that need wear down men who are physically fit for it, and the intensive mental training is well within the powers of the type of man who has been sent on by

MR. REED REVIEWING A PLATTSBURG SQUAD

the examining boards. And

I have never seen any course of study, even of the non-military order, better worked out to shift swiftly from theory to practise, and from practise to theory. The mind is rested as the body swings into action, and the body relaxes as the mind takes up the burden. Tact, quantities of it, goes with the instruction every minute of every hour, and so far as such a quality may be passed on, it is being passed on here. Men are being taught not merely how to act, but to teach others how to act.

I know not what better to call it than a famous football man once called it, "Coaching the coaches." It is that with this addition, that the new coach must be also a personal leader.

Just a word more about the real democracy of this

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quota of officers-to-be. There are in the ranks day by day men who by virtue of previous instruction, preparation and examination, much of it undergone at considerable personal sacrifice, had already attained rank, some as high as major, in the Officers' Reserve Corps. They wear the insignia and draw the pay of their rank, yet they re privates, and they must fight in competition with the veriest newcomer for the right to retain that rank or even a lower one in

the New Army. The men at their side do not even salute them. And yet I have not heard one of them grumble. There have been obstacles, and serious once, to a quick getting under way, to the processes of even development. They included a shortage of food, a shortage of blankets, this a serious drawback in a country where nights are often bitterly cold at this time of year. No, there has not been enough to eat for men doing the work of these men. The fault is whose? I do not know; but this I do know, that it does not lie at this end of the line. Thus

COACHING THE COACHES

for some days the men have been stoking up on pie and cake and milk supplementary to the mess. They have been good-natured about it, for they have realized the size of the task here in taking care of more than twice the number of men who had been anticipated, and who have appeared suddenly and in batches of varying and in some cases not predetermined size. Here is the comment of one of the men, and it is typical of the corps:

but it will work out all right.” "It has been pretty tough at times,

Now, as every one knows, there are in the ranks men of great family names and great family fortunes. Their presence is "news" to photographer and reporter, and there is no doubt that the appearance of their pictures and "specials" about them in the newspapers has stimulated interest in this difficult undertaking thruout the land. In their own behalf, be it said, they have craved none of this publicity. In another day the continued following of their movements as individuals might be of ab

sorbing interest, but this is a serious business, and I venture to predict that in the future there will be less and less of individual news from this post, and more and more interesting "group" news. And this group news is new indeed with the American people. So it would be as well for the reader to say good-by to the great rames here in the ranks until such time as they thrust up cut of those ranks thru their toil and their brains and the great good thing that is deep within them. Today they are as dra and dull and all but indistinguishable against the brownish background of the parade ground as the shoemaker's son.

How far can this thing go in the brief time allotted? No man can teil, but this I know, that the beginning has been good and that the promise is great. There is the "atmosphere," there is the democracy, and there is that vision of the shadowy millions who must not be cheated of their right, to back the promise.

Plattsburg, New York, June, 1917

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